2007

What happened in 2007?
On July 11, 2007 Warner Brothers released the movie based upon Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and 10 days later on July 21, the last book in the series, entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published.

This, along with the 10th anniversary of the publication of Book 1 on June 27th, created the "perfect storm" for summations of the Potter phenomenon, goodbyes to Harry, and tell-all interviews with author J.K. Rowling.

In October, Rowling made her first tour of North America in seven years, stopping in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and Toronto.

On December 13, a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, one of only seven copies in existence, was auctioned for charity. The winning bidder was online retail giant Amazon.com with a bid of £1.95 million ($3,985,410 U.S.). Four days later Rowling was the very special guest of The Leaky Cauldron's PotterCast show that was so long it was broadcast in two parts.

The year ended with a retrospective documentary created by James Runcie, "J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life," which was broadcast on December 30 on ITV1.

WARNING: Spoiler alert! Many of the articles and some of the canon summaries below contain serious spoilers.

Rating 2007 Title & highlights* Links Type
January 11, 2007: Rowling finishes writing Book 7 whilst at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh
* Feb 11 Dirty Harry
Sunday Observer
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* Mar 12 She Says Hallows, and he says Goodbye
Time
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** Apr 17 How Rowling sought inspiration in art
Scotsman.com
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* May The 2007 Rave Awards: The Mogul
Wired
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*** May 4 An A+ writer long before Potter: As a student teacher, Minnesota man taught J.K. Rowling in a craft she'd master
Pioneer Press
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** May 10 Last Hurrah for 'Harry' Offshoots? As Series Draws to a Close, Market for Related Books May Well Spike, Then Fade
Wall Street Journal
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** May 12 A new chapter for Harry Potter and JK
Sunday Telegraph
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May 30: "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Amusement Park announced.
** Jun 20 Harry Potter Video Game Creators Get J.K. Rowling's Stamp Of Approval But author does offer a few suggestions for 'Order of the Phoenix' game
MTV Movie News
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*** Jun 21 TLC's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Press Junket Report
The Leaky Cauldron
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** Jun 22 The death of Harry Potter: Book industry gears up for last hurrah of publishing's all-time champion
Newhouse News Service
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*** Jun 22 Kids should know family love
The Sun
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** Jun 28 Harry Potter and the Sinister Spoilers
Time Magazine
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*** Jun 30 Happy birthday Harry: 10 years of magic from the Potter generation
The Herald (Glasgow)
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** Jul 1 Potterheads celebrate Harry month: Fans await the release of next film, then, 10 days later, final book in series
San Jose Mercury News
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**** Jul 6 Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: Interview of J.K. Rowling
Jonathan Ross (BBC One)
  • The trio all have aspects of Jo in them.
  • Harry's story comes to quite a clear end in book 7.
  • She won't say that she will never write another book set in the Harry Potter world but thinks it unlikely.
  • Jo clarified that while there are 2 unplanned deaths in book 7, overall there will be many more than that.
  • The last word in Deathly Hallows is not "scar;" She won't tell us what it is.
  • Jo "howled" after writing a particular chapter toward the end.
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Note: adult humor
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*** Jul 6 Goodbye Harry (Stephen King)
Entertainment Weekly
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**** Jul 8 “The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter”
A&E (U.S. cable television)
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Exclusive Clip
fandom
July 11, 2007: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" movie released
*** Jul 11 The Wizardly Editor Who Caught the Golden Snitch
Washington Post (U.S.)
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* Jul 12 Who Dies in Harry Potter? God
Time Magazine (U.S.)
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*** Jul 13 'Some people will absolutely loathe it'
The Scotsman (Edinburgh)

  • Castle Duart on Mull was the inspiration for a place in the books
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*** Jul 20 Rowling bids her boy wizard goodbye
Associated Press
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***** Jul 20 Harry Potter: A Blue Peter Special
Blue Peter (BBC)
  • Trevor is just a toad.
