Inquiring minds

So, if it's 1:30 in the morning and something bangs into the window screen hard enough to rattle it, should I assume that it was a bat? I'm not really up on my suburban backyard wildlife beyond the obvious (Squirrels, yes. Chipmunks, yes. Rabbits, yes. Skunks, raccoons and feral cats, occasionally).

Bats I haven't seen before, but I'm running out of other suspects.

Happy 26th Birthday Harry Potter

Of course in JK Rowling's world it's still 1997, and we're waiting for book seven when Harry will turn 17.

As writers we can take note of what happens when you put specific dates in your books. When JK Rowling started writing in 1990, the dates she used were contemporary. By the time the first book was published in 1997, it referred to Harry being 11, which would place the events in 1991.

Fortunately the time gap isn't a big deal, since the majority of the action takes place in the magical world, and thus there's no need to account for the differences between 1997 and 2007. But if this were a conventional series such date specificity could be a problem.