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Diary | Locked door | Rumours | FAQ & FAQ Polls | Edits | Characters | Misc. | News | Scrapbook extras | Rubbish

Please note that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of everything Jo has said on her website; we have collected only her comments about book plots, characters and details of Jo's Wizarding World. For an exhaustive list of everying pertaining to Jo's website, you need the Harry Potter Lexicon.

Diary

• Jo refers to Chapter 9 of GoF ("The Dark Mark") as "The Chapter of Doom" because it was so difficult to write [Diary, 25 DEC 2005]
• Jo defines a Horcrux as "'the receptacle in which a Dark wizard has hidden a fragment of his soul for the purposes of attaining immortality." [Diary, 29 SEP 2006]

Hints from behind the locked door (temporary, so links go to Lexicon archives)

• The title of book six: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince [First Door Opening, 28 JUN 2004]
• Book 6 preview: "[He] looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of grey in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp." [ Second Door Opening, 16 AUG 2004]
• Three Chapter titles from Book 6: Chapter 2- SPINNERS END Chapter 6- DRACO'S DETOUR Chapter 14- FELIX FELICIS [Third Door opening, 31 OCT 2004]
• Drawing of marriages and children of Harry's friends [29 DEC 2007]

Rumours section. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/rumours.cfm

• There is no character planned called "Icicle." Link
• JKR: "If Dumbledore had been Harry's grandfather, why on Earth would he have been sent to live with the Dursleys?" Link
• James is DEFINITELY Harry's father, and Voldemort is the last surviving descendent of Salazar Slytherin — which means Harry is not a descendent of Slytherin. Link
• Lily Potter is not still alive. Link
• Rumour: "Lily Potter was once a death eater" — JK: "How dare you?!" Link
• Crookshanks is not an animagus, but the answer to what he is lies in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Link
• Neville Longbottom is not Pettigrew's son. Link
• Professor Lupin does not have a twin. Link
• JKR: "Seventeen is much to young to enter politics." (In response to a rumour that Harry will be asked to be Minister for Magic). Link
• In Book 6, Harry will not stand trial again; he will leave the Dursleys for a much pleasanter reason. Link
• JK sees Neville and Luna as very different people. She says that, although they share a certain isolation within the walls of Hogwarts, this isn’t enough to foster true love. They may be friends but "Neville would always find Luna’s wilder flights of fancy alarming." Link
• The Lestranges were not after Neville, they were definitely after his parents. JKR cannot say too much more about this because it touches closely on the prophecy, and on how many people knew about it. The Lestranges were not in on the secret. Link
• The Order do not communicate with chocolate frog cards, or any object that would have to be carried on and remembered by the person. They use a form of communication that needs only a wand, and we have already seen it used by an Order member before we even knew the Order existed. Link
• Gideon and Fabian Prewett were indeed Molly’s brothers, but their history is not particularly significant in terms of the overall plot, except that their deaths do provide some explanation and excuse some of Mrs Weasley’s fears and her over protective stance towards Harry. Link
• Dumbledore is not Ron or Harry "from the future;" no book character has returned from the future. [6 April 2005] Link
• Nicolas Flamel has died by now and will not teach at Hogwarts. [6 April 2005] Link
• The new Gryffindor Beaters will be "completely new finds by the new captain." They will not be either Creevey boy. [6 April 2005] Link
• "There will be NO chapter called ‘Lupin’s Papers’ in book six." [6 April 2005] Link
• Luna is not Snape's daughter; her father is the editor of The Quibbler. [13 May 2005] Link
• Snape does not have a daughter. [13 May 2005] Link
• The last part of the prophecy does not mean that Neville and Harry must kill each other. [13 May 2005] Link
• Aunt Petunia has never performed magic, and will never be able to do so. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• Peter Pettigrew’s silver hand will not be used to kill Lupin. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• HP7 will not be called Harry Potter and the Pyramids of Furmat. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• Mrs Norris is not an unregistered Animagus, but an intelligent (and unpleasant) cat. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• Harry is not a Metamorphagus; he is just a boy who was "clearly magical from birth." Incidents like him growing his hair back were due to his untrained, uncontrolled magical powers bursting out when he was angry or frightened. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• Lupin will not be able to overcome prejudice against werewolves and return as a DADA. [25 Dec 2005] Link
• The Sorting Hat is not a Horcrux. "Horcruxes do not draw attention to themselves by singing songs in front of large audiences." [25 Dec 2005] Link
• Snape was not hiding under the Invisibility Cloak on the night Harry's parents were killed. [29 Sept 2006] Link
• Book 7 will not be called Harry Potter and the Graveyard of Memories. [29 Sept 2006] Link
• Stubby Boardman is not Regulus Black [29 Sept 2006] Link
• Harry and Voldemort will not combine into one being and command both good and evil. [19 Dec 2006] Link

