Diary for December 25, 2005:
DECEMBER 25th
That tired old welcome page was starting to bug me, so I thought I'd give you something new for Christmas. I've tried keeping a diary many times in the past and never got much further than January 15th, but I've been feeling the need for a place to put everyday updates that don't qualify as real 'news'. As ever, if there is a quiet spell you should not take it as a sign that I've given up diary writing, but rather that I am working hard on something a little more eagerly anticipated…
For 2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series. I contemplate the task with mingled feelings of excitement and dread, because I can't wait to get started, to tell the final part of the story and, at last, to answer all the questions (will I ever answer all of the questions? Let's aim for most of the questions); and yet it will all be over at last and I can't quite imagine life without Harry.
However (clears throat in stern British manner) this is no time to get maudlin.
I have been fine-tuning the fine-tuned plan of seven during the past few weeks so that I can really set to work in January. Reading through the plan is like contemplating the map of an unknown country in which I will soon find myself. Sometimes, even at this stage, you can see trouble looming; nearly all of the six published books have had Chapters of Doom. The quintessential, never, I hope, to be beaten Chapter That Nearly Broke My Will To Go On was chapter nine, 'Goblet of Fire' (appropriately enough, 'The Dark Mark'.)
As for this website, I've got plans… you'll find out what they are in due course (constant vigilance, my friends). In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone, and if Father Christmas has already squeezed down your chimney, I hope he left something good.
New Poll for December 25, 2005
1. What happens to a secret when a secret-keeper dies?
2. Does the destruction of a Horcrux involve more than the destruction of the object?
3. Why did Voldemort want the Philosopher's Stone when he already had his Horcruxes?
Rubbish Bin
J K Rowling is not a real person, but the name given to a group of anonymous writers
This theory originated in Norway, which figures... nobody who is familiar with the UK press could possibly imagine that such a massive fraud would remain unexposed for longer than ten minutes.
UPDATE: Sorry, HP Fans, I missed a few. She also updated her Rumours section...
Aunt Petunia will start exhibiting magical tendencies
No, she won't. Aunt Petunia has never performed magic, nor will she ever be able to do so.
Peter Pettigrew's silver hand will be used to kill Remus Lupin
Nice idea, clearly predicated on the legend that only a silver bullet can kill a werewolf – but incorrect.
Book Seven will be called 'Harry Potter and the Pyramids of Furmat'
The Pyramids of Furmat lie a few miles east of the famous Fortress of Shadows, not far from the magnificent Pillar of Storgé. Many tourists prefer to view these ancient monuments at night, when they are illuminated by the Green Flame Torch.
Mrs. Norris is an unregistered Animagus
No, she's just an intelligent (and unpleasant) cat.
Harry is a Metamorphmagus
A Metamorphmagus is a wizard who has the innate ability to transform their appearance completely, for instance, from black to white, young to old, handsome to plain and so on. In Harry's extreme youth, he produced some impressive bits of uncontrolled magic when under stress, including making his own hair re-grow overnight after a particularly brutal haircut from Aunt Petunia (a dream that had its roots in my own childhood. My mother, God bless her, had the idea that she was much more skilled with the kitchen scissors than she really was, and I had a couple of shockingly dreadful 'trims' at her hands. How I wished that I could simply stick it all back on…)
Anyway: before they have received training, very young witches and wizards are prone to unstable surges of power, often accidentally producing effects that they may have to train for a few years to be able to reproduce deliberately. Their magical ability is bottled up for weeks at a time and then, when made angry or frightened, it simply explodes out of them, sometimes (as in the case of the vanishing glass in the chapter of the same name, 'Philosopher's Stone) causing at least as much inconvenience to themselves as others.
So Harry is not a Metamorphmagus – just a boy who was clearly magical from birth.
Lupin will come back as DADA teacher
Alas, no. Lupin's exposure as a werewolf did irreparable damage to his prospects for a career in teaching, and with the likes of Fenrir Greyback out there, werewolves are unlikely to receive a good press any time soon.
(SPOILER WARNING)
The Sorting Hat is a Horcrux
No, it isn't. Horcruxes do not draw attention to themselves by singing songs in front of large audiences.
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