JK Rowling’s 800 Word Harry Potter Prequel Now Online
The 800 word Harry Potter Prequel that JK Rowling wrote for the Waterstone’s “What’s Your Story?” Charity benefit is now online. Click on the link to read the authors’ stories to get to Jo’s submission.
If you are having any difficulty reading the handwritten version, here is a typed copy of the submission. Enjoy!
The speeding motorcycle took the sharp corner so fast in the darkness that both policemen in the pursuing car shouted,”Whoa!” Sergeant Fisher slammed his large foot on the brake, thinking that the boy who was riding pillion was sure to be flung under his wheels; however, the motorbike made the turn without seating either of its riders, and with a wink of its red tail lights, vanished up the narrow side street.
“We’ve got ‘em now!” cried PC Anderson excitedly. “That’s a dead end!”
Leaning hard on the steering wheel and crashing his gears, Fisher scraped half the paint off the flank of the car as he forced it up the alleyway in pursuit.There in the headlights sat their quarry, stationary at last after a quarter of an hour’s chase. The two riders were trapped between a towering brick wall and the police car, which was now crawling towards them like some growling luminous-eyes predator.
There was so little space between the car doors and the walls of the alley that Fisher and Anderson had difficulty extricating themselves from the vehicle. It injured their dignity to have to inch, crab-like,towards the miscreants. Fisher dragged his generous belly along the wall,tearing buttons off his shirt as he went, and finally snapping off the wing mirror with his backside.
“Get off the bike!” he bellowed at the smirking youths, who sat basking in the flashing blue light as though enjoying it.
They did as they were told, finally pulling free from the broken wing mirror, Fisher glared at them. They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair, his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter’s guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in t-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.
“No helmet!” Fisher yelled, pointing from one uncovered head to the other. “Exceeding the speed limit by-by a considerable amount!” (In fact, the speed registered had been greater than Fisher was prepared to accept that any motorcycle could travel.) “Failure to stop for the police!”
“We’d have loved to stop for a chat,” said the boy in glasses,”only we were trying-”
“Don’t get smart-you two are in a heap of trouble!” snarled Anderson. “Names!”
“Names?” repeated the long-haired driver.”Er-Well, let’s see. There’s Wilberforce…Bathsheba…Elvendork…”
“And what’s nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy OR a girl,” said the boy in glasses.
“Oh, our names, did you mean?” asked the first, as Anderson spluttered with rage.”You should’ve said! This here is James Potter, and I’m Sirius Black!”
“Things’ll be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheek little-”
But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staying past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical, fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.
For the space of a heartbeat both policemen imagined guns gleaming at them, but a second later they saw that the motorcyclists had drawn nothing more than-
“Drumsticks?” jeered Anderson. “Right pair of jokers, aren’t you? Right, we’re arresting you on a charge of–”
But Anderson never got to name the charge. James and Sirius had shouted something incomprehensible, and the beams from the headlights had moved.
The policemen wheeled around, then staggered backwards. Three men were flying-actually flying- up the alley on broomsticks-and at the same moment,the police car was rearing up on its back wheels.
Fisher’s knee bucked; as he sat down hard; Anderson tripped over Fisher’s legs and fell on top of him, as flump-bang-crunch- they heard the men on brooms slam into the suspended car and fall, apparently insensible, to the ground, while broken bits of broomstick clattered down around them.
The motorbike had roared into life again. His mouth hanging open, Fisher mustered the strength to look back at the two teenagers.
“Thanks very much!” called Sirius over the throb of the engine.”We owe you one!”
“Yeah, nice meeting you!” said James. “And don’t forget: Elvendork! It’s unisex!”
There was an earth-shaking crash, and Fisher and Anderson threw their arms around each other in fright; their car had just fallen back to the ground. Now it was the motorcycle’s turn to rear. Before the policemen’s disbelieving eyes, it took off into thin air: James and Sirius zoomed away into the night sky, their tail light twinkling behind them like a vanishing ruby.
From the prequel I am not working on-but that was fun! J.K. Rowling.2008
Tags: Harry Potter Prequel, James Potter, JK Rowling, Sirius Black, Waterstone's, What's Your Story
June 11th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I was afraid that the story was going to be just a silly piece of fluff with no indication that a war was going on but of course Jo made it a entertaining story that still hinted at the serious events of the time. I really enjoyed it!
June 11th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I was hoping for something with Lilly, but there you are. The similarities between James and Sirius and the Weasley twins makes my heart ache just a bit…
June 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I can tell that Rowling really enjoyed writing those 800-odd words. Can’t wait until she figures out she wants to write 7 books worth of prequels.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I know, I don’t know who she is fooling, trying not to write a prequel. We want it, she enjoyed writing, we wont push a deadline, everyone’s happy!
I love the t-shirts that the boys are wearing!
