10 objects on which J.K. Rowling maybe wrote Harry Potter

HOLLYWOOD – OCTOBER 15: Author J.K. Rowling holds a press conference and book signing for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school children October 15 2007, at The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Toby Canham/Getty Images)

Consider: the hood of a blue Ford Anglia.

That scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Fred, George, and Ron Weasley fly their father’s enchanted Ford Anglia to rescue Harry from the Dursleys’ is iconic. Even more iconic is when Harry and Ron have to fly the car to Hogwarts because Dobby has sealed the Platform 9 3/4 in a last-ditch attempt to prevent Harry going back to school. The car lands in the Whomping Willow, then flies into the Forbidden Forest and goes feral.

It’s possible that J.K. Rowling wrote the first draft of these iconic moments on the hood of an actual blue Ford Anglia. You’ve heard of method acting; this would be something akin to method writing. She could have seen the car, thought, this one, and immediately began jotting down ideas. She didn’t need paper. The pale hood of the car worked just as well.

Unlike when Rowling maybe wrote on napkins, dresses, her own skin, baby carriages, or money, there would have been a very metatastic element to her writing on a car. Harry Potter fans love the Ford Anglia. When Rowling told Barnes & Noble in 1999 that it would reappear, the news was super exciting.

Tragically, she scratched that idea. After the car rescues Ron and Harry from the spiders in Chamber of Secrets, we never heard from it again. But somewhere in the world, maybe there’s a duplicate version containing J.K. Rowling’s first scribblings of the car’s origins. We can only hope.