I came across this exchange this afternoon while wasting time online (be warned that the image below contains a curse word):

My first reaction to this thread was to tear up a little. Like most Harry Potter fans, Rubeus Hagrid has a special place in my heart. Hagrid and his pink umbrella were the first exposure to Hogwarts that Harry and his readers ever received. (When news that a character would die in the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” I swore if it was Hagrid I would be done with the series.)

My second reaction to the thread was a deep appreciation for what J.K. Rowling has accomplished as a writer. She didn’t simply create a story; she created a rich, thriving, ongoing universe.

I don’t mean “ongoing” in the sense that the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” script will be released at midnight Sunday, July 31 (which is Harry’s birthday, incidentally), or that the movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is coming to theaters (which is set in the Harry Potter universe but doesn’t feature Harry himself).

I mean “ongoing” in the sense that the universe is so vast, so well-created, that fans can continue the story in a myriad of beautiful, believable ways. Such as the thread speculating that Hagrid, who was denied his magical education due to false charges of a crime, could finally become a full-fledged wizard.

Good ol’ J.K. truly did create magic with her books. She planted that seed of imagination in all of her readers, and that seed has grown and flourished in every mind. An entire Enchanted Forest of new ideas lives in her universe. One of the trees in that forest (that goes by the username your0favorite0nightmare)  dropped a new seed to plant in the forest: a seed in which Hagrid gets his magical education.

As a reader, I love her books. As both a reader and writer, I admire her ability to write universes.