Calm down everyone! I just red the article in the french paper and the english summary in the New Zealand Herald make it sounds worse than it really is. Actually, if you read the english article to the end, you'll see that they quote a reader criticising the articles : he was wondering if the first author had been ever young.

As I said, it doesn't sound that bad in French. But you have to understand that some french intellectuals, especially in Le Monde, love to criticise and build up very complicated theories around simple stuff. And when you see how some people discuss about some aspects of Harry Potter... I think there can be worse.
I understand that it can sound weird to read such things, but think about it, they are adults and researchers, have to justify somehow that they red all the Harry Potter books !

And as for the vilains having french names (Voldemort being the best example), after a while it gets a bit annoying to see most of the films that the bad guy has a french accent! On the other hand, JK Rowlings studied french, so we can be sure that she used the french words because it sounds better in some cases.
Well, that's it! Now be sure that many french people love the Harry Potter books.
( and I had to defend them a little )