Dawn was breaking over the horizon, shell pink and faintly gold.

My readers have to work with me to create the experience. They have to bring their imaginations to the story. No one sees a book in the same way, no one sees the characters the same way. As a reader you imagine them in your own mind. So, together, as author and reader, we have both created the story.

The world is my oyster. I can do whatever I like.

Are you insane? Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?

I have to write the story I want to write. I never wrote them with a focus group of 8-year-olds in mind. I have to continue telling the story the way I want to tell it.

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.

Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low-cut." Ginny glanced round, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again.