By Maria-Nefeli Andredaki,
Ah, September, the month of Gilmore Girls, pumpkin-spice lattes, warm coats and –for most bookworms– Harry Potter. The first month of autumn is deeply intertwined with the Harry Potter franchise, since September 1st is the date when every little witch and wizard is called to board the train on platform 9 3/4 and enter the magical realm of Hogwarts. Apart from the actual date that signifies the beginning of the Hogwarts school year, the Harry Potter franchise screams cozy fall vibes, what with all the descriptions and images of warm hearths, rich autumnal colors and spooky themes. This is why a large number of readers chooses to re-read, or even pick up for the first time ever, the Harry Potter series, at this time of year. You best believe that, while I did not get into the book series until quarantine hit us, I certainly started my Harry Potter reading journey in autumn.
Now, the point I want to make is more on the controversial side, so please bear with me. While Harry Potter is etched in mine and a billion others’ hearts as a lovely story, a magical place where you can escape to when tough times are upon you, it has also, unfortunately, become, a political statement. As most JK Rowling readers are aware, the Harry Potter author has made multiple discriminatory statements in the past, mostly on the social media platform X, against transgender and non-gender-conforming people, earning her the title of TERF. A TERF, which is an acronym for a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, is basically a person who, in their attempt to highlight and fight against gender inequality, simultaneously attack the aforementioned minorities as not belonging in feminist spaces that are taken up by biological females. To make it simpler, TERFs believe that the gender inequality issues that plague biological females do not affect transgender women, who should therefore refrain from viewing themselves as the same as biological women and consequently stay away from their spaces.
To name a few examples that showcase Rowling’s beliefs, she has famously supported that “hormone prescriptions are the new anti-depressants” (retweeted by the author herself), she has published a book in which “a cis male serial killer… dresses as a woman in order to hunt and murder cis women” (Glamour) and, as recently as the 2024 Paris Olympics, partook in the onslaught of harassment Imane Khelif, Algerian gold-medal boxer, received for being more masculine. Specifically, Rowling tweeted “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered” about the biologically female, woman-identifying boxer, proving once and for all that she is more preoccupied with discriminating against trans minorities than supporting feminist causes.
This was a lot to take in and experience for Harry Potter fans who only wish to enjoy their favourite stories but feel guilty about supporting a bigoted author. Thankfully, this is where All The Young Dudes comes in. ATYD is 500,000-word work of fanfiction by the AO3 user/author MsKingBean89. Set in the era of the Marauders, meaning the time when Harry’s parents attended Hogwarts, the story follows the adventures of James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, with a focus on the head-canon romance between the two latter.
It explores themes of growing up as a “delinquent” child in a world of preppy wizards, a feared werewolf and a closeted queer man. It also manages, in beautifully captivating words, to expand the world of Harry Potter and accurately comment on the destructive consequences, the pain and suffering, that war brings upon and how it affects the lives of everyday people (or in this case wizards). On that note, you should definitely check the trigger warnings before delving into the story, since it is much more mature than the Harry Potter books we know and love.
To me, All The Young Dudes is, above all, a love letter to Harry Potter. It is the attempt of an unidentifiable author to create a fresh but at the same time familiar perspective on the beloved story, giving readers a chance to connect with its supposed background and creating a seamless linearity that embellishes the canon. I am not the one to tell you what you should or should not read. I will however invite you to think about what your choices (and not just the financial ones) support and, if you are open-minded enough to re-live a childhood classic from a new angle, I promise you won’t regret a single page you read.
References
- A Complete Breakdown of the J.K. Rowling Transgender-Comments Controversy. Glamour. Available here
- The Best Harry Potter Novel Isn’t Written by J.K. Rowling. Slate. Available here
