July 31, 2007 4:26

Rowling Chats about Deathly Hallows

[Crocostimpy posted this in comments. It feels like it deserves a post of its very own. It's damn long, but there are some gems in there. Teddy isn't a Metamorphwerewolf. And re: the person who was supposed to do magic in later life: "I’m sorry about this, but I changed my mind!" Original is here.]

J.K. Rowling: I’m here and I can’t wait! Bring on the questions!

Leaky Cauldron: What, if anything, did the wizarding world learn, and how did society change, as a direct result of the war with Voldemort? (i.e., not as a result of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s future careers.)

J.K. Rowling: The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was eradicated. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future careers.

Ryan Love: From your fans at www.thesnitch.co.uk. Weren’t we supposed to see Ginny display powerful magical abilities in Deathly Hallows and find out why it’s significant that she’s the seventh child? Was her main role in the books only to be Harry’s love interest?

J.K. Rowling: Hi Ryan! Well, I think Ginny demonstrated powerful magic in the final battle, and that for a sixteen year old witch she acquitted herself pretty well. I don’t remember ever saying that her ‘seventh child’ status would prove particularly important in the last book, though — are you sure I said that?!

Georgina: Did Lucius Malfoy, and all the other escaped Death Eaters, go back to Azkaban?

J.K. Rowling: No, the Malfoys weaseled their way out of trouble (again) due to the fact that they colluded (albeit out of self-interest) with Harry at the end of the battle.

Elisabeth: In the chapter of Kings Cross, are they behind the veil or in some world between the real world and the veil?

J.K. Rowling: You can make up your own mind on this, but I think that Harry entered a kind of limbo between life and death.

Renee: From reading about the original owners of the Deathly Hallows, the Peverell brothers, I’m wondering if Harry and Voldermort are distantly related Voldermorts grandfather ended up with the resurrection stone ring?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, Harry and Voldemort are distantly related through the Peverells. Of course, nearly all wizarding families are related if you trace them back through the centuries. As was made clear in Deathly Hallows, Peverell blood would run through many wizarding families.

Fomy: What did you feel when you finally wrote the kiss, awaited so much by the fans, of Ron and Hermione

J.K. Rowling: I loved writing it, and I loved the fact that Hermione took the initiative! Ron had finally got SPEW and earned himself a snog!

Angela Morrissey: Why is it that Albus Dumbledore can see Harry under his invisibility cloak at certain moments? (during the series is the cloak only infallible to those who do not own a Deathly Hallow).

J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore, who could perform magic without needing to say the incantation aloud, was using ‘homenum revelio’ the human-presence-revealing spell Hermione makes use of in Deathly Hallows.

Jamie Lewis: What ever happened to Winky?

J.K. Rowling: She’s still at Hogwarts, and she was one of the oncoming house-elves who attacked the Death Eaters in the final battle.

Katieleigh: Does Hermione still continue to do work with Spew and is life any better for house elves!

J.K. Rowling: 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.

Tineke: Did Teddy grow up living with his grandmother?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, Teddy was raised by Andromeda. However, unlike Neville, who was also raised by his grandmother Teddy had his godfather, Harry, and all his father’s friends in the Order, to visit and stay with.

Blodeuwedd: Hi jk, first of all thank you for all the books I have enjoyed each and every one of them could you tell us what professions Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna go on to have did the trio do their final year at school and take their newts?

J.K. Rowling: Thank you! I’ve already answered about Hermione. Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up his new Auror department. Harry did so (just because Voldemort was gone, it didn’t mean that there would not be other Dark witches and wizards in the coming years). Ron joined George at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner... After a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet!

Camille: What or who is Peeves exactly, is he linked with the bloody Barons story?

J.K. Rowling: No, Peeves is not linked to the bloody Baron’s story. He is a spirit of chaos that entered the building long ago and has proved impossible to eradicate!

Jessie: Were the Deathly Hallows based on any realworld myth or faerie tale?

J.K. Rowling: Perhaps ‘the Pardoner’s Tale’, by Chaucer.

Alicepie: What happend to Luna, did she get married who to?

J.K. Rowling: She ended up marrying (rather later than Harry & co) a fellow naturalist and grandson of the great Newt Scamander (Rolf)!

Rosi: What does in essence divided mean?

J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore suspected that the snake’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. Dumbledore is thinking aloud here, edging towards the truth with the help of the Pensieve.

Superhans: What was Dudley's worst memory?

J.K. Rowling: I think that 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.

Casey Kunze: Who killed Remus and Tonks I think if I knew this, I would get some closure over the very sad, but understandable, death of two of my favorite characters.

J.K. Rowling: I’m so sorry! I met a couple on launch night who had come dressed as Lupin and Tonks, and I felt dreadfully guilty as I signed their books! Remus was killed by Dolohov and Tonks by Bellatrix.

Laura Trego: Was the absence of Snape's portrait in the headmaster's office in the last scene innocent or deliberate?

J.K. Rowling: It was deliberate. Snape had effectively abandoned his post before dying, so he had not merited inclusion in these august circles. However, I like to think that Harry would be instrumental in ensuring that Snape’s portrait would appear there in due course.