  • Albus Dumbledore was probably in love at some point in his life, though we shouldn't read too much into it.
  • The time turners really were all smashed in the Ministry (Jo didn't want a Terminator-like situation).
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*** Jul 20 JK Rowling honoured with gold Blue Peter badge
BBC
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July 21, 2007: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows published
**** Jul 26 J.K. Rowling's fond look back at Harry Potter
USA Today
  • JKR: "Early on I knew I wanted Harry to believe he was walking toward his death, but would survive."
  • JKR: "Lupin and Tonks were two who were killed who I had intended to keep alive."
  • "To go and create another fantasy universe would feel wrong, and I don't know if I'm capable of it."
  • Jo is currently writing two things: "One is for children and the other is not for children."
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***** Jul 26 Interview with J.K. Rowling, Part One
Today Show (NBC)
  • JKR: "I am dealing with a level of obsession in some of my fans that will not rest until they know the middle names of Harry's great great grandparents."
  • Mr. Weasley was supposed to die in Book 5; but Jo gave him a reprieve. Lupin died in his place.
  • Chapter 34 was the most difficult and the most emotional for her to write; it is also her favorite.
  • In the future, Harry and Ron "revolutionize the Auror Department."
  • In the future, Hermione becomes "pretty high up in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement."
  • Although he was "immensely" brave, JKR doesn't see Snape as a hero due to his bullying and spitefulness.
  • If Snape had not loved Lily "he wouldn't have been remotely interested in what happened" to Harry.
  • Someone new is the Headmaster at Hogwarts; McGonagall was getting on in years.
  • Harry might return to Hogwarts "to give the odd talk on Defense against the Dark Arts."
  • The most satisfying part of the Potter phenomenon is talking with her fans about the books.
  • Jo doesn't think she will write fantasy again.
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**** Jul 27 Interview with J.K. Rowling, Part Two
Today Show (NBC)
  • JKR: “Mum dying had a profound influence on the books [....] How we react to death, how much we fear it. In many ways, all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death.”
  • The last line originally read something like "Only those whom he loved could see the lightning scar."
  • JKR never planned to kill Hagrid.
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**** Jul 29 Harry Potter: The Final Chapter
Dateline (NBC)
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***** Jul 30 Bloomsbury Live Chat with J.K. Rowling
  • Post-Voldemort, the MoM is less corrupt. Kingsley is the Minister.
  • The Malfoys did not go to Azkaban after Book 7 because they colluded with Harry.
  • The Potters are distantly related to the Peverells, but so are many wizarding families.
  • Dumbledore could see Harry beneath the cloak because he could perform a non-verbal 'Homenum revelio' -
  • Winky is “still at Hogwarts” and fought in the last battle.
  • JKR: “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."
  • Teddy Lupin was raised by his grandmother Andromeda Tonks, and was very close to his godfather Harry.
  • After Book 7, Minister Kingsley asked Harry to head up his new Auror Department.
  • After Book 7, “Ron joined George at Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner.”
  • After Hogwarts, Ginny played professional Quidditch for the Holyhead Harpies, then became the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.
  • The Deathly Hallows were based on 'the Pardoner's Tale' by Chaucer.
  • JKR: “Luna became a very famous wizarding naturalist who discovered and classified many new species of animals (though, alas, she never did find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack)”
  • Luna married later in life to Rolf Scamander, a fellow naturalist and the grandson of Newt Scamander
  • “In essence divided” was Dumbledore’s theory that Nagini’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.
  • JKR: “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.”
  • JKR: Remus was killed by Dolohov and Tonks by Bellatrix.
  • Wands work their best for the person the wand chooses, but will also work fairly well for a family member.
  • Umbridge was able to conjure a Patronus while wearing the locket Horcrux because she is so nasty.
  • JKR: Percy Weasley “ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.”
  • JKR: Griphook was wrong - Gryffindor did not 'steal' the sword.”
