The J.K. Rowling Index

List of all J.K. Rowling's writings.

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Work Category: Writing

Rubbish Bin: Toxic (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: RB3DW — Publication date: September 16th, 2004 to November 15th, 2007

Gilderoy Lockhart is based on JKR’s first husband

No, he most certainly is not. I have always been honest about the fact that Gilderoy Lockhart WAS inspired by a real man (see the ‘Extras’ section). For obvious reasons I am not going to identify the person in question – however irritating he was, he does not deserve that – but I can state categorically that I never married him. I do not lie about the inspiration for characters (although at times like these, I wonder why I don’t refuse to answer these questions at all!)

J K Rowling demands 2 million rupees from religious charities in India

Recently there were a number of reports that Warner Bros. and I had taken legal action against religious charities in India because they constructed a Hogwarts castle as part of a Hindu festival. Here are the facts.

The defendants were not religious charities, and theirs was not a religious celebration. On the contrary, it was a large-scale, commercial, sponsored event involving corporations that included a major Indian high street bank. The event was, however, set up while a Hindu festival was going on.

It was Warner Bros who brought the case, because the rights that were being infringed belong to them, not me. My name has to be attached to such proceedings as a legal technicality, because I am the underlying creator of Harry Potter series.

Also due to a technicality, Warner Bros were obliged to claim damages as part of their claim. However, they waived this right, and neither sought nor obtained any financial compensation. It is completely false to assert that they, or I, were trying to take money from anybody, let alone two million rupees.

The court ruled that Warner Bros. rights had indeed been infringed, and that events such as the one in question would need Warner Bros.’ permission in the future. The court also restrained all the defendants from any future events infringing Warner Bros. rights.

Some of the news agencies and newspapers who misreported this story subsequently issued corrections and apologies, but the original, false story is still doing the rounds. In the immortal words of Mark Twain, ‘a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.’

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Rubbish Bin: Mouldy (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: RB2DW — Publication date: September 16th, 2004

Hailes ‘undoubtedly a primitive forerunner of Quidditch’

When the first Harry Potter book was published several stories appeared claiming that Quidditch was based on a variety of obscure, and not so obscure, games, some of which, like Hailes, were only ever played in particular British schools. Quidditch has even been described as ‘soccer-like’ on several occasions, which is nonsensical to anybody familiar with the rules of both games. (I am sure this misunderstanding sprang originally from the fact that Ron says to Harry in ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ ‘it’s like football in the Muggle world’, but Ron is referring only to the sport’s immense popularity, not to the game itself.)

I did not base Quidditch on any game that exists, or existed, in reality. Finding the ‘real’ counterpart of things that appear in the Harry Potter books has become a popular newspaper space-filler. The funny thing is that occasionally people miss what I have thought are glaringly obvious references to things and people in the real world. Ah well.

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Rumours (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: RUMDW — Publication date: May 16th, 2004 to February 29th, 2008

Harry will be asked to become Minister of Magic in book seven

Seventeen is much too young to enter politics.

I am ‘Witch No. 1’ in the film of ‘Chamber of Secrets’.

Nope, not true, sorry. The filmmakers did ask me to play Lily Potter in the Mirror of Erised scene in the first film, but I really am not cut out to be an actress, even one who just has to stand there and wave. I would have messed it up somehow.

Book six is going to be called ‘Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch’ or ‘the Mountain of Fantasy’ and book seven is going to be called ‘Harry Potter and the Fortress of Shadows’ or ‘the Forest of Shadows’

Not even close! Who makes these up?! And this green torch business seems to be cropping up everywhere. Do you really think getting rid of Voldemort would be that easy?

Professor Lupin has a twin

No, but this obviously sprang from the fact that Lupin’s Christian name (Remus) comes from one of the mythical founders of Rome who had a twin called ‘Romulus’. (They were raised by wolves, incidentally).

Neville Longbottom is Peter Pettigrew’s son

See response for ‘Lily Potter was a Death Eater’ above.

Crookshanks is an Animagus

No, he’s not, but he’s not pure cat either. If you buy Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (all royalties to Comic Relief, which means you’re helping some of the poorest children around the world) you might just be able to work out what Crookshanks really is.

I am going to write a book about Lily and James once I’ve finished the seven books about Harry Potter

Hmm… once again, too much Star Wars can do this to a person. No prequels are planned.

Lily Potter Was Once a Death Eater

How dare you?!

Lily Potter is still alive

No, afraid not.

Voldemort is Harry’s real father/grandfather/close relative of some description

No, no, no, no, no. You lot have been watching much too much Star Wars. James is DEFINITELY Harry’s father. Doesn’t everybody Harry meets say ‘you look just like your father’? And hasn’t Dumbledore already told Harry that Voldemort is the last surviving descendent of Salazar Slytherin? Just to clarify – this means that Harry is NOT a descendent of Salazar Slytherin.

Professor Dumbledore is Harry’s real grandfather/close relative of some description.

If Dumbledore had been Harry’s grandfather, why on earth would he have been sent to live with the Dursleys?

The mysterious ‘Icicle’

I have been told that I once promised a character with this name during an interview. I can only think that somebody misheard what I said because at no stage have I ever planned a character called ‘Icicle.’ Professor Bicycle, on the other hand, will be a key figure in books six and seven.* *this is a joke

JKR is deadly serious when she forbids people to call Voldemort ‘Voldy’

Erm… I was joking. I thought it was very amusing when I found a chat room full of people calling him ‘Voldy’. Maybe I should develop a secret symbol that means ‘this is a joke’, a kind of anti-Dark Mark? And incidentally… I wasn’t really Squidward that day in the MuggleNet chat room, either. That’s a SpongeBob SquarePants in-joke. I used a different name. So you can all stop logging on as Squidward now 😉

The text on the book behind the (ahem) impossible-to-open door means something highly significant.

It doesn’t; it’s simply filler, as many of you knew. (And if you don’t understand what I’m talking about here, you weren’t online when a clever Potter fan hacked his way through the door with the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on it.)

JKR is not really talking on this site, but instructing other people to write on her behalf.

It’s definitely me.

Book Six is called ‘The Toenail of Icklibõgg’

Well, if you believed the ‘Storgé’ one…

Book Six is called ‘The Pillar of Storgé’

I am trying very hard not to feel offended that anyone thought this was possible. ‘Storgé’, for crying out loud. Come on, people, get a grip.

Gideon and Fabian Prewett were Molly Weasley’s brothers

Yes, they were, but their history is not particularly significant in terms of the overall plot, except in so far as their deaths obviously explain and excuse some of Mrs. Weasley’s fears and her arguably over-protective stance with regard to Harry.

