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J.K. Rowling Gives Site Update on Characters, Her, and More

J.K. Rowling has updated her website, giving us information on what she is currently up to and some fun information on characters and other stuff. Some of the information contains **spoilers** if you have not read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Click 'more' to see what she had to say!

Section: Diary

DECEMBER 7th

Where did the last four months go? It feels as though Hallows was published, and then I slipped through some strange time portal in which everything went at double-quick time, only to be spat out in early December.

People keep saying to me, ‘I expect things have calmed down now you’ve finished?’ to which my answer some days is a fairly humourless laugh. I have been exceptionally busy since July, what with the US/Canadian tour, Beedle the Bard, assorted charitable commitments, a massive post-publication mountain of correspondence, plus those three children I insisted on bringing into the world. Consequence: neglect of website! However, I am putting up a few updates today in News (where you will see that I have also been busy with a documentary), FAQs and Extras. I hope to put up a few more titbits in due course.

The US/Canadian tour was my favourite ever. If anybody reading this was in the audience for any of those events, thank you, because they were only as wonderful as they were because of the brilliant questions and the overwhelming warmth of those present.

Delving even further back into the Lost Four Months, the launch of ‘Hallows’ at the National History Museum in London was also my favourite of all time, and to all those who queued so long and patiently, you were incredible, and I loved meeting every single one of you.

‘Deathly Hallows’ remains my favourite book of the series. I hope that, even if it is not yours, you understood, at least, that this was where the story was always leading; it was the ending I had planned for seventeen years, and there was more satisfaction than you can probably imagine in finally sharing it with my readers.

As for mourning Harry – and I doubt I will be believed when I say this – nobody can have felt the end as deeply as I did. The writing of Harry Potter has been inextricably linked with my life for seventeen years, and saying goodbye has been just as tough as I always knew it would be. So I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has written to me since publication, saying such wonderful things about what the books meant to them, because your words meant the world to me at this very bittersweet time.

Section: News

Friday 7 December 2007
J.K.Rowling - A Year In The Life

For the last 12 months I have been filmed for a documentary by James Runcie, who apart from making films is also a fellow novelist. The documentary follows my life over the last year of writing Harry Potter and includes footage of me working on ‘Deathly Hallows’, on tour, at the launch and much more. The documentary will be shown in the UK on Sunday 30th December 2007, on ITV.

Section: F.A.Q.
(SPOILER WARNING)
What exactly happened when Voldemort used the Avada Kedavra curse on Harry in the forest?

Again, Voldemort violated deep laws of magic he did not understand, but there is more to it than that.

Having taken Harry’s blood into himself, Voldemort is keeping alive Lily’s protective power over Harry. So Voldemort himself acts almost like a Horcrux for Harry – except that the power of Lily’s sacrifice is a positive force that not only continues to tether Harry to life, but gives Voldemort himself one last chance (Dumbledore refers to this last hope in chapter 35). Voldemort has unwittingly put a few drops of goodness back inside himself; if he had repented, he could have been healed more deeply than anyone would have supposed. But, of course, he refused to feel remorse.

Voldemort is also using the Elder Wand - the wand that is really Harry’s. It does not work properly against its true owner; no curse Voldemort casts on Harry functions properly; neither the Cruciatus curse nor the Killing Curse. The Avada Kedavra curse, however, is so powerful that it does hurt Harry, and also succeeds in killing the part of him that is not truly him, in other words, the fragment of Voldemort’s own soul still clinging to his. The curse also disables Harry severely enough that he could have succumbed to death if he had chosen that path (again, Dumbledore says he has a choice whether or not to wake up). But Harry does decide to struggle back to consciousness, capitalises on Lily’s ‘escape route’, and pulls himself back to the realm of the living.

It is important to state that I always saw these kinds of magic (the very deepest life and death issues) as essentially un-scientific; in other words, there is no “Elder Wand + Lily’s Blood = Assured Survival” formula. What count, ultimately, are Harry and Voldemort’s own choices. They have each been given certain weapons and safeguards, but the power of these objects and past happenings lie in how they are understood, and how they are used or enacted upon. Harry has a deeper and truer understanding of the meaning of the objects and past events, but his greatest powers, those that save him, are free will, courage and moral certainty.

Section: F.A.Q.
(SPOILER WARNING)
What exactly was the mutilated baby-like creature Harry saw at King's Cross in chapter 35 of 'Hallows'?

I’ve been asked this a LOT. It is the last piece of soul Voldemort possesses. When Voldemort attacks Harry, they both fall temporarily unconscious, and both their souls - Harry's undamaged and healthy, Voldemort’s stunted and maimed - appear in the limbo where Harry meets Dumbledore.

Section: Extra Stuff
(SPOILER WARNING)
Harry and Dudley: Future Hope?

A couple of people have told me that they hoped to see Dudley at King’s Cross in the Epilogue, accompanying a wizarding child. I must admit that it did occur to me to do that very thing, but a short period of reflection convinced me that any latent wizarding genes would never survive contact with Uncle Vernon’s DNA, so I didn’t do it.

However, I know that after Dudley’s brave attempt at reconciliation at the start of Deathly Hallows, the two cousins would have remained on ‘Christmas Card’ terms for the rest of their lives, and that Harry would have taken his family to visit Dudley’s when they were in the neighbourhood (occasions dreaded by James, Albus and Lily).

Section: Extra Stuff
(SPOILER WARNING)
The Elder Wand

I decided that the core of the Elder Wand is the tail hair of a Thestral; a powerful and tricky substance that can be mastered only by a witch or wizard capable of facing death.

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by SnevansDramione @ 7 Dec 2007 - 12:52

Darn! I was really hoping that she'd update with information on whether or not non-Weasleys like Neville or Luna ever had any children. I'm constantly waiting for that news!