  • Azkaban no longer uses Dementors.
  • “The Hufflepuff common room is accessed through a [still-life painting] near the kitchens. It is a very cosy 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.”
  • George Weasley named his first child Fred. He became very successful businessman.
  • Dumbledore’s vision in the Mirror of Erised was to see his family alive, whole and happy - Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.
  • Jo changed her mind about someone doing magic late in life when she was writing Book 3.
  • Wormtail picked Voldemort’s wand up at Godric’s Hollow and saved it for him.
  • Tom Riddle would have turned out very different if his mother had survived and loved him.
  • Snape is a hero, but a “flawed” one. An anti-hero.
  • Regulus was able to figure out what Voldemort was doing with the Horcruxes because Voldemort arrogantly dropped hints about why he could not be killed.
  • Lily might have grown to love Snape “if he had not loved Dark Magic so much.”
  • The number of Dementors have been greatly diminished because despair and degradation have been lessened in the world.
  • Fawkes left Hogwarts when Dumbledore died – like Dumbledore, he could not be replaced.
  • Dumbledore understood Mermish, Gobbledegook and Parseltongue.
  • Lockhart will never recover.
  • Harry made sure that the Wizarding world knew that Snape was a hero and on Dumbledore’s side, though Rita Skeeter probably wrote an expose about him.
  • Teddy Lupin is a Metamorphagus, not a werewolf.
  • Socks were a running joke in the books and are not symbolic.
  • Horcrux murders: The diary - Moaning Myrtle; The cup - Hepzibah Smith, the previous owner; The locket - a Muggle tramp; Nagini - Bertha Jorkins; The diadem - an Albanian peasant; The ring - Tom Riddle Sr.
  • Dumbledore gave Ron his Deluminator because he knew Ron would need guidance.
  • Dementors do not have souls.
  • The third thing Hermione smells with Amortentia is the scent of Ron’s hair.
  • After Book 7, Slytherin House became more diluted and was no longer solely pureblood; however its dark reputation lingers.
  • Snape became a Death Eater because he was “insecure and vulnerable” and wanted to be a part of something “impressive.”
  • Snape thought he could have his dark magic friends and Lily too. He never understood her aversion and thought she would be impressed.
  • JKR: “the real Master of Death accepts that he must die, and that there are much worse things in the world of the living.”
  • Harry used the Cruciatus Curse because he was in an “extreme situation” and was so angry to see young children threatened. He is not a saint.
  • JKR: “Harry's faults are primarily anger and occasional arrogance.”
  • Harry’s son James probably has the Marauder’s map (but Harry didn’t give it to him).
  • When Petunia paused at the door as she was leaving she almost wished him luck and told him that “her loathing of his world, and of him, was born out of jealousy.” But she couldn’t do it; she had “hardened” too much.
  • JKR “always wondered why nobody ever asked [her] what Dumbledore's wand was made of!”
  • There is nothing special about Aunt Muriel’s tiara (the old bat!)
  • Harry lost the ability to speak Parseltongue when his scar Horcrux was destroyed.
  • Aberforth got Sirius’s mirror from Mundungus.
  • Dumbledore’s boggart is the corpse of his sister.
  • After Book 7, Umbridge “was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.”
  • Even Muggles notice that things are better with Voldemort gone; even the weather is better.
  • Muggles can be born with magic because it is a recessive gene; it resurfaces generations later.
  • After Book 7, Rita Skeeter quickly wrote a biography of Harry; she is still reporting.
  • Hermione was able to find her parents and undo their memory damage.
  • Minerva McGonagall was not in love with Albus.
  • JKR: “James always suspected Snape harboured deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James' behaviour to Snape.”
  • The Chudley Cannons should abandon all hope of ever winning the Quidditch World Cup.
  • Regulus had a change of heart because he was not prepared for the reality of life as a Death Eater. Voldemort’s cruelty to Kreacher was the last straw.
