Let's Try This Again: Which Came First, the JKR or the Barr?

[Kat Macfarlane]

Hello, All--

I think and hope that I am finally able to post to TOC again, after a 
summer without Internet access and other horrific setbacks. I've missed 
you! Please note that I now have a new email address.

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I just finished reading Nevada Barr's _Track of the Cat_, and spotted 
what I thought was a lovely nod to Hagrid. The line "Fluffy...It's a 
joke we have" had to be a dead giveaway, right?

And then I got to checking publication dates, and it turns out _Track of 
the Cat_ was published in 1993, whereas  _Harry Potter and the 
Sorcerer's Stone_, in which Fluffy the three-headed hell hound figures, 
didn't come out until 1998.

So what's going on here?

Did Nevada Barr read _Sorcerer's Stone_ and do a quick rewrite? Was dear 
Karl originally (heaven forbid!) an ogre? Is J.K. Rowling a Nevada Barr 
fan? Did she lift Hagrid and Fluffy from _Track of the Cat_? Or is this 
just one of those mind-boggling coincidences? (For what it's worth, my 
over-active brain has spotted what look like other Barr/Rowling 
interfaces; HWMNBN Himself seems to put in an appearance in _Hard 
Truth_, red eyes and all, busily threatening and corrupting children and 
doing in a few adults  too along the way.)

If anyone can shed light on this situation, I would very much appreciate 
it. Including Ms. Barr herself if she feels so inclined.

Bibliophilic purrs,

Gatta
Quantum me cogitis omnes!


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