Posted by: Melissa Anelli

Post-Deathly Hallows Information

On this page you’ll find information about what J.K. Rowling has revealed about the canon post-Deathly-Hallows – whether clarifications on what’s already in the text, or about what happened to the characters after the final battle and epilogue. You can read the full source of the information on your own, or just use our guide to make sure you’re up on your canon info.align=”right”>



J.K. Rowling’s post-DH interviews:

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007_07_25_harry_potter_spoilers_N.htm

Today Show/Dateline NBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20001720/

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/0729-dateline-vieira.html

Bloomsbury Chat

/2007/7/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-transcript

MSNBC Article

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20035573/%22

http://video.the-leaky-cauldron.org/video/828

Blue Peter (including Bonus q for digital audience)

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/0720-bluepeter.html

http://video.the-leaky-cauldron.org/video/835

http://video.the-leaky-cauldron.org/video/836

Open Book Tour, October, 2007

Los Angeles, California, October 16, 2007

New Orleans, Louisiana, October 18, 2007

New York, New York, October 19, 2007 Morning Appearance

NYC, October 19, 2007, Morning Appearance

TLC Transcript, New York City, October 19, 2007, Evening Appearance

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 22, 2007

What Rowling said about…

Harry Potter

“I think Harry gained peace. He got what he always wanted, which was a happy family.”

“In the early days, everything was up for grabs,” she says. “But early on I knew I wanted Harry to believe he was walking toward his death, but would survive.”

That, she says, would require creating a new supervillain. And to revisit Harry’s story would be “continuing it for the sake of continuing it. I don’t feel that’s (another battle of good vs. evil) what happened in Harry’s life. I think Harry gained peace. He got what he always wanted, which was a happy family.”

USA Today, July 25, 2007

Meredith Vieira: Harry’s blood.

J.K. Rowling: Right. So that meant that if he could have mastered the courage to repent, he would have been okay. But, of course, he wouldn’t. And that’s his choice. But the people around him, that’s what’s more interesting in a way. The people who were drawn to him for protection, for power, sadism. But people who do have a choice, did make a choice, like the Malfoys of this world. And I think that’s always worth examining why people choose to make those decisions.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Harry and Ginny are real soul mates,” she said. “They’re both very strong and very passionate. That’s their connection, and they’re remarkable together.

Open Book Tour, NYC Morning Appearance October 19, 2007

Why couldn’t Harry speak to a portrait of Dumbledore throughout the last book

Well there are two reasons, three reasons actually… Teh last bit, why did he have to decode? As Dumbledore says to Harry…to tell Harry about the Hallows was to tempt him. And Harry, throughout all seven books has been incredibly impetuous and reckless. That’s one of Harry’s biggest flaws. He does tend to act without thinking, and Dumbledore knows this about Harry. He wants him to work it out slowly enough to gain wisdom along the way. That’s why he passed the information through Hermione, who is the most cautious person in the books, as you know. And Dumbledore says explicitly, so your good heat isn’t overcome by your hot heads. Or I may have paraphrased myself slight there so forgive me. “She doesn’t even know her own book!” [laughter] Yes so that’s one reason. Harry needs to decode. He said, he does say in this book, he’s frightened by his decision not to race for the wand, because he had never chosen not to act. So that’s Harry’s real big coming of age moment, that he’s decided to hold back for the first time very in his life. So the other two reasons that i have for him not t speak to Dumbledore’s portrait, first of all, I crated a lot of rules for this world and then later had to navigate my away around them. But this rule was always good, and the rule was that portraits could only move between portraits in the same building. so if I’m in a picture and you’re in a picture and we’re both in Carnegie Hall, then we can move into each other’s pictures. Otherwise we can only move only to other places where we have a portrait. You can’t just move willy nilly through all the – the Louvre, the Met – you can’t do a world tour, as a picture person. You are limited by geography. So there was that reason. And then lastly of course, the third reason, is it really would be too easy and I wouldn’t have had a plot.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Having magic doesn’t make anything easier, she said. “If everyone were given a wand …,” she started. (Spotting one fan with a wand, she pointed to him and added as an aside, “You’ve already got one! I hope that’s not trained on me!”) “… The world would be strangely similar,” she continued. “Because nearly everyone, and not just because you’re Harry Potter fans, would want to use it for good, to have fun, to look after their friends and family. But a small number would think, ‘What’s in it for me?’ And that’s the dark side of human nature, which remains the same whether you have a wand or not. We’d have exactly the same problems. Cruelty. Bigotry. Oppression. That’s what Harry’s fighting against. Not magic.”

Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC October 19, 2007

Lord Voldemort

James Farrell: Voldemort never told anyone about his horcruxes, so how on earth did regulus black discover his secret?

J.K. Rowling: Horcrux magic was not Voldemort’s own invention; as is established in the story, other wizards had done it, though never gone as far as to make six. Voldemort dropped oblique hints; in his arrogance, he did not believe anybody would be clever enough to understand them. (He does so in the graveyard of Little Hangleton, in front of Harry). He did this before Regulus and Regulus guessed, correctly, what it was that made Voldemort so convinced he could not die.

Lady Bella: Whose murders did Voldemort use to create each of the horcruxes?

J.K. Rowling: The diary ’ Moaning Myrtle. The cup ’ Hepzibah Smith, the previous owner. The locket ’ a Muggle tramp. Nagini ’ Bertha Jorkins (Voldemort could use a wand once he regained a rudimentary body, as long as the victim was subdued). The diadem ’ an Albanian peasant. The ring ’ Tom Riddle Senior.

J.K. Rowling: Yes, the rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenze’s pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.

[Voldemort] is not a ghost. He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in King’s Cross.

Voldemort accidentally broke his soul into eight parts, not seven.

Darchey: Did voldemort ever love a girl?

J.K. Rowling: No, he loved only power, and himself. He valued people whom he could use to advance his own objectives.

Bloomsbury Online Chat July 30, 2007

Tonks / Lupin / Teddy

“Fred (Weasley, brother of Harry’s friend Ron), Lupin (a former teacher at Hogwarts, the school for wizards and witches that Harry attended) and Tonks (Lupin’s wife) really caused me a lot of pain,” Rowling says.

“Lupin and Tonks were two who were killed who I had intended to keep alive. … It’s like an exchange of hostages, isn’t it? And I kept Mr. Weasley (Ron’s father) alive. He was slated to die in the very, very original draft of the story.”

USA Today Interview, July 25, 2007

In book seven, Jo killed off Harry Potter’s close friends Lupin and Tonks, and in doing so, left their newborn baby an orphan, just like Harry.

J.K. Rowling: I wanted there to be an echo of what happened to Harry just to show the absolute evil of what Voldemort’s doing. The fact that you leave orphans and you leave children who then have to make their way in the world uncared for and unprotected. And so that’s why I killed the two that, you know, you know about in this book.

In fact, she says dead Professor Lupin’s son Teddy is one of the main reasons she wanted to write the epilogue.

J.K. Rowling: To hear that Teddy Lupin – Lupin’s son is obviously okay. That he has an ongoing relationship with Harry and that he’s – he must be quite happy and he’s got a very good-looking girlfriend because I think he’s kissing in the epilogue his – Bill and Fleur’s eldest daughter.

Meredith Vieira: And why is that important?

J.K. Rowling: Because he’s been orphaned. And I want – I want to show that he’s okay.

And I want to show that because the world is a better place, he’s having a happier… and then I started to cry. So obviously Teddy Lupin’s very important to me. I just… yeah. I… having killed both his parents, I really wanted him to be okay.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Teddy was raised by Andromeda.

Remus was killed by Dolohov and Tonks by Bellatrix.

[Teddy Lupin is] a Metamorphmagus like his mother.

Bloomsbury Online Chat July 30, 2007

KR: How much did you have to tweak in the Epilogue?

The changes I… Not so much, actually. Most of the tweaking was done to reveal less information, rather than more. As originally conceived, the Epilogue pretty much crowbarred in every possible piece of information I could give you about their future lives just because that was where I always knew I was heading. So I knew I had a lot of information and I when I first wrote that all down, that was the point I’m saying it for. The big tweak, I suppose, was Lupin’s son. Because until the 5th book in the series, Order of the Phoenix, I had intended Lupin to stay alive. So then it became a focus of the epilogue – one of the focuses – to make sure that he knew, even if he doesn’t physically appear, that he was okay.

Toronto, Canada, Open Book Tour, October 22, 2007

Weasleys

Meredith Vieira: But there were two that weren’t supposed to die that did end up dying.

J.K. Rowling: Yeah, yeah. I swapped them for Mr. Weasley. But they didn’t then die until Seven.

Meredith Vieira: So as an author, then, there were certain characters you couldn’t bear to part with?

J.K. Rowling: Well, yeah. If there’s one character I couldn’t bear to part with, it’s Arthur Weasley. And I think part of the reason for that is there were very few good fathers in the book. In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.