  • Draco has been sobered by his misfortune, and his son Scorpius is a much better person.
  • Draco and Harry never became friends, but they did come to understand and appreciate each other better.
  • Snape was badly groomed because it just wasn’t a priority for him.
  • The Resurrection Stone is now probably buried in the Forbidden Forest.
  • Voldemort’s curse on the DADA position at Hogwarts has been lifted.
  • JKR: 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.”
  • Aberforth is still at the Hog’s Head “playing with his goats.”
  • JKR recommends Arkie Alderton's Kwik-Repair Shop for broken flying brooms and advises us never to fix them at home.
  • Narcissa Malfoy was never a Death Eater even though her views were identical to her husband’s.
  • Arthur Weasley fixed Sirius’s motorbike; Harry has it now.
  • Dumbledore liked and understood Ron more than Ron knew.
  • Firenze survived his wounds and was welcomed back into the Centaur herd who realized that “pro-human leanings were not shameful.”
  • JKR’s favorite scene in Book 7 is Chapter 34: The Forest Again.
  • JKR: A Patronus “often mutates to take the image of the love of one's life (because they so often become the 'happy thought' that generates a Patronus).”
  • Voldemort is not a ghost; “He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in King's Cross.”
  • JKR: “Voldemort accidentally broke his soul into eight parts, not seven.” [Horcruxes]
  • There are two different memory charms. One wipes memory and one changes what you remember.
  • Voldemort could not stop Harry from seeing into his mind because he was “losing control.”
  • Viktor Krum fell in love with a woman back home in Bulgaria
  • Hedwig’s death “represented a loss of innocence and security” for Harry. It “marked the end of childhood.”
  • Both Harry and Ron will appear on Chocolate Frogs cards; this will thrill Ron who “will describe this as his finest hour.”
  • JKR won’t tell us what the incantation for Horcrux creation is.
  • Snape is the only Death Eater that could produce a Patronus because “because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside.” (They don’t need them.)
  • Nagini could see Harry and Hermione under the Invisibility Cloak because a snake’s senses are different, especially relating to heat and movement.
  • The other two titles JKR considered were Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.
  • JKR would like an otter (like Hermione’s) for a Patronus, but she thinks she’d get a big dog instead.
  • Voldemort never figured out that the Resurrection Stone was in the ring because he did not invoke it properly (simply wearing it wouldn’t work).
  • The Death Eater’s Dark Marks will eventually fade to look like a scar. They will no longer burn or hurt.
  • The Quibbler is back to publishing articles about the lunatic fringe “and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.”
  • Winky has sobered up a bit.
  • Bellatrix’s true love was always Voldemort, not her husband.
  • Snape was careful not to reveal his Patronus to other members of the order.
  • Voldemort never loved anything except power and himself.
  • JKR would like to have the same wand as Harry: holly and phoenix feather.
  • Members of the DA still have their coins, as they are like badges of honor (especially for Neville).
  • Snape got into Grimmauld Place “immediately after Dumbledore's death, before Moody put up the spells against him.”
  • JKR chose the lightning shape for Harry’s scar because it was a “cool” shape.
  • Marietta’s “SNEAK” pimples left a few scars.
  • JKR chose King’s Cross for Harry’s place between life and death because the name worked so well and because “Harry would associate it with moving on between two worlds.” It would look different to someone else.
  • JKR would choose 'I did it my way' by Frank Sinatra for music at Dumbledore’s funeral.

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Oct 15, 2007: Rowling's "Open Book Tour" at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles [Press release]
*** Oct 15 J.K. Rowling launches U.S. book tour with mass signing
Reuters/Associated Press
  • Jo said it would be "incredibly difficult to go out and create another world" and she probably won't write another fantasy.
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**** Oct 15 'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Meets With L.A. Students, Plots Her Next Move
MTV.com
  • JKR: "Snape is vindictive, he's cruel. He's not a big man. But he loves. I like him, but I'd also like to slap him hard."
