J.K. Rowling offered a quick retort to a Harry Potter fan on Twitter who could not wrap her head around beloved Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore – played by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon in the films – being a gay man.

J.K. Rowling On Dumbledore Being Gay

In 2007, Rowling revealed in an interview that she had always imagined that Dumbledore was gay, which sparked divided opinions in the enthusiastic Harry Potter fandom. Twitter user anakocovic21 was one of many fans who hadn’t envisioned that particular backstory for Dumbledore, tweeting Rowling, she “can’t see him in that way.

“Maybe because gay people just look like… people?” Rowling replied.

The Twitter user appeared to be more than satisfied with Rowling’s answer, tweeting the author back, “amazing answer… Yes you are absolutely right. Such an inspiration!!!”

Though some have portrayed the back and forth between Rowling and her reader as contentious, Rowling tweeted, “My reply to her question was gentle and her response was very sweet.” She also conceded to another fan that many people had thought that Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had a thing going on.

Last fall, Rowling encountered a tweet from someone who no longer could enjoy her bestselling Harry Potter series upon finding out that she had imagined Dumbledore as gay, reported The Independent. In response to the thinly-veiled bigotry, Rowling offered him a Twitter follower suggestion.

“Once u revealed Dumbledore was homosexual I stopped being a fan,” wrote Twitter user Frank Fraticelli. “Nice how u blindsided us with that one. Enjoy your billion $.”

Rowling fired back at Fraticelli, “I advise you to start following Brain Souter at once. He’s much more your kind of person.” Incidentally, the wealthy Souter financed a campaign in the U.K. to keep a ban in place that concerns teaching acceptance of homosexuality in schools.