JK Rowling Reveals Evidence Of How She Celebrated Finishing Up The Last Harry Potter Book

This week marks the ninth anniversary of J.K. Rowling’s completion of the Harry Potter series. Well, her completion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, at the very least. To honor the occasion, the author shared a photo of the graffiti she left in the hotel where she completed the book…

Rowling signed her name, under which she continued “finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan. 2007. As Time notes, the room in question is at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. It’s also worth noting that those Harry Potter fanatics wishing to stay in the room would have to shell out a whopping £1,415 for the night. That’s more than $2,000 U.S. dollars. Suffice to say, Rowling’s inscription doesn’t seem to have damaged the value of the room, if anything, it increased it.

Of course, J.K. Rowling discouraged her fans from vandalizing a hotel room. In most cases, it would be inappropriate to pen your activities on the artwork for future guests to admire. However, given how successful she was with the previous six books, added to just how anticipated the conclusion was to the Harry Potter series, I’d say Rowling is a fair exception to the graffiti rule.

J.K. Rowling’s hotel scrawling was no secret. In fact, word got around about the signature not long after she finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But for those of us who won’t be shelling out thousands to see the graffiti firsthand, it’s nice of Rowling to share a photo, along with a stern note of discouragement.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows released to the hands of eager fans in 2007, a decade after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone hit stands. The book releases were more frequent in the early years, with one arriving each year between 1997 and 2000. Fans had to wait three years between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003). It was another two years before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) arrived, and then another excruciating two years before we saw the last book. By that point, die-hard fans had picked over every line of text, in search of clues that would unlock the secrets of the story’s conclusion. And, of course, we had the movies to keep us occupied while we waited.

Since finishing up the seventh Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling has written other books, including The Casual Vacancy and a number of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. She’s also delved back into her magical world on numerous occasions, filling in histories and other bits of trivia about her characters over at Pottermore.com. And then, of course, there’s the upcoming projects, including the feature adaptation of Harry Potter bonus book (and Hogwarts textbook) Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, which Rowling penned the screenplay. She’s also involved in the development of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the hugely anticipated stage production that will serve as a sequel to her beloved series.

So, when we say that Deathly Hallows was the conclusion to the series, that’s clearly a loose definition of the term, as it’s doubtful Rowling will ever be truly finished with this world. We can hope, anyway!