The wizarding world was supposed to feel old. The ordinary world around it got there on its own.

Revisiting Harry Potter now brings back more than the books. It brings back waiting for the next one, the feeling of the early stories and films, and a Muggle world where Harry could lie in his aunt’s flowerbed and wait for the evening news. Beyond that sits Hogwarts, with its castles, quills, steam trains and rituals borrowed from an older time.

The seven-book story gives us somewhere complete to return to. I wanted to talk through why that return feels like travelling through several different pasts at once.