The Order of the Phoenix communicates using chocolate frog cards

This is such a great idea that I was in two minds whether to shoot it down; however, a chocolate frog card, or any object that would have to be remembered and carried on the person, would always be vulnerable to loss, destruction or trickery. The Order communicates in a way that requires nothing but a wand. You saw the Order’s method of communication in use even before you knew about the existence of the Order; it was employed by an Order member.

The Lestranges were sent after Neville to kill him

No, they weren’t, they were very definitely sent after Neville’s parents. I can’t say too much about this because it touches too closely on the prophecy and how many people knew about it, but the Lestranges were not in on the secret.

Luna and Neville will hook up in HP&THBP

The Luna/Neville shippers are much less vehement and scary than the Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione tribes, so I hope I won’t receive too much hate mail for quashing this rumour. I see Neville and Luna as very different kinds of people and while they share a certain isolation within Hogwarts, I don’t think that’s enough to foster true love – friendship, perhaps, although I think that Neville would always find Luna’s wilder flights of fancy alarming.

Harry stands trial again in HP&THBP

This theory has been put forward to explain why Harry does not spend as long in Privet Drive during this book as previous ones, but I am happy to say that he leaves the Dursleys early for a much pleasanter reason than a court case.

‘Half-Blood Prince’ will have 38 chapters

Listen carefully, I shall say this only once: the only sources you should trust concerning information on the Half-Blood Prince are official spokespeople for my publishers and my official website. As a spokesperson for Bloomsbury, my UK publisher, has already said, HBP is shorter than Order of the Phoenix, and I can tell you now that it has fewer than 38 chapters. Let’s face it: it wouldn’t be a new Harry Potter book if hoaxers didn’t pop up regularly on the net claiming to know new characters or plot-lines, or to have found stray chapters lying around a printer’s back yard. I can’t waste time denying each and every lunatic rumour, because I’ve got editing to do! So let’s agree here and now that each of these ‘claims’ comes with a free barrel of salt and rise together above the madness.

The painting on the wall of the study Means Something

Well, it means something to me. Lightmaker asked me a couple of weeks ago who my favourite artist is and I didn’t know why until I opened the door myself, but there it was, a little Caravaggio hanging on my study wall – a fantasy Christmas present if ever there was one.

The questions and riddles we had to answer before retrieving the secret message behind the door on 20th December are clues to the plot of ‘Half-Blood Prince’.

I was thinking of cracker riddles when I made up these challenges (crackers are a British Christmas institution; for those who don’t know, they are wrapped and decorated cardboard tubes that typically contain a paper hat, a present – usually something small and plastic – and a joke or riddle. Two people take an end of the cracker and pull it apart; it goes off with a loud bang, or crack, due to what a quick Google search informs me is ‘a strip of chemically impregnated paper’. You generally pull a cracker prior to eating your Christmas dinner, so that you can wear the stupid hat for photographs). Anyway: the riddles and jokes you find within crackers have no deeper meaning or significance and nor, I’m afraid, do mine. You all worked out very quickly that the riddle answers made ‘Half-Blood Prince’, but the three questions relating to Harry, Ron and Hermione relate firmly to past, and not future, books – nothing to do with the publication date, not an anagram, not a clue to the plot of HBP. I greatly enjoyed the facetious speculation about the corned beef-loving otters from Bristol, though.

There will be a chapter in Half-Blood Prince called ‘Lupin’s Papers’

I’ve already answered this in FAQs, but as this rumour is still cropping up in fan letters I thought I’d reiterate here that there will be NO chapter called ‘Lupin’s Papers’ in book six, nor will there be chapters entitled ‘Pettigrew’s Pamphlets,’ ‘Sirius’s Circulars’ or ‘the Pocket Crosswords of Severus Snape’. Let me remind you once again that any ‘information’ about the contents of ‘Half-Blood Prince’ should be treated with extreme scepticism unless it comes from this website or from my publishers or agent. The silly season is upon us; there’s bound to be an ‘inside leak’, ie, total fabrication, any time now.

Colin and Dennis Creevey will be the new Gryffindor Beaters

Nice idea, but no. The new Gryffindor Beaters will be completely new finds of the new Captain’s.

Nicolas Flamel is going to come to Hogwarts to teach potions

Flamel has now died; Dumbledore explained in ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ that his old friend was going to choose death rather than allow his stone to fall into the wrong hands.

Dumbledore is really Ron/Harry ‘from the future’

Your inventiveness knows no bounds, and I do not mean that sarcastically; these theories open up exhilarating new vistas of possibility… but they’re wrong. Could it be that by speculating that Harry/Ron becomes Dumbledore, you are seeking reassurance that neither dies young? I’ve also heard a whisper about Ron and Hermione’s son time-travelling, so I shall go further and tell you that NONE of the characters in the books has returned from the future. As for the idea of Ron and Hermione having a son… (chuckles as the distant roars of a million shippers reach my ears, all cursing me to an eternity of unsatisfied curiosity).

The last part of the prophecy (‘neither can live while the other survives’) means that Harry and Neville will have to kill each other

Inventive and intriguing, but wrong. See the answer to the poll question for a little more elucidation on Neville’s relation to the prophecy.

Luna is Snape’s daughter

This is a most tantalising idea, but no, Mr. Lovegood, the editor of ‘the Quibbler’, really is Luna’s father and Snape does not have a daughter.

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.

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.

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.

Mrs. Norris is an unregistered Animagus

No, she’s just an intelligent (and unpleasant) cat.

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.

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.

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.

Leaky Mug: the wedding of Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz

Ah, Memerson… will any of us ever forget that whirlwind April marriage? OK, so it didn’t work out – but don’t be bitter. After all, in the brief twenty-four hours you remained together, you made something beautiful and lasting: the best little Wall of Shame any spoofily-wedded webmasters could wish for. I think I speak for many of us when I say: thanks for the laughter, thanks for the memories and thanks for the opportunity to read a whole year’s worth of abuse in ten minutes*. * If none of this makes any sense to you, see Mugglenet.com, The-Leaky-Cauldron.org and/or LeakyMug.com. It still might not make sense, though.

The W.O.M.B.A.T.* was graded to ensure that everybody passed

There were many variations on this rumour, for instance, you only needed two correct answers for an ‘Outstanding’, one for ‘Exceeds Expectations’, and everybody else got an ‘Acceptable’. I have also been asked whether grades were assigned at random. All such rumours are false. I wrote the examination, determined the marking scheme (which was quite complicated) and set the Grade levels, so you can take it from me, as the sole examiner, that if you received ‘Acceptable’ or higher you really earned your grade. Of course, this meant that some people had to fail, but what would be the point of putting you through all that work without giving you honestly earned rewards? Incidentally, shame on the people who thought the whole thing was a twisted April Fool’s joke. For one thing, the exam actually went up on March 31st. For another – when have I ever been that cruel?? *In case you missed it, the W.O.M.B.A.T. test was revealed when the ‘Do Not Disturb’ door last opened. Another (more advanced) W.O.M.B.A.T. will appear in due course.