Results of F.A.Q. Poll URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_poll.cfm

• 5 JUL 2004: What is the significance, if any, of Mark Evans? Link
  • Mark Evans is a nobody — the fact that his surname is the same as Lily's maiden name is a coincidence.
• 4 OCT 2004: What did Dumbledore's Howler to Aunt Petunia mean? ("Remember my last?") Link
  • Dumbledore is referring the letter he left for Petunia upon the Dursleys' doorstep (along with Harry); it was his "last" because there were letters to Petunia before that. A day later, JKR clarified that Dumbledore was not thinking of school letters he sent to both the Dursleys.
• 16 May 2005: What is the significance of Neville being the other boy to whom the prophecy might have referred? Link
  • In choosing which child to kill (Neville or Harry) Voldemort was "choosing which boy to anoint as the Chosen One."
  • Harry's scar gives him a "magical window into Voldemort's mind."
  • Harry's parents were "able" and "prepared to die for their son."
  • Harry's survival through his ordeals "has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his scar."
  • Neville is a "normal" wizarding boy with a tragic past and his own "latent strengths."
  • Refers to Neville as "the boy who was so nearly King" but does not tell us if he will ever find this out. Also refers to Neville as an "also-ran" and a "might-have-been."
  • Neville does have a "significant part to play in the last two novels and the fight against Voldemort."
  • The prophecy did not mystically intertwine Neville's fate with Harry's.
  • As in Macbeth, the prophecy was a "catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had not been made." JKR appears to say that this is her opinion about prophecies in general.
  • JKR: "Prophecies are usually open to many different interpretations. That is both their strength and their weakness."
• 15 July, 2005: So how DO the members of the Order of the Phoenix communicate with each other? Link
  • The Order communicates by Patronus; Dumbledore taught them how to do this.
  • The plural of Patronus is Patronuses (not Patroni).
  • Dumbledore's is a Phoenix.
• 21 Feb, 2006: What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies? Link
  • When a Secret-Keeper dies nothing changes about the secret they were keeping.
  • The people whom the Secret-Keeper confided in still know the secret and everyone else still does not.
  • JKR: "The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information."

FAQ section: Books. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq.cfm?ref=aboutthebooks