Jo was especially reluctant to lose Mr. Weasley because Harry had already lost so many father figures, including his godfather Sirius Black and Hogwarts school headmaster Dumbledore.

Then she dished about the life and death choice she made between the Weasley twins”Fred and George”brothers of Harry’s best friend Ron.

J.K. Rowling: Well, I don’t know why because I always knew it was going to be Fred. I suppose looking back from it, I think that most people would have expected it to be George I think. Because that’s the ringleader. He’s always been the instigator. He’s slightly harder than George. George is slightly gentler. Fred is normally the funnier but also the crueler of the two. So they might have thought that George would be the more vulnerable one and, therefore, the one to die.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Ron joined George at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner.

After a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet!

The new improved Percy ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.

I don’t think that George would ever get over losing Fred, which makes me feel so sad. However, he names his first child and son Fred, and he goes on to have a very successful career, helped by good old Ron.

Emzzy: Did Mr. weasley ever get around to fixing sirius motorbike?

J.K. Rowling: Of course, and it ended up in Harry’s possession.

Bloomsbury Online Chat July 30, 2007

How did you decide that Molly Weasley would be the one to finish off Bellatrix?

I always knew Molly was going to finish her off. I think there was some speculation that Neville would do it, because Neville obviously has a particular reason to hate Bellatrix. ..So there were lots of optios for Blelatrix, but I never deviated. I wanted it to be Molly, and I wanted it to be Molly for two reasons.

The first reason was I always saw Molly as a very good witch but someone whose light is necessarily hidden under a bushel, because she isn’t in the kitchen a lot and she has had to raise, among others, and george which is like, enough… I wanted Molly to have her moment and to show that because a woman had dedicated herself to her family does not mean that she doesn’t have a lot of other talents.

Second reason: It was the meeting of two kinds of – if you call what Bellatrix feels for Voldemort love, I guess we’ll call it love, she has a kind of obsession with him, it’s a very sick obsession … and I wanted to match that kind of obsession with maternal love… the power that you give someone by loving them. So Molly was really an amazing exemplar of maternal love. … There was something very satisfying about putting those two women together.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Since Ron is able to speak Parseltongue in the last book, does that mean that parseltongue is a language that most witches and wizards can learn or must a person be born with some ability to speak Parseltongue.

JKR: I don’t see it really as a language you can learn. So few people speak it that who would teach you? This is a weird ability passed down through the Slytherin blood line. However ROn was with Harry when he said one word in Parseltongue, which I do not know so I cannot duplicate for you, but he heard him say “Open,” and he was able to reproduce the sound. So it was one word. Whether he could learn to speak to snakes properly is a separate issue. I don’t think he could. But he knew enough, he was smart enough, to duplicate one necessary sound.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

`The truth is that in my younger days, I dated Ron more than once. Ron is funny, very funny; he’s insensitive. There’s a lot of immaturity about Ron, and that’s where a lot of the humor comes from. He’s not much fun to date, but he’s great as a friend.”

Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Ron and Hermione, however, are drawn to each other because they balance each other out. Hermione’s got the sensitivity and maturity that’s been left out of Ron, and Ron loosens up Hermione a bit, gets her to have some fun. They love each other and they bicker a bit, but they enjoy bickering, so we shouldn’t worry about it.”

Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Dumbledore

Dumbledore knew what his weakness was and he learned it when he was 17. He learned that he… his weakness and his temptation was power. He recognized that he was not really to be trusted with power.

And so he remained at Hogwarts. And it was important to me to see that Dumbledore made that choice. And Harry… Harry I think admires him more for it.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Angela Morrissey: Why is it that albus dumbledore can see harry under his invisibility cloak at certain moments? (during the series is the cloak only infallible to those who do not own a deathly hallow)

J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore, who could perform magic without needing to say the incantation aloud, was using ‘homenum revelio’ ’ the human-presence-revealing spell Hermione makes use of in Deathly Hallows.

Allie: What did dumbledore truly see in the mirror of erased?

J.K. Rowling: He saw his family alive, whole and happy ’ Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.

Dumbledore understood Mermish, Gobbledegook and Parseltongue. The man was brilliant.

Lucy: What is Dumbledore’s boggart?

J.K. Rowling: The corpse of his sister

Bloomsbury Online Chat July 30, 2007

ROSE: My question is did Albus Dumbledore ever fall in love?

JKR: Ummmm… Well, in the course of a long life, I think nearly everyone falls in love, but you probably shouldn’t read too much into that answer.

BBC “Blue Peter” Show Interview July 20, 2007

Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!” [laughter] “If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!”

What did Dumbledore write in the letter to make the Dursleys take Harry?