Stubby Boardman is Regulus Black

No, he isn’t. Nice idea, though.

Book Seven will be called “Harry Potter and the Graveyard of Memories”

Wow, I never thought of that! Now I’ve got three titles to choose from! Only kidding. It won’t be called HP & the GOM.

Snape was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak on the night the Potters died

No, he wasn’t.

At the end of book seven, Harry and Voldemort will ‘merge’ to form a single persona who will command both the forces of good and of evil

This is not really a rumour, more a lone theory on the net that the son of a friend of mine pointed out to me. He wants me to repudiate it, so I’m repudiating: Harry will NOT merge with Voldemort to become a single entity, nor would Harry ever wish to command Death Eaters/Dementors/Inferi.

The announcement of the publication date on JKR’s website was unusually brief. This means that JKR is unhappy about the date.

This could not be further from the truth! The 21st July publication date has given me enough time to write the book I wanted to write, and for the manuscript to be properly edited. These are the most important things to me. An earlier date – eg, 7/7/07 – would have meant that either the writing or editing was rushed, and neither my publishers nor I wanted that. Any brevity in my announcement was down to the fact that I was busy editing!

One of the ‘J K Rowling’s on the social networking sites must be the real one.

No, sorry, not even one of them, though they do seem to lead very exciting lives, these fake J K Rowlings. I like to imagine them partying with all my imaginary friends (‘a close friend confided…’) in some bright and shiny alternative universe. But meanwhile, on planet earth, the dull human J K Rowling hasn’t got, and has never had, a profile on MySpace, Bebo or any similar site.

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Diary (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: DIADW — Publication date: May 15th, 2004 to December 7th, 2007

WELCOME!

Until very recently, JKRowling.com was a list of links to my publishers – boring, I think you’ll agree. So I thought I’d liven it up a little.

I receive so many thousands and thousands of letters these days that it is impossible to read, let alone answer, them all. A proper website seems like a great way to communicate directly with Harry Potter fans. Everything on here was written by ME, J. K. Rowling. This is where I can tell you the truth about rumours or news stories, where I can share the extra information I haven’t put in the books, where I can give you hints and clues about what’s going to happen to Harry next, and where I can announce I’ve finished book seven… and no, that’s not going to happen very soon.

Occasionally the Dark Mark will flash at you. This is a SPOILER WARNING. It refers only to information hidden in book five, The Order of the Phoenix – if you haven’t yet finished reading the other four, proceed at your peril!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoy wandering around my desk (which was specially tidied for your visit). Don’t knock anything over, please. And watch out for Peeves.

With love from JK Rowling
(Jo to you)

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.

JANUARY 5th

New Year’s Writing Resolutions

  1. Muck out my study.
    My study is easily the messiest room in the house, and probably our street; I won’t say in the whole of Edinburgh, because there must be a squat somewhere that’s worse. Frankly, I shudder to think what I will find when I finally reach the bottom of all these teetering piles of garbage. However, as I currently have to negotiate an assault course just to reach my desk I think the time has come for my annual tidy-up.
  2. Do not lose any more notebooks.
    After a somewhat panicky few weeks I have finally located a missing notebook. As always when I mislay these things, I had been ‘remembering’, in its absence, that it contained notes so essential and ideas so imaginative that I would never be able to duplicate them, and the whole of the next book would be impoverished if they were never found. Now that I have said notebook beside me on this desk, however, I see that it contains few useful nuggets amid a lot of complete dross. Nevertheless, the stress I endured while believing it to be the notebook equivalent of the Holy Grail was enough to remind me that I must take better care of my working materials.
  3. Be ruthless about protecting writing days
    , ie, do not cave in to endless requests to have ‘essential’ and ‘long overdue’ meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.
  4. Follow advice from critics on how to be a better writer.
    I always try to act on constructive criticism. When I fail, I attempt to embrace my faults and call them my ‘style’.
  5. Try and keep children healthy.
    As we leave behind the sickliest winter ever known in this family, I pray that none of my kids develops a runny nose for at least a week, thus enabling me to set about serious writing with at least a few hours’ sleep behind me.

JANUARY 25th

Sometimes writing goes so smoothly that you feel as though you are simply taking dictation from your muse. In my case, this often happens after a period where I am unable to write, such as over the Christmas period (compounded this year by the children’s colds mentioned in the previous diary entry). It is as though all the ideas that ought to have leaked out in the usual intermittent fashion over the preceding couple of weeks explode out of my pen once I have a few hours in which to work. I am usually most productive when I have, or have recently had, limited time.

Of course, this heavenly state of affairs will not last, it never does. I’m bound to get all snarled up in a plot tangle, or else find myself temporarily stranded on the edge of a large hole in the story. Until then, however, I shall enjoy floating along on this flood of inspiration.

FEBRUARY 28th

This always happens. I make a plan, it looks nice and neat, then I get to actually write the book and realise that Harry can’t possibly do all that in just one chapter. So what I thought were going to be two chapters have now become four. I still don’t think the book will be as long as ‘Phoenix’, but if that keeps happening… no, it won’t. I’m looking at the plan, and it can’t. Surely. Please.

Nothing else I can tell you at the moment. Well, there’s LOADS I could tell you at the moment, but I can’t. Sorry.

APRIL 5th

There is only one thing that annoys me about living in Edinburgh – well, two, but I’m pretty much resigned to the weather now. Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises, to her horror, that she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper. And there’s a university here! What do the students use? Don’t tell me laptops, it makes me feel like something out of the eighteenth century.

The book’s still going well, I’m sure you’re pleased to hear, lack of paper notwithstanding. There was a small interruption last week so that I could go down to London for the British Book Awards, a.k.a. the Nibbies, which was a lot of fun, and rather thrilling as Half-Blood Prince won Book of the Year. I also took the opportunity to visit Leavesden (the studio where they make the Potter films), which I hadn’t done in ages due to being pregnant/having tiny babies for what feels like ages. It was exciting to see some of the new Order of the Phoenix sets, but most of all to see the actors again – slightly unnerving to realise that nearly all of them are taller than me now (I speak, of course, of the teenagers; Michael Gambon was always taller than me, and very lovely he looked in his new robes, too.) Apart from the pleasure of seeing Tom Felton, Devon Murray, Alfred Enoch, Sitara Shah (and waving through the door at Bonnie Wright, who was busy being tutored), I had a great time talking to Dan and Matthew about books, Rupert about how his sisters never wind him up, Oliver and James about how difficult they find it to wind each other up, and Emma about Hermione’s love life. Also met, and had a long chat, with Evanna Lynch (Luna), about whom there is only one possible thing to say: perfect.