  • JKR: "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."
  • Jo has not started working on the Harry Potter Encyclopedia. She did not envision it to be the next thing she was going to do.
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*** Oct 16 J.K. Rowling brings magic touch to U.S.
LA Times
  • JKR: "I want to fall in love with something in the way I fell in love with the idea of Harry before I write anything else."
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**** Oct 17 'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Opens Up About Books' Christian Imagery." MTV.com
  • Jo thought explicit references to Christianity early on in the story would make the ending too obvious.
  • JKR: "Hogwarts is a multifaith school."
  • The Matthew 6:21 and 1Corintians 15:26 quotations on his parents' gravestones were meant to symbolize "living beyond death. Living after death." They "sum up" the whole series.
  • Harry's struggle with questions about the afterlife begins when Sirius dies.
  • The two epigrams at the beginning of Book 7 ("The Libation Bearers" by Aeschylus and William Penn's "More Fruits of Solitude") had been planned since book 2 was published: "I always knew [that] if I could use them at the beginning of book seven then I'd cued up the ending perfectly.... They just say it all to me...."
  • Harry's struggle with his beliefs about the afterlife mirrors her own.
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**** Oct 18 'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Enchants Readers on Her U.S. Book Tour
hollywood.com
  • JKR: Dobby's "death woke Harry up to what he was doing" because it was so senseless. Rowling always knew how Dobby would die.
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Oct 18, 2007: Rowling's "Open Book Tour" at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Auditorium in New Orleans [Press release]
*** Oct 18 New Orleans students give Rowling a rousing welcome
Times-Picayune
  • The first piece of literature that inspired Jo was The Wind in the Willows.
  • Rowling wanted the books to show some of the evils of war: how "totally innocent people are slaughtered" and "that children lose their families."
  • Cho Chang married a Muggle.
  • Snape teaches Potions because Jo didn't do well in Chemistry and wanted revenge.
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Oct 19, 2007 (morning): Rowling's "Open Book Tour" at Carnegie Hall in New York [Press release]
*** Oct 19 J. K. Rowling Talks Marriage, Writing and More at Open Book Tour Stop in New York City
The Leaky Cauldron
  • Harry and Dudley kept in touch, but the relationship remained awkward.
  • Dumbledore loved Harry like a son.
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Oct 19, 2007 (7:00p.m.): Rowling's "Open Book Tour" Sweepstakes Reading at Carnegie Hall in New York [Press release]
*** Oct 19 Rowling Reveals 'Marriage' to Harry Potter at Carnegie Hall
Bloomberg.com
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***** Oct 19 J. K. Rowling at Carnegie Hall
The Leaky Cauldron
  • Neville married Hannah Abbott, who eventually became the landlady at The Leaky Cauldron. His students think this is cool.
  • Molly was the one to defeat Bellatrix because Jo wanted Molly to have a chance to show how powerful she is, and because she found it satisfying to create a face-off between unhealthy obsessive love and strong maternal love.
  • Jo decided not to kill Arthur Weasley in Book 5 so that Ron wouldn’t have to grow up as quickly.
  • The orphaning of Teddy Lupin brought the series full circle, though Harry was a much better godfather than Sirius.
  • Jo says (tongue in cheek) that Aberforth’s inappropriate goat charm had to do with keeping it clean or its horns curly.
  • Dumbledore was gay; he fell in love with Gellert Grindelwald but was “terribly let down by him” when he realized what Gellert was capable of.
  • Parseltongue is not a language that people can learn. Ron really only memorized the sound of one word ("open").
  • Dumbledore’s 1981 letter to Petunia was very kind and explained why he couldn’t let her become part of the Wizarding world and join her sister at Hogwarts.
  • Petunia desperately wanted to be a part of the Wizarding world and hated that “Lily had what she couldn’t have.”
