JK Rowling estava escrevendo histórias no mundo real, apenas com mágica. Nosso mundo já tem religiões, e ela não viu necessidade de inventar mais. Além disso, seu conceito de magia era secular; a magia é efetivamente uma forma de ciência, não depende da intervenção ativa de um deus ou deuses. Ela disse que a Wicca não aparece nos livros por este motivo:
Responding to questions as to why Wicca, a modern pagan religion that also uses the words “witch” and “wizard” to describe its members, was not represented at Hogwarts, Rowling said: “It's a different concept of magic to the one laid out in the books, so I don't really see how they can co-exist.”
A própria Rowling se identifica como cristã, e vê os livros como explorando temas cristãos de sacrifício e ressurreição:
"To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious," Rowling said. "But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going."
At the end of her latest and final installment in the series, there are specific references to Christianity and themes of life after death and resurrection.
At one point Harry visits his parents' graves and finds two biblical passages inscribed on their tombstones. "They are very British books, so on a very practical note, Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones," she said.
"But I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones ...they sum up, they almost epitomise, the whole series."
Adicionar religiões fictícias apenas distrairia esse elemento de sua escrita.