Stephanie: If the wand chooses the wizard, then why do wands work when passed down from father to son eg Neville had his fathers wand?

J.K. Rowling: As established by Ollivander, a wizard can use almost any wand, it is simply that a wand that chooses him/her will work best. Where there is a family connection, a wand will work a little better than a wand chosen at random, I think.

James Farrell: How did Umbridge manage to conjure a Patronus while wearing the locket when Harry wasn't able to?

J.K. Rowling: Because she is a very nasty piece of work. She has an affinity for this horrible object, which would help rather than hinder her.

Tineke: What happened to Percy - did he return to his job at the ministry?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, the new improved Percy ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.

Su: How did Neville get the Gryffindor sword, is there a link to the hat?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, there is very definitely a link to the hat! Neville, most worthy Gryffindor, asked for help just as Harry did in the Chamber of secrets, and Gryffindor’s sword was transported into Gryffindor’s old hat — the Sorting Hat was Gryffindor’s initially, as you know. Griphook was wrong — Gryffindor did not ‘steal’ the sword, not unless you are a goblin fanatic and believe that all goblin-made objects really belong to the maker.

Steph: Will Azkaban still use Dementors?

J.K. Rowling: No, definitely not. Kingsley would see to that. The use of Dementors was always a mark of the underlying corruption of the Ministry, as Dumbledore constantly maintained.

Smallbutpowerful: On behalf of all Harry Potter fans who consider themselves to be Hufflepuffs could you please describe the Hufflepuff common room as it is the only common room Harry hasn’t visited.

J.K. Rowling: The Hufflepuff common room is accessed through a portrait near the kitchens, as I am sure you have deduced. Sorry — I should say ‘painting’ rather than portrait, because it is a still-life. 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.

Camille: How is George getting along without his twin?

J.K. Rowling: Well, I don’t think that George would ever get over losing Fred, which makes me feel so sad. However, he names his first child and son Fred, and he goes on to have a very successful career, helped by good old Ron.

Jessica Lynn: Did Hagrid have to be able to see Thestrals in order to train them if so, whose death did Hagrid witness?

J.K. Rowling: Hagrid has seen many deaths in quite a long life, so yes, he can see Thestrals.

Allie: What did Dumbledore truly see in the mirror of erised?

J.K. Rowling: He saw his family alive, whole and happy — Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.

Snapedinhalf: You promised that someone will do magic late in life in book 7. I’ve now read it three times but cant work out who it might have been! Please help!!

J.K. Rowling: I’m sorry about this, but I changed my mind! My very earliest plan for the story involved somebody managing to get to Hogwarts when they had never done magic before, but I had changed my mind by the time I’d written the third book.

Christiana: How did Voldemort get his wand back after he was in was exile?

J.K. Rowling: Wormtail, desperate to curry favour, salvaged it from the place it had fallen and carried it to him. I admit that would have been a bit of a feat for a rat, but they are highly intelligent creatures!

Amanda: Hiya, I've grown up with Harry and the gang, did any of the characters change in any unexpected ways as they grew up?

J.K. Rowling: They all became pretty much what I expected/planned them to become. Of course they changed as I wrote, but nobody surprised me very much!

Ravleen: How much does the fact that Voldemort was conceived under a love potion have to do with his nonability to understand love. Is it more symbolic?

J.K. Rowling: It was a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union — but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can’t be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union.

Lechicaneuronline: Do you think Snape is a hero?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, I do; though a very flawed hero. An anti-hero, perhaps. He is not a particularly likeable man in many ways. He remains rather cruel, a bully, riddled with bitterness and insecurity — and yet he loved, and showed loyalty to that love and, ultimately, laid down his life because of it. That’s pretty heroic!

James Farrell: Voldemort never told anyone about his horcruxes, so how on earth did Regulus Black discover his secret?

J.K. Rowling: Horcrux magic was not Voldemort’s own invention; as is established in the story, other wizards had done it, though never gone as far as to make six. Voldemort dropped oblique hints; in his arrogance, he did not believe anybody would be clever enough to understand them. (He does so in the graveyard of Little Hangleton, in front of Harry). He did this before Regulus and Regulus guessed, correctly, what it was that made Voldemort so convinced he could not die.

Jaclyn: Did Lily ever have feelings back for Snape?

J.K. Rowling: Yes. She might even have grown to love him romantically (she certainly loved him as a friend) if he had not loved Dark Magic so much, and been drawn to such loathesome people and acts.

Boggo: Would you choose the Hallow that is the cloak, like you're supposed to, and would you be tempted to use the others?

J.K. Rowling: My temptation would be Harry’s, ie, the Stone. But I believe, as does Harry ultimately, that the greatest wisdom is in accepting that we must all die, and moving on.

Cornersoul: So what happens to all the Dementors where will they go will they be destroyed if so, how?

J.K. Rowling: You cannot destroy Dementors, though you can limit their numbers if you eradicate the conditions in which they multiply, ie, despair and degradation. As I’ve already said, though, the Ministry no longer used them to torment its opponents.