  • What Petunia almost said when Harry left Privet Drive for the last time was “I do know what you’re up against and I hope it’s OK.” But she couldn’t say it because she was too hardened by pretending not to care for so long.
  • Harry’s Horcrux was not destroyed by the basilisk poison in book2 because the poison’s damage was stopped in time by Fawkes’ tears.
  • Dumbledore worried that Harry would give in to his “reckless” impulses and seek the Deathly Hallows so he gave the book with the clues to cautious Hermione.
  • When Harry decided not to seek the Hallows after Dobby died it scared him because it was the first time he had decided not to act.
  • JKR: Portraits can “only move between portraits in the same building.”
  • The parallels between Voldemort’s goals and methods and those of the Nazi Regime were deliberate, but there are also parallels to regimes that exist today.
  • JKR: “The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry…. You should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.”
  • There is no magic involved in life debts.
  • After Book 7, Draco Malfoy goes 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.”
  • James, Lily and Sirius became full time members of the Order of the Phoenix after leaving Hogwarts and did not have regular jobs. They lived off of James’s money.
  • The Potters did not go into hiding until Lily became pregnant.
  • Lupin was “unemployable” when he left Hogwarts; he fought full time for the Order of the Phoenix.
  • Voldemort’s first rise to power did not go as far as the second one did because he was not able to infiltrate the Ministry the first time.
  • Hagrid never married. Mme. Maxime was too sophisticated for him, and there weren’t many other giantesses around.
  • Severus Snape’s portrait does indeed hang in the Headmaster’s office. Harry had a role in making sure that Snape’s abdication did not affect his place there.
  • Headmaster portraits don’t appear immediately; the person needs to be dead.
  • Jo was surprised that no one had ever asked her what Dumbledore’s wand was made of.
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**** Oct 19 PotterCast #122: It's Saturday Night
The Leaky Cauldron
  • Helga Hufflepuff offered the house-elves refuge at Hogwarts, though conditions there were slave-like too, if a bit kinder than elsewhere.
  • The Sorting Hat initially wanted to put Neville into Hufflepuff House.
  • Harry was not technically a Horcrux, due to Voldemort’s lack of intent.
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Oct 23, 2007: Rowling's "Open Book Tour" in Toronto for Press Conference and "all ages' Reading at the Winter Garden Theatre [Press release]
**** Oct 23 Toronto Press Conference
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  • There wasn't a point at which Rowling decided that Dumbledore was gay; she gradually realized it "very early on."
  • Rowling "probably" won't write a prequel.
  • JKR: "He [Dumbledore] is my character, and as my character I have the right to say what I say about him."
  • Most of the tweaking of the epilogue was to remove information; the biggest change was the addition of information about Teddy Lupin.
  • Rowling still plans on working on a Hogwarts encyclopedia, but not immediately.
  • Hermione would read Margaret Atwood's books; Harry and Ron don't read much as adults.
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*** Oct 23 Rowling knew early on Dumbledore was gay
Canadian Press via The Star
  • Dobby's death was the hardest one to write.
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*** Oct 23 Dumbledore brave, brilliant; why not gay: Rowling
Reuters
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*** Nov 1 Rowling completes Potter spin-off
BBC News
  • "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" consists of 5 stories set in JKR's Wizarding world, continuing the same themes in a different time period.
  • Only 7 copies exist; the book will never be published.
  • Jo thinks what she publishes next will be a "half-finished book for children."
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Dec 13: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, translated from the original runes by J.K. Rowling, an entirely handmade book, sold for £1.95 million ($3,985,410 U.S.) at auction
*** Dec 13 J.K. Rowling Fairy Tales Sell for $4M
Associated Press
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***** Dec 13 Amazon.com to J.K. Rowling: Thank You
Amazon.com
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***** Dec 17 PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part one
PotterCast #130
  • Helga Hufflepuff gave the House-elves at Hogwarts "good conditions of work." Her intent wasn't to be activist, merely to be humane.