JKR: Very, very good question. As you know, as we find out in book seven, Petunia once really wanted to be part of that world. And you discover that Dumbledore has written to her prior to the Howler…Dumbledore wrote to her very kindly and explained why he couldn’t let her come to Hogwarts to become a witch. So, Petunia, much as she denis it afterwards, much as she turns against that world when she met Uncle Vernon, who is the biggest anti-wizard you could ever met in your life, a tiny part of her, and that’s the part that almost wished Harry luck when she said goodbye to him in this book, she just teetered on the verge of saying, I do know what you’re up against and I hope it’s OK. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Years of pretending she doesn’t care have hardened her. But Dumbledore appealed in the letter you’re asking about, so that part of Petunia that did remember wanting desperately to be part of the world and he appealed to her sense of fair play to a sister that she had hated because Lily had what she couldn’t have. So that’s how she persuaded Petunia to keep Harry. Good question.

TLC Transcript, NYC, October 19, 2007

9-year-old fourth grader to ask if Dumbledore ever really did love Harry, or was he just manipulating him so that he would sacrifice himself in the end?

“That’s a deep question, thanks for asking it,” Rowling said. “Dumbledore did like Harry, and as he got to know him, he became like a son to him. But I wanted you to question Dumbledore. It is right to question him, because he was treating people like puppets, and he was asking Harry to do a job that most men twice his age wouldn’t have been able to do.” But if Harry had all the information, he likely would have been tempted into doing something else, so he had to trust Dumbledore, who ultimately did guide him to do the right thing, Rowling said.

MTV.com Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC October 19, 2007

“Although [Dumbledore] seems to be so benign for six books, he’s quite a Machiavellian figure, really. He’s been pulling a lot of strings. Harry has been his puppet,” she explained. “When Snape says to Dumbledore [toward the end of ‘Hallows’], ‘We’ve been protecting [Harry] so he could die at the right moment’ ” I don’t think in book one you would have ever envisioned a moment where your sympathy would be with Snape rather than Dumbledore.”

Snape

(Regarding Snape) Was he capable of love? Very definitely. So he’s… he’s a very… he was a flawed human being, like all of us.

Harry forgives him as we know, from the epilogue, Harry”Harry really sees the good in Snape ultimately. I wanted there to be redemption and I wanted there to be forgiveness. And Harry forgives, even knowing that until the end Snape loathed him unjustifiably. it’s totally, totally unfair that he loathes him so much but anyway.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Laura Trego: Was the absence of Snape’s portrait in the headmasters office in the last scene innocent or deliberate?

J.K. Rowling: It was deliberate. Snape had effectively abandoned his post before dying, so he had not merited inclusion in these august circles. However, I like to think that Harry would be instrumental in ensuring that Snape’s portrait would appear there in due course.

Samantha: Was Snape the only death eater who could produce a full Patronus?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.

Snape entered [Grimmauld Place] immediately after Dumbledore’s death, before Moody put up the spells against him.

Bloomsbury Online Chat July 30, 2007

Is Snape good or evil?

After seven years at Hogwarts, we finally learn that Severus Snape, albeit somewhat grudgingly, has always been working to protect Harry. But is he really a good person?

“I don’t really see him as a hero,” Rowling said. “He’s not an unequivocally good character … He’s a complicated man.”

Rowling said Snape is bitter, spiteful and a bully, but he is also immensely brave and capable of love.

“As we know from the epilogue, Harry really sees the good in Snape ultimately … there’s redemption,” Rowling said. “I wanted there to be redemption and I wanted there to be forgiveness. And Harry forgives, even knowing that till the end Snape loathes him unjustifiably.”

Bonus MSNBC/Web Only Interview, July 30, 2007

p>Q: Is Severus Snape’s portrait in the headmaster’s office?

JKR: Some have been asking why hasn’t the portrait appeared immediately. It doesn’t. The reason is that the perception in the castle itself and everyone who was in the castle, because Snape kept his secret so well was that he abandoned his post. So all the portraits you see in the headmaster’s study are all headmasters and mistresses who died, it’s like British royals. You only get good press if you die in office. Abdication is not acceptable, particularly if you marry and American. I’m kidding! [laughter] I digress. I know, because I thought this one through, because it was very important to me, I know Harry would have insisted that Snape’s portrait was on that wall, right beside Dumbledore’s. [Applause.] As for whether Harry would go back to talk to him, I think, I’m not sure he would have done. Snape, I was really [?] the week after I finished the book. And I went to a chat room – not a chat room, what am I talking about? [laughter] I never go in chat rooms. I went onto a fan site because I was looking for questions to put up on my Web site, which is sometimes difficult. And I was so heartened to see that people on the message boards that people were still arguing about Snape. The book was out, and they were still arguing whether Snape was a good guy But that was really wonderful to me, because there’s a question there, was Snape a good guy or not? In many ways he really wasn’t. SoI haven’t been deliberately misleading everyone all this time, when I say that he’s a good guy. Because even though he did love and he loved very deeply and he was very brave, both qualities that I admire above anything else. He was bitter and he was vindictive… but right at the very very end, he did, as your question acknowledges, acheive a kind of peace together and I tried to show that in the epilogue.