MAY 10th

Be careful what you wish for, it might come true. Since complaining that I had difficulty finding anything to write on after running out of paper while working in town, I have been deluged with paper. Some of you sent single sheets, others entire pads, one enterprising paper merchants sent a large stack of notebooks embossed boldly with J K ROWLING, which I might not use in public, but which are very lovely all the same. Others took a different approach, telling me exactly where you can buy writing paper in Edinburgh; some even enclosed maps. Anyway, I’ve now got enough paper to write several book sevens, so no excuse there.

I’ve been having house-elf trouble this week, though I think I’ve got them sorted out now. I’m all for house-elf rights, but the author is dictator and the sooner they accept that, the better.

SEPTEMBER 13th

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I know it’s been a very long time since I was last in touch. I’ve been writing a novel, you see.

My readings in New York with Stephen King and John Irving were so much fun. It’s not often that I do something like that and wish I could do it all over again, but I would have happily done a third night. If you were there, and yelling, thank you: the crowds, both nights, could not have been more wonderful.

I did mess up one answer, though. I was asked, ‘what question have you never been asked that you ought to have been asked?’ – or something very similar – and my mind went blank. Blame long years of trying not to give away the plot. But it occurred to me almost as soon as I got off stage that there IS a question I’ve always been surprised nobody’s put to me, and that I really should have said it while I was still on-stage. I can’t make amends to the girl who asked, but it is in tribute to her that I give the answer, belatedly, under ‘Miscellaneous’, Extras section.

SEPTEMBER 29th

Sitting at my desk trying to invent a word yesterday brought back memories of the last time I did so. I had tried for days and days to hit upon the right name for ‘the receptacle in which a Dark wizard has hidden a fragment of his soul for the purposes of attaining immortality.’ Finally, after much transposition of syllables, I scribbled ‘Horcrux’ on a piece of paper and knew it was The One. But what if somebody had already used it? With some trepidation I typed ‘Horcrux’ into Google and, to my delight, saw what I was looking for: ‘Your search – “Horcrux” – did not match any documents.’

So anyway, yesterday I Googled ‘Horcrux’ again. 401,000 results. As you might imagine, this gave me something of a lift as I went back to scribbling nonsense words on the back of a takeaway menu.

OCTOBER 31st

I’ve now got a third title. I’ve been thinking back, and I know that I’ve had more titles than this for a couple of the previous books, so I’m not too worried by this. Title three currently ahead by a short nose, or perhaps that should be a vowel and two consonants.

I’ve just had a great writing week. There are few feelings more joyous than reading back over the week’s work and thinking ‘that’s not bad at all’, as opposed to the all-too-frequent, ‘it’s rubbish, I’ve wasted a week and I’ll have to re-write the lot.’ And if you think that’s an exaggeration or false modesty, you are very, very wrong. It’s perfectly possible to put in eight hour days and have nothing to show for them but a single idea that, if reworked completely, might be passable.

Congratulations on your W.O.M.B.A.T. scores, incidentally. You’re getting pretty good.

DECEMBER 19th

The long lack of updates has been due to some very hard work. I’m now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more. I don’t think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don’t want, to finish this book (don’t worry, I will.)

For years now, people have asked me whether I ever dream that I am ‘in’ Harry’s world. The answer was ‘no’ until a few nights ago, when I had an epic dream in which I was, simultaneously, Harry and the narrator. I was searching for a Horcrux in a gigantic, crowded hall, which bore no resemblance to the Great Hall as I imagine it. As the narrator I knew perfectly well that the Horcrux was jammed in a hidden nook in the fireplace, while as Harry I was searching for it in all kinds of other places, while trying to make the people around me say lines I had pre-arranged for them. Meanwhile waiters and waitresses who work in the real café in which I have written huge parts of book seven roamed around me as though on stilts, all of them at least fifteen feet high. Perhaps I should cut back on the caffeine?

I made another daytrip to Leavesden a few weeks ago, where I saw twenty minutes of Order of the Phoenix, which looks fantastic. Also got a chance, before they all took off in their different directions (it was the last week of live actor filming) to talk to Dan, Rupert, Emma and Evanna, which is always wonderful. Dan has changed his theory on Snape; he says he doesn’t want to be like one of those people who are photographed, beaming, next to mad dictators.

FEBRUARY 6th

Charles Dickens put it better than I ever could:

‘It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years’ imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever.’

To which I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles…

I always knew that Harry’s story would end with the seventh book, but saying goodbye has been just as hard as I always knew it would be. Even while I’m mourning, though, I feel an incredible sense of achievement. I can hardly believe that I’ve finally written the ending I’ve been planning for so many years. I’ve never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric.

Some of you have expressed a (much more muted!) mixture of happiness and sadness at the prospect of the last book being published, and that has meant more than I can tell you. If it comes as any consolation, I think that there will be plenty to continue arguing and speculating about, even after ‘Deathly Hallows’ comes out. So if you’re not yet ready to quit the message boards, do not despair…

I’m almost scared to admit this, but one thing has stopped me collapsing in a puddle of misery on the floor. While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, ‘Deathly Hallows’ is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series.

MAY 14th

A couple of weeks ago (April 28th, if you want to go and search the archive) the Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron posted an editorial on potential spoilers for “Deathly Hallows”. It made me laugh, but I was also incredibly moved and grateful.

We’re a little under three months away, now, and the first distant rumblings of the weirdness that usually precedes a Harry Potter publication can be heard on the horizon. The Leaky Cauldron’s early mission statement on spoilers (ie, don’t, and we’re not putting them up if you do) is deeply appreciated by yours truly.

I add my own plea to Melissa’s for one reason, and one only: I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going.

Some, perhaps, will read this and take the view that all publicity is good publicity, that spoilers are part of hype, and that I am trying to protect sales rather than my readership. However, spoilers won’t stop people buying the book, they never have – all it will do is diminish their pleasure in the book.

There will always be sad individuals who get their kicks from ruining other people’s fun, but while sites like Leaky take such an active stance against them, we may yet win. Even if the biggest secret gets out – even if somebody discovers the Giant Squid is actually the world’s largest Animagus, which rises from the lake at the eleventh hour, transforms into Godric Gryffindor and… well, I wouldn’t like to spoil it.

JULY 18th

We are almost there! As launch night looms, let’s all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press on the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’d like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!

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 Natural 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.