  • The Beedle the Bard story "Wizard and the Hopping Pot" was used "to teach young wizards and witches that they should be using their magic altruistically."
  • The Beedle the Bard story "Fountain of Fair Fortune" taught wizarding children that "magic ultimately is not the best weapon" to achieve your heart's desire.
  • Originally Beedle the Bard was to be around 30 tales, but then Jo got the idea to hand write them and she did just the five. Jo chose "horcruxes" as a plural for Horcrux because Jo didn't want too many words ending in r-i.
  • Herpo the Foul created the first Horcrux, but Jo won't say how, other than that it is a series of actions.
  • Jo's encyclopedia may not be published for ten years.
  • Jo named John Dawlish for John Noe. Dawlish had been a powerful Auror, but was weakened by the time Augusta Longbottom laid into him.
  • Augusta Longbottom was a "powerful witch."
  • Attitudes toward homosexuality in the Wizarding world are pretty similar to ours. People like Malfoy were more interested in someone's blood status than their love life.
  • JKR: "Dumbledore, who was the great defender of Love, and who sincerely believed that Love was the greatest, most powerful, force in the universe, was himself made a fool of by Love."
  • Grindelwald was Dumbledore's "dark twin."
  • There is no romantic backstory for Madam Hooch.
  • Harry was technically NOT a Horcrux because there was no intent to create one. The piece of Voldemort's soul did not make Harry "evil" or "contaminated."
  • JKR: "The only time he ever felt it [Harry's Horcrux] stirring and moving was in Order of the Phoenix, when he himself goes through a very dark time" and the piece of soul enjoyed it and fed off of it.
  • The Sorting Hat detected the piece of Voldemort's soul within Harry.
  • Official definition of a Horcrux: "the receptacle is prepared by dark magic to become the receptacle of a fragmented piece of soul and that that piece of soul deliberately detached from the Master Soul to act as a future safeguard or anchor to life and to safeguard against death."
  • "In essence divided," the scene in Dumbledore's office where he watches a snake divide, was when the Headmaster was figuring out about the Horcruxes.
  • Dumbledore suspected multiple Horcruxes because Voldemort treated the diary Horcrux so "casually."
  • Neville was born "hours" before Harry.
  • Neville could have done what Harry did too.
  • Neville's family "just wanted him to match up" but it was "an impossible standard."
  • Alice and Frank Longbottom earned Voldemort's ire because they were such "efficient" Aurors, and "were responsible for a lot of captures and arrests and imprisonments."
  • Voldemort asked Lily and James if they would join the Death Eaters, but they turned him down.
  • Dumbledore knew about the attack on Godric's Hollow because he had put a charm on the house.
  • Jo isn't sure how to explain Hagrid and Harry's missing 24 hours after James and Lily were killed.
  • Jo always thought of Hannah Abbott as being pureblood, but this contradicts her "cornerstone" notebook. So to compromise, Jo says Hannah is Half-blood.
  • Jo created her website because people wanted a fan club, but Jo wanted to do something that was free.
  • There will be no more WOMBATs; they were created when Jo was advised not to publish bits of Book 7 on her website.
  • Hermione went back to Hogwarts to take her seventh year and her NEWTs.
  • Kinglsey recruited Ron, Neville, Harry to be Aurors; Ron and Harry never went back to Hogwarts to graduate.
  • Hermione "had a bigger heart than she had a brain."
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*** Dec 19 Runners-up: J.K. Rowling
Time Magazine
  • Although the bible verse "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" on James and Lily's grave is the "theme for the entire series," Jo is not trying to convert her readers to Christianity.
  • JKR: "It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God."
  • JKR: "I'm opposed to fundamentalism in any form," she says. "And that includes in my own religion."
  • On Wizard rock activism: "It's incredible, it's humbling, and it's uplifting to see people going out there and doing that in the name of your character," [...] "What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what. All of these things are happening in Darfur. So they really couldn't have chosen a better cause."
