Youth writes 'Harry Potter' novel

At first meeting, Victoria Wittner’s obsession with Harry Potter was subtle.

Yes, she was wearing a scarlet-colored T-shirt, but that could have been a coincidence.

Her bedroom decor was simple with a few movie posters — primarily of “Hunger Games” — adorning the wall and including a neatly made, twin-sized bed with a brown, scarlet and gold comforter. The bedroom walls were painted gold, and an oval wooden-framed mirror boasted an image a friend painted for her of the Gryffindor crest — the emblem of Harry Potter’s dorm within the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (Its colors are gold, scarlet and brown).

Yes, she has witch’s cloak in in her closet.

Yes, her eyes light up at the mention of Harry Potter.

However, her knowledge of the seven-book series doesn’t truly come to light until she delves into discussions about author J.K. Rowling’s use of descriptions and writing style — and she calmly states that she and two friends have written a full-length novel inspired by “Harry Potter.”

The work, which can’t be sold for profit since the “Harry Potter” novels are copyrighted, is  based on an eight-month period in which one of the series’ most dreaded characters, Bellatrix Lestrange, subtly is absent from the sixth book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

“She disappears almost the entire school year and there’s no news on her,” said the 18-year-old Wittner. “I bet J.K. Rowling planned it. She’s very good at leaving clues.”

Wittner’s story is called “Belladonna Black and the Book of Necromancy,” a novel about the secret love child of Harry Potter’s most powerful dark sorcerers, Lord Voldemort (dark lord trying to take over the world of magic) and Lestrange (powerful witch and one of Voldemort’s most dangerous and sadistic followers).

Wittner, a Mill Creek resident, wrote the 302-page work in partnership with her 14-year-old cousin, Marlee Wittner, of Tampa, and another East County friend who wishes to keep her anonymity. That friend also illustrated the book.

The girls published their work online under the pen names of Moody, Spitfire and Spat on July 31, the same day Rowling’s literary agency, The Blair Partnership, released the script for the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

“I finished reading it by 8 a.m. the next morning,” Victoria Wittner said of the “Cursed Child.”

Although Victoria Wittner will start college at Rice University in Texas later this month, she said this novel is the first in a seven-part series she and her friends already have mapped out. They take turns writing chapters.

“The length and the darkness of the books are greater as the series progresses,” Victoria Wittner said, adding it mimics Rowling’s work. “That’s the idea. We’ll see.”

Wittner has read each of the Harry Potter books at least twice — most of them three or four times apiece — and, like her co-writers, has combed through Rowling’s official website, pottermore.com, for background stories, unpublished excerpts and other extras for Harry Potter fans. She engages in forums about “Harry Potter,” and even used postings about Rowling’s writing style and structure to format “Belladonna Black.”

Marlee Wittner said the girls initially had concerns about the varying writing styles, but once they agreed to follow Rowling’s work as closely as possible, it proved a non-issue.

“When we follow that model, it all sounds similar,” she said. “Our families can’t tell who wrote which chapter.”

The book mimics the first “Harry Potter,” book, “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” in length (302 pages compared with 309 pages) and Victoria Wittner made sure to format the book, both in style and font, the same as the Rowling’s works.

Wittner said the authors’ goal is to have at least 10,000 people read it. Rowling tries to inspire blossoming writers to create their own takes on her work, not to sell but to share her fans.

“We’re living the dream, even though we’re not really big yet,” Marlee Wittner said, adding she and her cousin both aspire to write their own novels one day. “This is the first step to getting yourself out there into the world of literature. I think that was a really big step for us.”

Victora Wittner hopes Harry Potter fans will enjoy the story as much as she did writing it.

“Completely obsessing with other people who know the story as well as you do makes it more fun,” Victoria Wittner said. “There are people out there who are going to get all the little jokes.”