• James and Lupin did not switch bodies before James died – James would never have saved himself and left his wife and son to die. Link
• JK says about Sirius Black: "I do like him, although I do not think he is wholly wonderful." He is "brave, loyal, reckless, embittered and slightly unbalanced by his long stay in Azkaban," but his redeeming quality is the affection that he is capable of feeling. Link
• Sirius was "around twenty-two" years old when he was sent to Azkaban. Link
• If a teacher is head of a Hogwarts house, we can assume they were in that house, that goes for ghosts as well. So Snape was "very definitely" a Slytherin. Link
• When JK answered the question about Charlie and Bill’s ages, she got it wrong. Bill is two years older than Charlie who is actually three years old Percy, who is two years older than Fred and George, who are two years older than Ron, who is a year older then Ginny. Link
• Fred and George never noticed Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map because they didn't know who he was. Even if they had recognized his name, they would have assumed he was just a student with the same last name. Pettigrew was one of many moving dots on the map, and Fred and George would have only been focused on the path their mischief took that day. Link
• Fred and George’s names did not come from the twins in "Gone with the Wind," they were chosen to fit with the old fashioned names of their brothers. Ron was created first, then JK invented his brothers and sister. Link
• In Book 2, Colin Creavey's muggle camera worked because it was "running off the magical atmosphere" and developed in a magical potion. Link
• JKR: "Peeves isn't a ghost; he was never a living person. He is an indestructible spirit of chaos, and solid enough to unscrew chandeliers, throw walking sticks and, yes, chew gum." Link
• More characters are going to die (in Book 6 and/or Book 7, she did not specify). Link
• In the Book 4 scene where Ron finds out about Leprechaun gold disappearing, JK says that it would not have been as poignant if Harry had noticed it disappear at the World Cup. Ron is poor, so cannot imagine what it must feel like not to notice a pocketful of gold disappearing. She wanted to show, through Ron, how hard it is not to have any money when other people do. Link
• JKR: "House-elves are different from wizards; they have their own brand of magic, and the ability to appear and disappear within the castle is necessary to them if they are to go about their work unseen, as house-elves traditionally do." Link
• There will be no chapters in the sixth book called "Lupin’s papers" and "The Lovegoods in court." In JK’s words, that’s a "pile of Storgé." Link
• Hedwig's name was taken from St. Hedwig, which JKR found in a book of medieval saints years ago. Link
• When Aunt Petunia said Lily turned teacups into rats, she was exaggerating a little, although "just like her son, Lily was not averse to testing the limits of the Statute of Secrecy, so you can safely assume she will have had a few warning letters – nothing too serious, though." Link
• Arthur Weasley will not be the new Minister for Magic. Link
• To people like Lucius Malfoy, a Muggle-born is as bad as a Muggle, so Harry is considered Half-Blood because of his mother's parents. In effect, a Muggle Grandparent "pollutes" the blood. (Read the rest of JK's response here to see how this relates to the Nazi's attitude to Jews.) Link
• Tom Riddle is the same person as Voldemort, so he is not the Half Blood Prince. Link
• There is no trace of the Book 6 storyline left in Book 2, rather the link between the two books relates to a discovery Harry made in Book 2 that foreshadows something he finds out in Book 6. Link
• The mirror that Harry got from Sirius might not have helped as much as you think but, on the other hand, will help more than you think. Link
• At the end of Book 4, Lily should come out of Voldemort's wand first, then James. JK originally wrote this correctly, but her American editor told her it was the wrong way round, so she changed it. Link
• Wizards can make themselves untraceable, which is why they can't be found simply by sending and following owls. Link
• Prefects can take points — Ron got it wrong on Book 5. Link
• Does the prophecy mean that both Harry and Voldemort need to die? JKR: "Both Madam Trelawney and I worded the prophecy extremely carefully." Link
• Why couldn't Harry see Thestrels before book 5? JKR: It is only after he sees Cedric die that Harry "really feels what death means." Link
• In 'Chamber of Secrets,' what would have happened if Ginny had died and Tom Riddle had escaped the diary? JKR: cannot answer except to say Voldemort would have been stronger. Link
• Where do you get your names? JKR: "War memorials, telephone directories, shop fronts, saints, villains, baby-naming books – you name it, I've got names from it! I also make up names." Link
• Does Hermione love Ron or Harry? JKR: "I can't believe that some of you haven't worked this one out yet." Link
• Marcus Flint's extra year at Hogwarts was a mistake. Link
• JKR wrote the information found on the Wizard Cards; however some of the spells used in the movies (Lacarnum Inflamari) were made up by Steve Kloves. [6 April 2005] Link
• JKR envisions Flitwick as "a very small old man;" she was surprised that he looked so goblin-ish in the movies. He does have a "a dash of goblin ancestry." [6 April 2005] Link
• It didn't bother JKR that Cuaron left out background information about the Marauder's map when he filmed "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." [6 April 2005] Link
• Some people will not like book 6, although JKR is happy with it; she thinks it "does what I wanted it to do." [6 April 2005] Link
• She probably won't start writing book 7 until summer of 2005. [6 April 2005] Link
• Veritaserum is not used in criminal trials because it works best on "‘the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently skilled (in one way or another) to protect themselves against it." Veritaserum is not infallible. [13 May 2005] Link
• Dumbledore has not requested the school song since book 1 because he has not felt as "buoyant;" times are getting darker. If he ever "suggests a rousing encore," you can assume he is on top form once more. [13 May 2005] Link
• When the Marauder's Map insulted Snape, Prongs was not writing the insult, but it was like he had left a magical recording of his voice in the map. [13 May 2005] Link
• Wizards have ways of making sure their voices are heard from beyond the grave. [13 May 2005] Link
• Nicolas Flamel is a historical character from the 14th century who supposedly found out how to make a philosopher’s stone. [13 May 2005] Link
• Most wizard children are home educated before Hogwarts because they cannot be trusted to keep their magical abilities hidden from muggle schoolmates. [13 May 2005] Link
• None of the pure-blood families are actually ‘pure’ – they merely cross Muggles and Squibs off the family tree. The number of families who can claim to be pure is diminishing as they are finding it increasingly difficult to perpetuate themselves. This subject is touched upon in book 6. [13 May 2005] Link
• The plural of 'Horcrux' is 'Horcruxes'. [10 May, 2006] Link
• The Death Eaters Alecto and Amycus's surname is Carrow. [8 May 2007] Link
• Nymphadora Tonks was in Hufflepuff House, while Moaning Myrtle was in Ravenclaw. [8 May 2007] Link
• Draco Malfoy does not know how to produce a Patronus yet. [8 May 2007] Link
• Draco Malfoy's wand is made of hawthorn wood. JKR did not mention what the core is. [8 May 2007] Link
• Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on December 31st. [8 May 2007] Link