June 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Greg & Penny, thanks for posting the transcript. I was having trouble reading her script on the card. You made it so much easier to read.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Thanks so much for the typing. I was really struggling to read JKR’s handwriting… and I work with MDs. ; )
June 12th, 2008 at 2:23 am
It was great just reading that and the excitment that came from it. Great short story.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I didn’t find her writing hard to read. But my writing is pretty messy too, so that might explain why I can read lots of different handwritings. I am thankful that Greg and Penny typed it though, It gets annoying to read the hand written over and over.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I tried to go to the site through the link Greg and Penny provided, but I have been having trouble with Flash websites, so it wouldn’t even work for me. Without HPProgs posting it I wouldn’t have even read and enjoyed it. Thanks guys.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
that was really good!
June 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I hope she writes loads more of those !
it was really good !
June 14th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I think there is an error in your typed version. On the end of the 6th paragraph it says “a deafening, timeless rock band”. This doesn’t seem to make sense in the context. It should say “a deafening, tuneless rock band”.
June 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
it was so refreshing and awesome to read something new from her. i hope she continues to write amazing novels. no matter what she does it’ll be awesome.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I gotta be honest… When I first read about this, my eyes seen 800 pages long prequel that would be coming out in August. Me and my younger brother were extremely happy. Then I re-read the post on the Harry Potter wikia. I still havent told my brother. It WOULD KILL HIM :’(
June 16th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I think she shouldn’t write a whole book, but instead keep writing little stories like this one. Writing a whole book would reopen a closed chapter on everyone’s life. At least that’s in my case.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
aww I like it! It’s cute. I’m glad she wrote it. Thanks for putting a typed copy up too, I could hardly get a word out of that hand-written one.
=)
June 18th, 2008 at 9:43 am
[...] feels like old times. Because of the release of JK Rowling’s new 800 word Harry Potter Prequel , we were able to return to the pre-DH revelry of prognosticating Harry Potter. We took a break from [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Here are some more corrections….
J.K.Rowling wrote:
> the motorbike made the turn without seating either of its riders
I think that should be “unseating either of its riders”
> crawling towards them like some growling luminous-eyes predator
I think that should be “luminous-eyed predator”
> They did as they were told, finally pulling free from the broken
I think that should be “told. Finally pulling”
> be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheek little-
I think that should be “cheeky little-”
> suddenly as alert as gundogs, staying past Fisher and Anderson
I think that should be “staring past Fisher”
> Fisher’s knee bucked; as he sat down hard;
I think that should be “buckled as he sat down hard;”
August 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am
the prequel is there, the time may not be just yet but hopefully as her family grows and time is given back to her, j k rowling will give us the background we all know is there. her writing is superb, enjoy your family ms rowling, then please give us the beginning that birthed harry. don’t do a jane austen and share the rest of the story with family and friends only, allow us to share your creation once more, and thank you so much.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:03 am
the prequel is there. the time may not be just yet but hopefully j k rowling will give us the background that birthed harry and allow us to share her creation once more. thank you ms rowling.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am
J.K that was so freaking amazing! We’ll miss Harry Potter forever! Hopefully now she can right a prequel series and then they can be turned into movies also. It would be kind of like the Star Wars Prequels lol!
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 am
I adore J.K. Rowling more than I can express in writing or words, but I think her writing here is pretty crappy.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Don’t confuse her writing with the massive typos and glaring errors incurred when typing this from manuscript. I think the original didn’t come across so shoddy. Plus, this was basically a freewrite.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
That was enjoyable. I liked it so much, reminiscent and light. A perfect 800 word prequel, highlighting the natures of Sirius and James in their teenage years. She’s a great writer, no doubt in my mind. Even though Harry Potter is all done, I’m still eager for more from this fantastic author.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I loved this, I just wish there were more prequels, maybe about james and lily living together or about james’ and lily’s life until they died. <33
January 8th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Elvendork! It’s unisex! heh. I appreciate the awsomeness of this muchly.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
i love JKR
she is the coolest person on earth
i wanna be JKR when i grow up
she rockssss
and this was AWESOME :]
August 6th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Haha I laugh at this everytime. It’s really good. I always wished that Jo would write mor eot=f these little stories. She should make a book of random marauders stories. Those would be the most interesting to me. And she should include some with Lily
That would be soooo awesome, but definitely never gonna happen…
August 6th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
wow…that was supposed to say more of not mor eot=f. haha I don’t even know how I made that typo…
September 11th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Elvendork – hilarious! Loved it. But 800 words just isn’t enough. It would be just too fabulous if JK Rowling would actually write a proper prequel. I want to know her view of how Lily and James finally got together…
October 1st, 2009 at 3:59 pm
[...] Progs has a typed copy of the prequel, in case you, like everyone else in the world, are having difficulty reading [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:08 pm
omg i loved this it was so good. it isn’t enough jk rowling should write a story about him and lily and after that she should write a story about harry’s kids and life at hogwarts cause let face it we would all buy the books and read them over and over again like we did with the harry potter books