Nineteen Missing Years,

What happens between the end of Mrs. Rowling's "Chapter 36 - The Flaw in the Plan" and the Epilogue? This question has filled countless hours for dozens if not hundreds of fan fiction authors, and even more time for fans who are either not up for the challenge of authoring fan fiction, nor (for any of many possible reasons) not inclined to do so. Mrs. Rowling has filled in some of the gaps with random statements in her various interviews, in her twitter feed, Pottermore/WizardingWorld, and similar secondary sources. Some of these match what we know from the books, some of them conflict with either the books, each other, or both.

Then there is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which presents itself as being the eighth story in the series, coming after the Epilogue but due to time travel affecting events throughout the series. I started reading it, but it violated my willingness to suspend disbelief by going places with the characters I was unwilling to go, and thus I have never finished it. Despite the fact that Mrs. Rowling is listed as an author, I have seen it compared to a work of fan fiction,1 a view that from what I know of the book/play I have a great deal of sympathy with. So much so, that I almost entirely ignore its existence when I speculate about the universe in my Notes.

That aside, what did happen in the missing nineteen years? Since I accept everything out there as a secondary source at best, this entire section represents my opinions and speculations. It is something less than a fan fiction, but more open to me filling in the gaps than I am in the Notes.