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Original Synopsis of Philosopher’s Stone

official website

Index ID: SYNHP1 — Publication date: May 15th, 2004

Note: In Rowling's own words, "the original synopsis of 'Philosopers Stone' which I sent out to Publishers and which kept wingin its way back!". The first part of the synopsis was shared on her website. The second part, from "mandres and wolfsbane are kept..." was available thanks to the British Library Exhibition and it was reproduced on the companion books of the event.

Harry Potter lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin because his parents died in a car-crash – or so he has always been told. The Dursleys don’t like Harry asking questinos; in fact, they don’t seem to like anything about him, especially the very odd things that keep happening around him (which Harry himself can’t explain).

The Dursleys’ greatest fear is that Harry will discover the truth about himself, so when letters start arriving for him near his eleventh birthday, he isn’t allowed to read them. However, the Dursleys aren’t dealing with an ordinary postman, and at midnight on Harry’s birthday the gigantic Rubeus Hagrid breaks down the door to make sure Harry gets to read his post at last. Ignoring the horrified Dursleys, Hagrid informs Harry that he is a wizard, and the letter the gives Harry explains that he is expected at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in a month’s time.

To the Dursleys’ fury, Hagrid also reveals the truth about Harry’s past. Harry did not receive the scar on his forehead in a car-crash; it is really the mark of the great dark sorcerer Voldemort, who killed Harry’s mother and father but mysteriously couldn’t kill him, even though he was a baby at the time. Harry is famous among the witches and wizards who live in secret all over the country because Harry’s miraculous survival marked Voldemort’s downfall.

So Harry, who has never had friends or family worth the name, sets off for a new life in the wizarding world. He takes a trip to London with Hagrid to buy his Hogwarts equipment (robes, wand, cauldron, beginners’ draft and potion kit) and shortly afterwards, sets off for Hogwarts from Kings Cross Statino (platform nine and three quarters) to follow in his parents’ footsteps.

Harry makes friends with Ronald Weasley (sixth in his family to go to Hogwarts and tired of having to use second-hand spellbooks) and Hermione Granger (cleverest girl in the year and the only person in the class to know all the uses of dragon’s blood). Together, they have their first lessons in magic – astonomy up on the tallest tower at two in the morning, herbology out in the greenhouses where the mandrakes and wolfsbane are kept, potion down in the dungeons with the loathsome Severus Snape. Harry, Ron and Hermione discover the school’s secret passageways, learn how to deal with Peeves the poltergeist and how to tackle and angry mountain troll: best of all, Harry becomes a star player at Quidditch (wizard football played on broomsticks).

What interests Harry and his friends most, though, is why the corridor on the third floor is so heavily guarded. Following up a clue dropped by Hagrid (who, when is not delivering letters, is Hogwarts’ gamekeeper), they discover that the only Philosopher’s Stone in existance is being kept at Hogwarts, a stone with powers to give limitless wealth and eternal life. Harry, Ron and Hermione seem to be the only people who have realised that Snape the potions master is planning to steal the stone – and what terrible things it could do in the wrong hands. For the Philosopher’s Stone is all that is needed to bring Voldemort back to full strength and power… it seems Harry has come to Hogwarts to meet his parents’ killer face to face – with no idea how he survived last time…

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Fan Sites (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: FSDW — Publication date: May 15th, 2004 to May 11th, 2007

Immeritus

I love this site, which I discovered towards the end of writing Order of the Phoenix, and which made me feel exceptionally guilty, as you can imagine. I am so proud of the fact that a character, whom I always liked very much, though he never appeared as much more than a brooding presence in the books, has gained a passionate fan-club.

At the launch of Goblet of Fire at King’s Cross, London, I shook hands with a woman who leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, ‘Sirius Black is sexy, right?’ And yes, of course she was right, as the Immeritus club know. The best-looking, most rebellious, most dangerous of the four marauders… and to answer one burning question on the discussion boards, his eyes are grey.

The fan art on here is very good. For a while I had a picture of the four marauders drawn by Laura Freeman on my desktop. It is a particularly accurate portrayal of Sirius and Lupin.

Godric’s Hollow

A great site run by real enthusiasts. The people who designed this site have really Thought It Through – my kind of people. I am however shocked at the number of moderators who want to be sorted into Slytherin… and you should know that the Hufflepuffs’ common room isn’t a dungeon, it’s more a cellar – a subtle but important difference.

The Harry Potter Lexicon

This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet café while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home.

MuggleNet

It’s high time I paid homage to the mighty MuggleNet. Where to start? I love the design, (I currently favour the ‘Dementor’ layout), the polls (I actually voted in the ‘Who’s the Half-Blood Prince?’ one), the pretty-much-exhaustive information on all books and films, the wonderful editorials (more insight there than in several companion volumes I shall not name), 101 Ways to Annoy Lord Voldemort (made me laugh aloud), the Wall of Shame (nearly as funny as some of the stuff I get)… pretty much everything. Webmaster Emerson, Eric, Jamie, Damon, Ben, Matthew, Rachel, Jaymz and Sharon, I salute you.

HPANA

The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator was the very first Harry Potter website I ever visited, though it has changed almost beyond recognition since those early days. A fantastically user-friendly fansite, faster off the mark with Harry Potter news than any other site I know, and with all kinds of brilliantly inventive touches. I particularly like the points system, whereby dedicated posters can work their way up from ‘Muggle’ to ‘Auror’ and beyond – though speaking of titles, I hoped that ‘High Inquisitor’ (moderator name) would have died out when Umbridge was run (galloped?) out of Hogwarts. On the other hand, ‘Guillaume’ and ‘Broggy’ (surnames of two of the masterminds behind HPANA) are just begging to be used for fictional wizards.

The Leaky Cauldron

It is about the worst kept secret on this website that I am a huge fan of The Leaky Cauldron, which I have mentioned before now in News items. I have met one of its founders, Melissa, on two occasions; outside the Albert Hall before I did the reading for ‘Order of the Phoenix’ and after the premiere for ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’, and in a matter of mere months I will be talking to her properly as she will be coming over to Edinburgh to interview me on publication weekend.

‘Leaky’, as it is affectionately known to its many fans, is a wonderfully well designed mine of accurate information on all things Harry Potter. It also attracts a lot of knowledgeable and entertaining debate. So to Melissa, B.K., Kristen, Sue, John, Nick and Natalie, congratulations and thank you! And Heidi… thank you very much for the present for Mackenzie… she wears it often!