TLC Transcript, Scholastic Open Book Tour, NYC October 19, 2007

“Snape is vindictive, he’s cruel. He’s not a big man,” she insisted. “But he loves. I like him, but I’d also like to slap him hard.”

Open Book Tour, Los Angeles, California October 16, 2007

James and Lily Potter

Jaclyn: Did Lily ever have feelings back for Snape?

J.K. Rowling: Yes. She might even have grown to love him romantically (she certainly loved him as a friend) if he had not loved Dark Magic so much, and been drawn to such loathsome people and acts.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Harry often wondered about his parents lives before he died. What did Lily, James, Remus, Lupin and Sirius do after Hogwarts?

JKR: To take Remus first, Remus was unemployable. Poor Lupin, prior to Dumbledore taking him in, lead a really impoverished life because no one wanted to employ a werewolf. The other three were full-time members of the Order of the Phoenix. If you remember when Lily, James and co. were at school, the first war was raging. It never reached the heights that the second war reached, because the Ministry was never infiltrated to that extend but it was a very bad time, the same disappearances, the same deaths. So that’s what they did, they left school. James has gold, enough to support Sirius and Lily. So I suppose they lived foff a private income. But they were full-time fighters, that’s what they did, until Lily fell pregnant with Harry. So then they went into hiding.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, NYC, October 19, 2007

Hagrid

Meredith Vieira: A lot of people were worried that Hagrid would die. Was that ever a plan?

J.K. Rowling: Yes … Everyone was up for grabs. Everyone. But actually from very early on … I wanted Hagrid to be the one who carried Harry out of the forest. That had been planned for so long. And I wanted Hagrid to believe that …

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

Hagrid has seen many deaths in quite a long life, so yes, he can see Thestrals.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Did Hagrid ever get married and have children?

[Aww from crowd] JKR: Oh, did Hagrid ever get married and have children? No. [awwws again] I may change that immediately due to the look on your face. Yes! He had 22! – No, no, Hagrid never did marry and have children. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Oh I feel terrible now. I’ll write another book! [Ovation] Realistically, Hagrid’s pool of potential girlfriends is extremely limited. Because with the giants killing each other off, the number of giantesses around is infinitesimal and he met one of the only, and I’m afraid, she thought he was kind of cute, but she was a little more, how should I put it, sophisticated than Hagrid. So no, bless him. [Awws] I kept him alive, come on! [Applause.]

TLC transcript, Open Book Tour, NYC, October 19, 2007

Hogwarts

Peeves is not linked to the bloody Baron’s story. He is a spirit of chaos that entered the building long ago and has proved impossible to eradicate!

The Hufflepuff common room is accessed through a [painting] near the kitchens, as I am sure you have deduced…It is a very cozy and welcoming place, as dissimilar as possible from Snape’s dungeon. Lots of yellow hangings, and fat armchairs, and little underground tunnels leading to the dormitories, all of which have perfectly round doors, like barrel tops.

Slytherin has become diluted. It is no longer the pureblood bastion it once was. Nevertheless, its dark reputation lingers, hence Albus Potter’s fears.

Adwait313: Has the jinx on the dada teaching post at Hogwarts been lifted?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, at last!

[Quirrell] was teaching at Hogwarts for more than a year, but NOT in the post of D.A.D.A. teacher. He was previously Muggle Studies professor.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Ministry of Magic

Chelsea: In the end … you tell us that Neville is a professor at Hogwarts. What do… Harry, Hermione, and Ron do?

J.K. Rowling: Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department in… at the Ministry of Magic. So they… I mean, they are now the consummate… they are experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.

So Harry and Ron lead the way in recreating the new Auror Department. And by the time… 19 years later … I would imagine that Harry is heading up that department, which is not corrupt in any way. It’s… it’s a really good place to be. And Hermione … I think she’s now pretty high up in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement.

