Harry Potter and The Casual Vacancy author J.K. Rowling spoke this evening at the Bath Literature Festival and made clear that if she ever returns to Harry Potter, she won’t write a prequel.

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Rowling was asked about if she would return to the Harry Potter series like so many fans have hoped since 2007 to write about, as an example, the Marauders. She responded by saying that although she has no current plans to return to the series, if she did it would not be about the Marauders. The reason? She doesn’t find prequels to be any good. This would mean no stories about James, Lily, Sirius, Pettigrew, etc.

Elsewhere during the evening she said…

– Grindelwald never loved Dumbledore and used him.

– Her own first kiss came when she was 12 years old.

– Her next book will be aimed at 8-year-olds, but she’s still busy writing it.

– Her proudest moment was when she outed Dumbledore (as gay), and following the revelation in New York City a fan came up to her straight afterwords and revealed that he or she too is homosexual.

Hypable co-founder Richard Reid attended tonight’s event and reported back on the comments Rowling made. This is the author’s only planned public engagement in 2013.

The news of no Maurader prequels may come as a disappointment to fans who had hoped or thought that would be the perfect part of the Potter world to head into with a new book. Fans could also see her writing about Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s children – and luckily she hasn’t ruled that idea out (yet). Regardless, it’s nice to hear her still considering the idea of returning to the Wizarding World.