Potterish.com

I’ve had a few fan letters from South America mentioning this fansite, so I thought I’d pay it a visit. Now I’ve done so, I understand why this site draws loyal fans. I love the distinctive, woodcut-style graphics and I was particularly touched by the fact that Harry was almost level with Ron and Hermione a close second in the ‘favourite character poll’. At least they appreciate my hero over at Potterish. I was also grateful to note that they told their visitors to take the ‘news’ that I’ve written 750 pages of book seven with a pinch of salt. Thanks, Potterish: have a Fansite Award in appreciation of your style, your Potter-expertise and your responsible reporting.

Harry Potter Fan Zone.com

How could I not love a fansite whose contributors include people named Thaddeus and Aunna? This is a great Australian site with an impressively young staff who have produced some really insightful editorials; I wish I could highlight a couple of them, but that would be waaaay too revealing. If you head over to FAQs, however, you will see some of the open letter questions answered (at long last, yes, I know… but I had to finish “Deathly Hallows” first)

So congratulations and thanks, Andy, to you and all your talented colleagues.

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Wizard of the Month (Desktop Website)

official website

Index ID: WMDW — Publication date: May 5th, 2004 to October 1st, 2007

Felix Summerbee

(1447 – 1508) Inventor of Cheering Charms

Gwenog Jones

(1968 – present) Captain and Beater of only all-female national Quidditch Team, the Holyhead Harpies

Donaghan Tremlett

(1972 – present) Bass player with the popular wizarding band The Weird Sisters

Honoria Nutcombe

(1665 – 1743) Founded the Society for the Reformation of Hags.

Uric the Oddball

(Medieval, dates unknown) Highly eccentric wizard who is famed, among other things, for wearing a jellyfish for a hat.

Glenda Chittock

(1964 – present) Popular presenter of the W.W.N. (Wizarding Wireless Network) programme ‘Witching Hour’

Devlin Whitehorn

(1945 – present) Founder of the Nimbus racing broom company.

Ignatia Wildsmith

(1227 – 1320) The witch who invented Floo powder.

Derwent Shimpling

(1912 – present) Ate an entire Venomous Tentacula for a bet and survived, though is still purple.

Artemisia Lufkin

(1754 – 1825) First witch to become Minister for Magic.

Mungo Bonham

(1560 – 1659) Famous wizard healer. Founded St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Gondoline Oliphant

(1720 – 1799) Famous for studies of life and habits of trolls. Clubbed to death in the Cotswolds while sketching.

Felix Summerbee

(1447 – 1508) Inventor of Cheering Charms

Elfrida Clagg

(1612 – 1687) Chieftainess of Warlock’s Council

Chauncey Oldridge

(1342 – 1379) First known victim of dragon pox

Bridget Wenlock

(1202 – 1285) Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven

Gaspard Shingleton

1959 – present. Celebrated inventor of the Self-Stirring Cauldron.

Fifi LaFolle

(1888 – 1971) Author of the ‘Enchanted Encounters’ series

Carlotta Pinkstone

1922 – present. Famous campaigner for lifting the International Confederation of Wizard’s Statute of Secrecy and telling Muggles that wizards still exist. Ms. Pinkstone has been imprisoned several times for her blatant and deliberate use of magic in public places.

Bowman Wright

1492 – 1560 Famous for developing the Golden Snitch.

Jocunda Sykes

1915 – present. Famous for flying across the Atlantic on a broomstick – the first person to do so.

Yardley Platt

1446 – 1557. Serial goblin-killer.

Daisy Dodderidge

1467 – 1555. First landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.

Grogan Stump

1770 – 1884 Popular Minister for Magic, appointed 1811.

Fabius Watkins

1940 – 1975 Legendary Captain and Chaser of Montrose Magpies. Died in freak collision with helicopter.

Daisy Hookum

1962 – present Wrote bestseller ‘My Life as a Muggle’, after giving up magic for a year. Married to celebrity gardener Tilden Toots.

Tarquin McTavish

1955 – present Imprisoned for crimes against Muggle neighbour, who was discovered trapped inside McTavish’s kettle.

Erica Stainwright

1932 – 2001 Disgraced 1950s housekeeping guru who made fortune selling ‘cleaning’ potions that really generated more mould and grime.

Hambledon Quince

1936 – present Author of controversial theory that wizards originate from Mars, Muggles from mushrooms.

Idris Oakby

1872 – 1985 Founder of the S.S.S. (Society for the Support of Squibs)

Lorcan d’Eath

1964 – present Heartthrob singer, part vampire, nineteen weeks at number 1 with hit song ‘Necks to You.’

Laurentia Fletwock

1947 – present Celebrated breeder and racer of winged horses. Has campaigned for tighter restrictions on broomstick use.

Harvey Ridgebit

1881 – 1973 Dragonologist, caught first Peruvian Vipertooth, established world’s largest dragon sanctuary in Romania.

Mnemone Radford

1562 – 1649 Developed Memory Modifying Charms. First Ministry of Magic Obliviator.

Tilden Toots

1959 – present ‘The wizard with three green thumbs’ Celebrity herbologist and radio personality

Magenta Comstock

1895 – 1991 Experimental artist whose portraits’ eyes not only follow the viewer around the room, but also follow them home.

Helga Hufflepuff

(Medieval, precise dates unknown) One of the four celebrated Founders of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff was particularly famous for her dexterity at food-related Charms. Many recipes traditionally served at Hogwarts feasts originated with Hufflepuff.

Salazar Slytherin

Medieval (precise dates unknown) One of the four celebrated Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Salazar Slytherin was one of the first recorded Parselmouths, an accomplished Legilimens, and a notorious champion of pureblood supremacy.

Godric Gryffindor

Medieval (precise dates unknown) One of the four famous Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Godric Gryffindor was the most accomplished dueller of his time, an enlightened fighter against Muggle-discrimination and the first owner of the celebrated Sorting Hat.

Rowena Ravenclaw

Medieval (precise dates unknown). One of the four famous Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowena Ravenclaw was the most brilliant witch of her time, though legend has it that a broken heart – cause unknown – contributed to her early demise.

Albus Dumbledore

1881 – 1996 Brilliant and often controversial headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore is most famous for his 1945 defeat of Grindelwald and his steadfast championing of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Dumbledore’s self-proclaimed proudest achievement, however, was featuring on a Famous Wizards Chocolate Frog Card.

Harry Potter

(1980 – ) The Boy Who Lived, only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse and conqueror of Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle. Harry Potter joined the reshuffled Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt at age 17, rising to become Head of said department in 2007.

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Extra Stuff: Characters (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: EXT2DW — Publication date: May 15th, 2004

Some Random Facts About The Weasley Family

Ron was the only one of three major characters whose surname never changed; he has been ‘Weasley’ from start to finish. In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion.

There are also many superstitions associated with redheaded people and most state that they are in some way unlucky (Judas Escariot was supposedly red-haired), but this is nonsense; I happen to like red hair as well as weasels.