Where I would imagine that her brainpower and… and her knowledge of how the dark arts operate would really give her a, you know, a sound grounding. So they’re all at the ministry but it’s a very new ministry. They made a new world.

TodayShow/Dateline NBC Interviews July 29, 2007

The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was eradicated. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future careers.

Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up his new Auror department. Harry did so (just because Voldemort was gone, it didn’t mean that there would not be other Dark witches and wizards in the coming years.

Steph: Will Azkaban still use Dementors?

J.K. Rowling: No, definitely not. Kingsley would see to that. The use of Dementors was always a mark of the underlying corruption of the Ministry, as Dumbledore constantly maintained.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Malfoys

The Malfoys weaseled their way out of trouble (again) due to the fact that they colluded (albeit out of self-interest) with Harry at the end of the battle. Georgina: Did lucius malfoy, and all the other escaped death eaters, go back to azkaban.

[Narcissa Malfoy] never had the Dark Mark and was never a fully paid-up member. However, her views were identical to those of her husband until Voldemort planned the death of her son.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Why was Draco the true owner of the Elder Wand?

“To truly own the Elder Wand, which means to receive the full benefits, double-edged though it is, of all its power, you have to have conquered the previous owner,” explained Rowling.

“And that meant he conquered him, even though Dumbledore was very weak at the time, he was very ill. He was on the point of collapse when it happened,” Rowling said. “Dumbledore didn’t want to lose his wand at that point and Draco disarmed him. So that meant that the wand gave Draco its allegiance, even though Draco never knew it, even though Draco never touched it.

“From that moment on, that wand gave its allegiance to Draco, and it wouldn’t work as well for anyone but Draco.”

When Harry wrestles Draco’s “everyday” wand out of his hand at the Malfoy’s mansion, he conquers Draco, and therefore the Elder Wand ” hidden in Dumbledore’s tomb at the time ” transfers its allegiance to Harry.

Rowling said her American editor suggested the moment when Harry conquers Draco should be more dramatic.

“But, no, I really wanted, very consciously, for the history of the wizarding world to hinge on this moment where two teenage boys have a physical [fight]. They don’t even do it by magic,” Rowling said.

“That sort of puts all of Voldemort’s and Dumbledore’s grandiose plans in their place, doesn’t it? You just can’t plan that well, that something can go wrong and it went wrong … It went wrong because Harry managed to pull this wand out of Draco’s grip.

Bonus MSNBC/Web Only Interview, July 30, 2007

Q: Does Malfoy owe Harry a debt?

JKR: That’s a great question and a lot of people wanted to know that. When Dumbledore said to Harry, Voldemort won’t want a close associate who is in your debt, I wasn’t implying by that there was any kind of magical bond there. It was more that Dumbldore’s extensive wisdom and knowledge of human nature, he knew as Harry later thinks in book seven, he knew that Pettigrew would react a certain way to having saved his life. … He’s weak, fundamentally weak. Pettigrew is a very weak character. He’s not someone I like at all. He’s a weak person and he likes to gravitate to people who are stronger. Dumbledore is right. Pettigrew had an impulsive mercy… would Malfoy e in Harry’s debt? I think the very worst burden Harry could have put Malfoy under was this one, that Malfoy has to feel any kind of gratitude. So I tried to show that slightly in the epilogue when they look slightly at each other and there’s a, “Hi. It’s so embarrassing, you saved my life. No one will ever let me forget it.” I think, does he owe him a debt, probably not. I think Malfoy would go back to being an improved version of what he was but we shouldn’t expect him to be a really great guy any time soon.

TLC Transcript, NYC, Evening Appearance,October 19, 2007

Hermione

Hermione began her post-Hogwarts career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures where she was instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves and their ilk. She then moved (despite her jibe to Scrimgeour) to the Dept. of Magical Law Enforcement where she was a progressive voice who ensured the eradication of oppressive, pro-pureblood laws.

[Hermione] brought [her parents] home straight away.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Peverell Legend / Deathly Hallows

Harry and Voldemort are distantly related through the Peverells. Of course, nearly all wizarding families are related if you trace them back through the centuries. As was made clear in ‘Deathly hallows’, Peverell blood would run through many wizarding families.

Wearing the ring would not make the stone work. The stone existed outside the ring originally, and to use it you had to turn it three times in your hand.

Ea: Will the stone ever be found since it was left just sitting on the forest floor?

J.K. Rowling: I think not. I imagine that it was squashed into the ground by a centaur’s hoof as the centaurs dashed to the aid of the Hogwarts fighters, and thereafter became buried.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Plot

Rosi: What does in essence divided mean?