Extra stuff: Edits (Not canon)
URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff.cfm?ref=cutscenes

• Dean Thomas is actually a half-blood whose father was a wizard who got himself killed by death eaters after refusing to join them. His story was sacrificed for Neville's — which is more central to the plot. Link
• Rowling has discarded a scene (twice) where Theodore Nott goes to the Malfoy home to visit Draco. Link
• Theodore Nott has been raised by an elderly widower and a death eater father. He is a clever loner who does not need to join gangs — including Malfoy's. Link
• There were several discarded opening chapters for Book 1, one of which had a muggle betraying the Potters, one had a character called 'Pyrites,' whose name means 'fools gold' meeting Sirius in front of the Potter's house. Pyrites was a servant of Voldemort. The very, very earliest drafts had the Potters living on a remote island, and Hermione's dad seeing an explosion out at sea. He sailed out and found their bodies in the ruins of their house. Link
• JK came close to using a chapter very like the opening one of book 6 in Book 1 (One of the discarded chapters she talks about in this section), Book 3 and Book 5. But it didn't fit properly until now. Link
• Mafalda: was a Weasley cousin whose character was edited out of the books in favor of Rita Skeeter. Link
• Removed a character named "Mopsy the dog-lover" from Book 4; this character lived near Hogsmeade and took Sirius in. Instead, Sirius stayed in a cave. Link

Extra stuff: Characters. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff.cfm?ref=characters

• Crookshanks is half-kneazle.
• Hermione's original surname was 'Puckle,' but it didn't suit her.
• Ron does not have red hair because he will be unlucky; JKR just likes red hair.
• Mrs. Weasley's maiden name is Prewett, and she lost close family members to Voldemort.
• Arthur Weasley is one of three brothers.
• Ginny Weasley, whose full name is Ginevra, is the first girl to be born into the Weasley family for several generations.
• Fred and George were born on April's Fool Day (April 1st).
• Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character that she has consciously modeled after someone she has met.

Extra stuff: Miscellaneous. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff.cfm?ref=miscellaneous

• West Ham is the only soccer club ever mentioned in the books — this is in honour of one her oldest friends, who supports them.
• The Irish Quidditch players are named after people JK has known.
• JKR: "Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?" is an important question that no one has asked her ("NAQ"). Link

News. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news.cfm

• Jo feels as if Book 6 and Book 7 "are two halves of the same novel." [15 March 2004]
• Writing one part of Book 6 made JK "rub [her] hands with fiendish glee." [10 Dec 2004]
• Rowling has never posted comments on a fan site; her website is the only place she will post. [26 May 2005]

Scrapbook extras (These are NOT canon, because they are drafts)

• Very early page of Book1: Argis Pyrites mentioned as author of Alchemy, Ancient Art and Science
• "Dragon Breeding for Fun and Profit" Ancient drawings (page 1): Dragons fly at 12 months and are mature at 2 years old
• Very early draft of Book1 (Page1): Draco's last name was orginally 'Spungen.'
• More idle jottings (Page 1) [planning document for Book3]:
  • Professor Sinistra's first name given as 'Aurora.'
  • Professor Binns' first name given as 'Cuthbert.'
  • There was originally a professor named 'Mopsus' who taught Divination.
  • The name of the Study of Ancient Runes Professor is given as 'Bathsheba Babbling.'
  • Arithmancy Professor Vector's first name given as 'Septima' but Rowling also considered 'Pi' and 'Digit.'
  • The professor of Muggle studies is female.
  • The name 'Rosmerta' equated with "good purveyor."
  • When Rowling was planning Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3), Peter Pettigrew was planned to be DADA professor in Book 4.
  • When Rowling was planning Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3), two names were considered for the DADA professor in book 5: Mylor Silvanus and Oakden Hobday (not Umbridge).
• Revision of the plan of Order of the Phoenix
  • Umbridge's first name was originally 'Elvira' not 'Dolores.'
  • 'The Order of the Phoenix' was originally the name of the student group Hermione and Harry started, not 'Dumbledore's Army.'
  • 'Dumbledore's Army' was originally the name of the adults-only Death Eater resistance group, not 'The Order of the Phoenix.'
  • In an early draft of OotP, the person visiting Bode at St. Mungo's on Christmas Eve was the Death Eater Macnair.
  • Grawp was originally Hagrid's cousin.

Rubbish bin. URL: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/rubbishbin.cfm

• Harry was not based on any real person; he is an entirely ficticious character.
• Gilderoy Lockhart is NOT based upon JKR's first husband.
• Although she is very happy with it, Jo has not said that Book 6 is her "best book yet." [26 May 2005]

 

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