Although I never meant him to be like Sean, once I got Ron onto the page he often behaved like my oldest friend, who is both very funny and deeply loyal. However, there are also substantial differences between Ron and Sean. I have only once set out to faithfully depict a real human being (see Gilderoy Lockhart); everywhere else, though I might have borrowed the occasional real person’s characteristic, they are at least 90% imaginary.

Before her marriage Mrs. Weasley was Molly Prewett. As you will note from chapter one, Philosopher’s Stone, she has lost close family members to Voldemort.

Arthur Weasley was one of three brothers. Ginny (full name Ginevra, not Virginia), is the first girl to be born into the Weasley clan for several generations.

Fred and George were born – when else? – on April Fool’s Day.

Nearly Headless Nick

In the first draft of ‘Chamber of Secrets’, Nick sang a self-penned ballad explaining how his head had (nearly) come off. My editor was not very fond of the song and so I cut it. However, for those who are curious, here is the story of Nick’s decapitation in his own moving words.

It was a mistake any wizard could make

Who was tired and caught on the hop

One piffling error, and then, to my terror,

I found myself facing the chop.

Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve

A-strolling the park in the dusk!

She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth

Next moment she’d sprouted a tusk.

I cried through the night that I’d soon put her right

But the process of justice was lax;

They’d brought out the block, though they’d mislaid the rock

Where they usually sharpened the axe.

Next morning at dawn, with a face most forlorn,

The priest said to try not to cry,

“You can come just like that, no, you won’t need a hat,”

And I knew that my end must be nigh.

The man in the mask who would have the sad task

Of cleaving my head from my neck,

Said “Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees,”

And I turned to a gibbering wreck.

“This may sting a bit” said the cack-handed twit

As he swung the axe up in the air,

But oh the blunt blade! No difference it made,

My head was still definitely there.

The axeman he hacked and he whacked and he thwacked,

“Won’t be too long”, he assured me,

But quick it was not, and the bone-headed clot

Took forty-five goes ’til he floored me.

And so I was dead, but my faithful old head

It never saw fit to desert me,

It still lingers on, that’s the end of my song,

And now, please applaud, or you’ll hurt me.

Hermione Granger

In the old days the question I was asked most often was, ‘how do you pronounce the girl’s name?’ As I expect you have noticed, I cunningly inserted the answer to this question in ‘Goblet of Fire’, when I had Hermione instruct Viktor Krum how to say it properly: Her – my – o – nee. I used to hear ‘Her – moyne’ a lot, but my favourite mis-pronunciation ever was ‘Hermy – one.’ I think I like it better than the proper way.

In the dim and distant past Hermione’s surname was ‘Puckle’, but it didn’t suit her at all and was quickly changed for something a little bit less frivolous.

Hermione’s birthday is September the 19th.

When we were editing ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ my editor wanted me to cut the scene in which Harry, Ron and Hermione fight the troll. Although I had accepted most of the smaller cuts he wanted me to make I argued hard for this one. Hermione, bless her, is so very annoying in the early part of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ that I really felt it needed something (literally) huge to bring her together with Harry and Ron.

I have often said that Hermione is a bit like me when I was younger. I think I was seen by other people as a right little know-it-all, but I hope that it is clear that underneath Hermione’s swottiness there is a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure (as shown by her Boggart in ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’).

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).

Gilderoy Lockhart

I have only once set out to depict somebody I have met and, unlikely though it might seem, the result was Gilderoy Lockhart. I assure you that the person on whom Gilderoy was modelled was even more objectionable than his fictional counterpart. He used to tell whopping great fibs about his past life, all of them designed to demonstrate what a wonderful, brave and brilliant person he was. Perhaps he didn’t really believe he was all that great and wanted to compensate, but I’m afraid I never dug that deep.

You might think it was mean of me to depict him as Gilderoy, but you can rest assured he will never, ever guess. He’s probably out there now telling everybody that he inspired the character of Albus Dumbledore. Or that he wrote the books and lets me take the credit out of kindness.

Crookshanks

I am not overly fond of cats. Like Hagrid, I am allergic to them and much prefer dogs. However, there was an exception. When I was working in London in the late 1980s I used to eat my lunch in a nearby square on sunny days and a large, fluffy ginger cat that looked as though it had run face-first into a wall used to prowl around the sunbathers there; I assume it lived in a nearby house. I didn’t ever get close enough to give myself an asthma attack, but I became distantly fond of this cat, which prowled among the humans around it looking disdainful and refusing to be stroked. When I decided to give Hermione an unusually intelligent cat I gave him the appearance of this haughty animal, with the slightly unfair addition of bandy legs.

Crookshanks, as anybody who has read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will have guessed, is half Kneazle. And if you don’t know what a Kneazle is, you need to hurry up and buy Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (all royalties go to help some of the poorest children in the world).

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Extra Stuff: Edits (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: EXT1DW — Publication date: May 15th, 2004

The Opening Chapter of Book Six

I have come close to using a chapter very like this in ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ (it was one of the discarded first chapters), ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ and ‘Order of the Phoenix’ but here, finally, it works, so it’s staying. And that’s all I’m going to say, but when you read it, just know that it’s been about thirteen years in the brewing.

Opening Chapters of Philosopher’s Stone

There were many different versions of the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and the one I finally settled on is not the most popular thing I’ve ever written; lots of people have told me that they found it hard work compared with the rest of the book. The trouble with that chapter was (as so often in a Harry Potter book) I had to give a lot of information yet conceal even more. There were various versions of scenes in which you actually saw Voldemort entering Godric’s Hollow and killing the Potters and in early drafts of these, a Muggle betrayed their whereabouts. As the story evolved, however, and Pettigrew became the traitor, this horrible Muggle vanished.

Other drafts included a character by the name of ‘Pyrites’, whose name means ‘fool’s gold’. He was a servant of Voldemort’s and was meeting Sirius in front of the Potters’ house. Pyrites, too, had to be discarded, though I quite liked him as a character; he was a dandy and wore white silk gloves, which I thought I might stain artistically with blood from time to time.

The very, very earliest drafts of the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ have the Potters living on a remote island, Hermione’s family living on the mainland, her father spotting something that resembles an explosion out at sea and sailing out in a storm to find their bodies in the ruins of their house. I can’t remember now why I thought this was a good idea, but I clearly recognised that it wasn’t fairly early on, because the Potters were re-located to Godric’s Hollow for all subsequent drafts.

Mopsy the dog-lover (Goblet of Fire)

When Padfoot returns in ‘Goblet of Fire’, I initially had him stay with a highly- eccentric, dog-loving old witch on the edge of Hogsmeade. She kept a pack of ill-assorted dogs, was on constant bad terms with her neighbours because of the barking and the mess, and had welcomed in Sirius, assuming him to be a stray.