J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore suspected that the snake’s essence was divided ’ that it contained part of Voldemort’s soul, and that was why it was so very adept at doing his bidding. This also explained why Harry, the last and unintended Horcrux, could see so clearly through the snake’s eyes, just as he regularly sees through Voldemort’s. Dumbledore is thinking aloud here, edging towards the truth with the help of the Pensieve.

Elisabeth: In the chapter of kings cross, are they behind the veil or in some world between the real world and the veil?

J.K. Rowling: You can make up your own mind on this, but I think that Harry entered a kind of limbo between life and death.

You see Aberforth meeting Mundungus in Hogsmeade. That was the occasion on which Dung, who had taken Sirius’s mirror from Grimmauld Place, sold it to Aberforth.

Muggle-borns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene re-surfaces in some unexpected places.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Ellie: Why didn’t Harry use the time-turner to save his parents?

JKR: Oh, that’s a very good question, that. But it would take us into “Terminator” territory, if you’ve ever seen the “Terminator” films… but never mind. Well, the time-turner was a very difficult invention for me, because it created as many problems as it solved. And anyone who’s read Order of the Phoenix may have noticed that during the climactic scene in which they chase through the Ministry of Magic, they shatter all the time-turners, thereby preventing them using those in the future.

BBC “Blue Peter” Show Interview July 20, 2007

How different would the last two books be if Arthur had been killed in the middle of book five?

I think they would have been very different and it’s part of the reason why I chose my mind. … By turning Ron into half of Harry, in other words by turning Ron into someone who had suffered the loss of a parent, I was going to remove the Weasleys as a refuge for Harry and I was going to necessarily remove a lot of Ron’s humor. That’s part of the reason why I didn’t kill Arthru. I wanted to keep Ron in tact … a lot of Ron’s humor comes from his insensitivity and his immaturity, to be honest about Ron. And Ron finally, I think, you see, grows up in this book. He’s the last of the three to reach what I consider adulthood, and he does it then [ when he destroys the horcrux] and faces those things. So that’s part of the reason. The only other reason I didn’t kill Arthur was that I wanted to come full circle. We started with an orphan, someone who lost their parents because of the war. ANd so I wanted to show it again. … Even though you don’t see Teddy, I wanted to express in the epilogue, that he gets an even better godfather than Harry had, because Sirius had ihs faults, I think we must admit. He was a risky guy to have a s a godfather. Because Teddy gets someone who really has been there, and Harry becomes a really great father figure for Teddy as well as his own children. I hasten to add that I didn’t kill Lupin or Tonks lightly. I loved them as characters…so that hurt, killing them.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Dursleys

Superhans: What was Duldeys worst memory?

J.K. Rowling: I think that when Dudley was attacked by the Dementors he saw himself, for the first time, as he really was. This was an extremely painful, but ultimately salutory lesson, and began the transformation in him.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

“Harry and Dudley would still see each other enough to be on Christmas-card terms, but they would visit more out of a sense of duty and sit in silence so that their children could see their cousins.”

Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

“People usually ask me, what is it that Dudley saw during the Dementor attack?” Rowling said. “My feeling is that he saw himself, exactly for what he was, and for a boy that spoiled, it would be terrifying. So he was jolted out of it. Dementor attacks aren’t usually good for people, but this one was.”

Open Book Tour, Morning Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Magical Creatures

Chelatina: Was Firenze ever welcomed back into the herd?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, the rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenze’s pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Q: When Harry was stabbed by a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, since he was a Horcrux shouldn’t it have been destroyed then?

JKR: I have been asked that a lot. Harry was exceptionally fortunate in that he had Fawkes. So before he could be destroyed without repair, which is what is necessary to destroy a horcrux, he was mended. However, I made sure that Fawkes wasn’t around the second time a Horcrux got stabbed by a basilisk fang, so the poison did its work and it was irreparable within a short period of time…. I established early in the book, Hermione says that you destroy a Horcrux by using something so powerful that there’s no remedy. But she does say there is a remedy for basilisk poison but of course it has to be administered immediately and when they stab the cup later – boy I’m really blowing this for anyone who hasn’t finished the book – there’s Fawkes, is my answer. And thank you for giving me a chance to say that because people have argued that quite a lot.

TLC Transcript, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

House Elves

[Winky’s] still at Hogwarts, and she was one of the oncoming house-elves who attacked the Death Eaters in the final battle.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Dementors

You cannot destroy Dementors, though you can limit their numbers if you eradicate the conditions in which they multiply, ie, despair and degradation. As I’ve already said, though, the Ministry no longer used them to torment its opponents.

