Why HP can be called SF

[Jim Ferer]

The lines between science fiction and fantasy get blurred, but the HP
series has a fair claim on being SF, if not science fiction, its
alternate name, speculative fiction.

SF '...science fiction is a genre of fiction that tells realistic
stories in a setting that is different from the present or known
past.' Alternate universe or alternate history stories fall into this.

HP can be considered fairly as straddling the line between SF and
fantasy because magic is the science of Harry's world. It follows laws
like science, it's taught like science, and is used like science and
technology are. In other words, magic in the Potterverse is not
supernatural.

Hogwarts students aren't working on a form of spiritual enlightenment
that leads to power, they're taking gut courses and putting in hours
in the library. Their world is just like ours - it *is* ours -
existing in parallel to our own. 

A good opposite of fantasy versus the Potterverse would be the Narnia
series by Lewis. We have no basis for understanding how the wardrobe
works, how the Queen does her thing, or anything else. It's all
miraculous. There is no "how."

There's precedent for "magic works" stories to be considered SF. The
late Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy /Sean O'Lochlainn stories were
considered SF, as Garrett insisted himself. (Highly recommended for HP
fans, by the way, and influential in the treatment of magic as an
alternate form of knowledge). Garrett has gone in the same directions
Rowling has, fitting out his universe with licenses to practice and
rules for the admissibility of magically derived evidence in court.
Garrett's magic was even more fixed in reality than Rowling's is. 

So while the fantasy elements of Harry Potter are there, the SF
elements are impossible to dismiss. "The [fantasy] genre is generally
distinguished from science fiction and horror by overall look, feel,
and theme of the individual work, though there is a great deal of
overlap between the three..." (Wikipedia) The look and feel of Harry
Potter is much more like SF than it is like fantasy.