I think my editor was quite right to ask me to get rid of Mopsy, because she added nothing to the plot. I just liked portraying a batty dog-lover (as opposed to batty cat-lover Mrs. Figg). However, it made more sense to stow Sirius in a nice simple cave to have Harry, Ron, Hermione and Sirius’s chat about Barty Crouch Jnr. without distractions.

Malfoy & Nott (Chamber of Secrets/Goblet of Fire)

I liked this scene so much I tried to use it twice; unfortunately, it didn’t work in either place so I finally laid it to rest in one of the cardboard boxes where I keep all my old drafts, notes, electricity bills and chewing gum wrappers.

As in the case of Dean Thomas, I know much more about Theodore Nott than has ever appeared in the books. Raised by a very elderly widower and Death Eater father, Theodore is a clever loner who does not feel the need to join gangs, including Malfoy’s.

However, in this scene Theodore’s father (the same Nott who was badly injured in the closing chapters of ‘Order of the Phoenix’) goes to visit Lucius Malfoy to discuss Voldemort-related business and we see Draco and Theodore alone in the garden having a talk of their own. I really liked the scene, firstly because it showed the Malfoys’ home, and the difference between the place where Draco has grown up and number four, Privet Drive; then because we rarely see Draco talking to anybody he considers a real equal, and he is forced to see Theodore as such, because Theodore is just as pure-blooded as he is, and somewhat cleverer. Together these two Death Eaters’ sons discuss Dumbledore’s regime at Hogwarts and Harry Potter, with all sorts of stories that the Death Eaters tell about how this baby boy survived the Dark Lord’s attack.

Mafalda (Goblet of Fire)

I have spoken before now about the Weasley cousin who made it quite a long way into ‘Goblet of Fire’ before I cut her. I really liked her as a character and did not want to sacrifice her, but she just wasn’t doing the job she was supposed to do so she had to go.

Mafalda was the daughter of the ‘second cousin who’s a stockbroker’ mentioned in ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. This stockbroker had been very rude to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the past, but now he and his (Muggle) wife had inconveniently produced a witch, they came back to the Weasleys asking for their help in introducing her to wizarding society before she starts at Hogwarts. The Weasleys agreed to taking her for part of the Summer, including the Quidditch World Cup, but regretted this almost immediately. Mrs. Weasley suspected that Mafalda’s parents simply wanted to get rid of her for a while, because she turns out to be the most unpleasant child Mrs. Weasley has ever met.

Mafalda was supposed to convey certain information about the Death Eaters to Harry, Ron and Hermione, because as a nosy, eavesdropping Slytherin who likes to impress, she does not keep her mouth shut when she overhears their sons and daughters talking. Unfortunately, however bright I made her, there were obvious limitations to what an eleven year old closeted at school could discover, whereas Rita Skeeter, whom I subsequently built up to fulfil Mafalda’s function, was much more flexible.

The best thing about Mafalda was that she was a match for Hermione. To the latter’s horror, Mafalda was highly gifted and a real show-off, so that Hermione was torn between deploring the rule-breaking and longing to join in and beat her.

Dean Thomas’s background (Chamber of Secrets)

Anybody who has read both the American and British versions of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ will notice that Dean Thomas’s appearance is not mentioned in the British book, whereas in the American one there is a line describing him (in the chapter ‘The Sorting Hat’).

This was an editorial cut in the British version; my editor thought that chapter was too long and pruned everything that he thought was surplus to requirements. When it came to the casting on the film version of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, however, I told the director, Chris, that Dean was a black Londoner. In fact, I think Chris was slightly taken aback by the amount of information I had on this peripheral character. I had a lot of background on Dean, though I had never found the right place to use it. His story was included in an early draft of ‘Chamber of Secrets’ but then cut by me, because it felt like an unnecessary digression. Now I don’t think his history will ever make it into the books.

Dean is from what he always thought was a pure Muggle background. He has been raised by his mother and his stepfather; his father walked out on the family when Dean was very young. He has a very happy home life, with a number of half-brothers and sisters.

Naturally when the letter came from Hogwarts Dean’s mother wondered whether his father might have been a wizard, but nobody has ever discovered the truth: that Dean’s father, who had never told his wife what he was because he wanted to protect her, got himself killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them. The projected story had Dean discovering all this during his school career. I suppose in some ways I sacrificed Dean’s voyage of discovery for Neville’s, which is more important to the central plot.

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F.A.Q.: Other Stuff (Desktop Website)

non fiction official website

Index ID: FAQ3WEB — Publication date: May 15th, 2004 to October 4th, 2004

Will you sign my book?

Every one of my sixty-something publishers, my agent, my friends, my relatives and my neighbours are constantly approached by people who want me to sign their books. The sad truth is I couldn’t sign all of these books even if I gave up writing, eating or sleeping. These days the only books I sign are for charities or in very special circumstances. I am truly sorry about this, but I think you would all rather I wrote books six and seven than spent my life signing books one to five. So please, please, please do not send me your books for signature. I no longer get to see the books that are being sent, which are returned to the sender.

Where can I write to you?

My publishers will forward letters.

Can I be in the film?

I have No Control Over Casting, I’m afraid. Your best bet is to write to Warner Bros.

Will you use some of my ideas in the next Harry Potter book?

The books have been planned for so long that there isn’t room for any more ideas! Fan fiction is really fun, though, and I am so proud to think that Harry Potter inspired so much creativity!

What is your advice to children who are being bullied?

TELL SOMEONE, whether it is your Mum, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, a teacher, a brother, a sister, an adult friend – just tell someone. If the first person you tell doesn’t seem to understand how bad the problem is, tell somebody else. I know that it is very hard to admit that you are being bullied, but it is absolutely crucial if you are to end the misery. Life in school can be very tough and any adult who has forgotten that is an idiot, so don’t be ashamed… just tell.

Can I meet the cast of the Harry Potter films/visit the set?

I don’t know, you’ll have to contact Warner Brothers! (Their site is accessible through my ‘Links’ section). I have no power over things like this, I’m afraid.

How can we avoid the middlemen when trying to publish a book?

I’m really not sure what you mean by ‘middlemen’. Most authors have agents whose job it is to negotiate contracts for them (authors not necessarily being very good businesspeople) and while you do not have to have an agent, I would advise any novice to get one if they can. Other than your agent, you deal with an editor and perhaps the people marketing your book. None of these people can be described as ‘middlemen’, they are simply part of the process of being published. Of course, if you would rather nobody else is involved, you can self-publish, but that has always sounded like an awful lot of hard work to me.

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