Carol: Do dementors have souls?

J.K. Rowling: No.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Luna

[Luna] ended up marrying (rather later than Harry & co) a fellow naturalist and grandson of the great Newt Scamander (rolf)!

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Luna Lovegood, one of her favorites, became a great naturalist, “though I don’t knew whether she ever found any Crumple-horned Snorkacks.”

Open Book Tour, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 18, 2007

Umbridge

James Farrell: How did Umbridge manage to conjure a Ppatronus while wearing the locket when Harry wasn’t able to?

J.K. Rowling: Because she is a very nasty piece of work. She has an affinity for this horrible object, which would help rather than hinder her.

[Umbridge] was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Lockhart

Jessie: Will lockhart ever recover?

J.K. Rowling: No.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Magic / Spells

The Dark Mark would fade to a scar, not dissimilar to the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead. Like Harry’s, these scars would no longer burn or hurt.

Jess Mac: What was the third smell that Hermione smelt in the Amortentia potion in hbp (ie the particular essence of Ron)

J.K. Rowling: I think it was his hair. Every individual has very distinctive-smelling hair, don’t you find?

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Wands

As established by Ollivander, a wizard can use almost any wand, it is simply that a wand that chooses him/her will work best. Where there is a family connection, a wand will work a little better than a wand chosen at random, I think.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Neville / Trevor

Su: How did Neville get the Gryfindor sword, is there a link to the hat?

J.K. Rowling: Neville, most worthy Gryffindor, asked for help just as Harry did in the Chamber of secrets, and Gryffindor’s sword was transported into Gryffindor’s old hat ’ the Sorting Hat was Gryffindor’s initially, as you know. Griphook was wrong ’ Gryffindor did not ‘steal’ the sword, not unless you are a goblin fanatic and believe that all goblin-made objects really belong to the maker.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

How did Neville get the Sword of Gryffindor?

“Now we can reveal that Griphook was wrong,” Rowling said. The sword was truly Gryffindor’s and he didn’t steal it … Its first allegiance always was to a worthy Gryffindor, and it was going to come back when someone really, really needed it. And it came back to Neville.”

Bonus MSNBC/Web Only Interview, July 30, 2007

NAOMI: Can you tell us a bit more about Trevor the Toad? Is he an animagus of Neville’s Uncle Algie?

JKR: See, I love all these theories, I really love this. Ummm, no. But I love the fact that everyone is now so tuned in to the Harry Potter world that every tiny part and character is closely examined through a microscope by devoted readers to decide what they’re hiding. But no, Trevor really is just a toad. That is definitely it. He’s not the dead Dumbledore come back to help anyone… (unintelligible).

BBC “Blue Peter” Show Interview July 20, 2007

Q: Did Neville ever find love?

Of course. … To make him extra cool he marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.

TLC Transcript, Evening Appearance, NYC, October 19, 2007

Wormtail

Wormtail, desperate to curry favour, salvaged [Voldemort’s wand] from the place it had fallen and carried it to him.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Colin Creevey

Colin wasn’t a student. He sneaked back with the rest of the DA, along with Fred, George and the rest. He ought not to have stayed behind when McGonagall told him to leave, but alas ’ he did.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Rita Skeeter

Maggie: Is Rita Skeeter still reporting?

J.K. Rowling: Naturally.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

The Trio / DA

Lecanard: Will we see Harry and his friends having their own history on chocolate frogs cards?

J.K. Rowling: Definitely, and Ron will describe this as his finest hour.

Brian: Did the D.A.keep the coins?

J.K. Rowling: Naturally. They would be like badges or medals of honour ’ proof that the owner had been at the heart of the fight against Voldemort from the start! I like to imagine Neville showing his to his admiring pupils.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

Aberforth

[Aberforth] is still there, at the Hog’s Head.

Bloomsbury Online Chat, July 30, 2007

In the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore said his brother was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms [JKR buries her head, to laughter] on a goat; what were the inappropriate charms he was practicing on that goat?

JKR: How old are you?

Eight.

JKR: I think that he was trying to make a goat that was easy to keep clean [laughter], curly horns. That’s a joke that works on a couple of levels. I really like Aberforth and his goats. But you know Aberforth having this strange fondness for goats if you’ve read book seven, came in really useful to Harry, later on, because a goat, a stag, you know. If you’re a stupid Death Eater, what’s the difference. So, that is my answer to YOU.

TLC Transcript, NYC, Open Book Tour, Evening Appearance, October 19, 2007