  • JKR: "He's [Harry's] still mine," she says. "Many people may feel that they own him. But he's a very real character to me, and no one's thought about him more than I have."
  • On the epilogue: "I kept arguing that 'love is the most important force, love is the most important force.' So I wanted to show him loving. Sometimes it's dramatic: it means you lay down your life. But sometimes it means making sure someone's trunk is packed and hoping they'll be O.K. at school."
  • Jo is currently writing two books: an adult novel and a "political fairy tale."
  • JKR: "If, and it's a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding ] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character," she says. "I feel like I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it 10 years and see how we feel then."
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**** Dec 19 Rowling Answers 10 Questions About Harry
Time Magazine
  • JKR chose the people who came to walk with Harry in the forest as he was going to his death because they were in some way were parental for him, or gave up their lives for him.
  • Having Harry's blood in him was a bit of "goodness" for Voldemort, and gave him one last chance. If he had repented he would have been healed to a remarkable extent.
  • Voldemort's Avada Kedavra succeeded in "killing the part of him that is not truly him, in other words, the fragment of Voldemort's own soul that is still clinging to his. The curse also disables Harry severely enough that he could have succumbed to death if he had chosen that path."
  • Harry was right to feel repulsed by the baby-like remains of Voldemort's shattered soul.
  • What did Dumbledore really see in the Mirror of Erised?
    JKR: "His family, alive and whole and reconciled."
  • Harry and Voldemort are distantly related through the Peverells, but you could say the same about Harry and most other wizarding families.
  • Draco Malfoy marries Asteria Greengrass, the "younger sister of the Greengrass family."
  • Jo repeats her earlier assertion that Ron's adult career was working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, where he "does very well."
  • Tonks was a Hufflepuff.
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**** Dec 24 PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part two
PotterCast #131
  • Pansy Parkinson is the "anti-Hermione," the personification of all the girls who teased Jo in school.
  • Draco married Asteria Greengrass, the younger sister of Daphne. Asteria was two years behind Draco at Hogwarts.
  • The Love Room in the Department of Mysteries contains a fountain in the center of the room full of a powerful love potion. Wizards and witches take the potion to study its effects.
  • One "thread" in the books is what love does to people. It can make people heroic (Lily, Harry, Neville), it can also lead them into foolishness and evil (Bellatrix and Dumbledore).
  • Bellatrix was sexually obsessed with Voldemort.
  • Not all Slytherins are bad.
  • Jo is very involved in the planning of the theme park. It will have the "Jo touch."
  • Florean Fortescue was killed; there was more to him than was revealed in the books.
  • Hagrid did not create Thestrals, he only bred the ones living at Hogwarts. He did breed the Skrewts.
  • Wands are "quasi-sentient" because they carry so much magic.
  • Wands they develop an affinity ("loyalty") for the wizards who bear them. Disarming someone in an informal duel may not affect this, but if won in a duelling battle, the wand will switch allegiance. The exception is the "unsentimental" Elder Wand which "knows no loyalty except to strength."
  • Voldemort confused "being prepared to murder with strength."
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December 30: "J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life" documentary [trailer #1] [trailer #2] [trailer #3]
  Dec 30 J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life
ITV1
  • The Battle of Hogwarts took place May 2nd.
  • Bill and Fleur's children were named Victoire, Dominique and Louis.
  • Charlie Weasley had no children and never married.
  • Percy and Audrey's children were named Molly and Lucy.
  • George married Angelina Johnson and their children were named Fred and Roxanne.
  • Luna and Rolf's children (twins!) were named Lorcan and Lysander.
  • Harry and Ginny's children's full names are James Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna Potter.
  • Draco and Asteria child's full name is Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.
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Rating 2007 Title & highlights* Links Type

*Article highlights created by Lisa Bunker, roonwit and Meann Ortiz

Original page date 10 January, 2007; last updated 29 December, 2007