Michael: Why didn't Fawkes come back to help Harry? I would have thought that since Harry was so loyal to Dumbledore, Fawkes would have been Harry's new pet?

J.K. Rowling: Something had to leave the school for good when Dumbledore died, and I decided that would be Fawkes. Dumbledore was a very great and irreplacable man, and the loss of Fawkes (and the fact that he was ‘non-transferable’!) expresses this symbolically

Roseweasley: Why was Colin Creavey still a student at Hogwarts when he was muggleborn surely he would have been locked up and interogated, not allowed back to school therefore, he shouldn't have died?

J.K. Rowling: Colin wasn’t a student. He sneaked back with the rest of the DA, along with Fred, George and the rest. He ought not to have stayed behind when McGonagall told him to leave, but alas — he did.

Delailah: How does Dumbledore understand Parseltongue?

J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore understood Mermish, Gobbledegook and Parseltongue. The man was brilliant.

Jessie: Will Lockhart ever recover?

J.K. Rowling: No. Nor would I want him to. He’s happy where he is, and I’m happier without him!

Annie: Does the wizarding world now know that snape was Dumbledore's man, or do they still think he did a bunk?

J.K. Rowling: Harry would ensure that Snape’s heroism was known. Of course, that would not stop Rita Skeeter writing ‘Snape: Scoundrel or Saint?’

Vio91: Is Teddy Lupin a werewolf?

J.K. Rowling: No, he’s a Metamorphmagus like his mother.

Nippy23: We see socks a lot throughout the series, such as Dobby’s love for them and Dumbledore’s claim to see them in the mirror of erised, what’s the reason behind all the socks?

J.K. Rowling: Nothing deep and significant, I’m afraid. They’re just a comedy item.

Lady Bella: Whose murders did Voldemort use to create each of the horcruxes?

J.K. Rowling: The diary — Moaning Myrtle. The cup — Hepzibah Smith, the previous owner. The locket — a Muggle tramp. Nagini — Bertha Jorkins (Voldemort could use a wand once he regained a rudimentary body, as long as the victim was subdued). The diadem — an Albanian peasant. The ring — Tom Riddle snr.

Sampotterish: Why did Dumbledore want Ron to keep his deluminator?

J.K. Rowling: Because he knew that Ron might need a little more guidance than the other two. Dumbledore understood Ron’s importance in the trio. He wasn’t the most skilled, or the most intelligent, but he held them together; his humour and his good heart were essential.

Carol: Do Dementors have souls

J.K. Rowling: No, that’s what makes them frightening!

Jess Mac: What was the third smell that Hermione smelt in the amortentia potion in hbp (ie the particular essence of Ron)?

J.K. Rowling: I think it was his hair. Every individual has very distinctive-smelling hair, don’t you find?

Natalie: Are house divisions as prevalaent in Harry’s childrens' Hogwarts as in the previous generations?

J.K. Rowling: Slytherin has become diluted. It is no longer the pureblood bastion it once was. Nevertheless, its dark reputation lingers, hence Albus Potter’s fears.

Nithya: Lily detested Mulciber Avery. If snape really loved her,why didn't he sacrifice their company for her sake?

J.K. Rowling: Well, that is Snape’s tragedy. Given his time over again he would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people (like Wormtail) he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive. He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily’s aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.

Alborz: What does it mean to be the master of Death?

J.K. Rowling: As Dumbledore explains, the real master of Death accepts that he must die, and that there are much worse things in the world of the living. It is not about striving for immortality, but about accepting mortality.

Barbara: I was very disappointed to see Harry use crucio and seem to enjoy it. His failure to perform that kind of curse in the past has been a credit to his character why the change, and did Harry later regret having enjoyed deliberately causing pain?

J.K. Rowling: Harry is not, and never has been, a saint. Like Snape, he is flawed and mortal. Harry’s faults are primarily anger and occasional arrogance. On this occasion, he is very angry and acts accordingly. He is also in an extreme situation, and attempting to defend somebody very good against a violent and murderous opponent.

Nicole: What do you think is the funniest moment you have written in the series

J.K. Rowling: It sounds very vain to answer this! My favourite in this book is probably that line of Ron’s ‘really captures the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn’t it?’

Courtney: What child did Harry give the marauders map to if any?

J.K. Rowling: I’ve got a feeling he didn’t give it to any of them, but that James sneaked it out of his father’s desk one day.

Karin: What did Petunia wanted to say to Harry at the end of the Dursleys departing?

J.K. Rowling: I think that for one moment she trembled on the verge of wishing Harry luck; that she almost acknowledged that her loathing of his world, and of him, was born out of jealousy. But she couldn’t do it; years of pretending that ‘normal’ was best had hardened her too much.

Leaky Cauldron: Please pose and answer the question you’d most like to address about the series! (a ha, turned it back on you.)

J.K. Rowling: Oooo, you’re tough. I must admit, I always wondered why nobody ever asked me what Dumbledore’s wand was made of! And I couldn’t say that, even when asked ‘what do you wish you’d been asked…’ because it would have sign-posted just how significant that wand would become!

Nora: Is Auntie Muriel's tiara important?

J.K. Rowling: No, sorry… except to illustrate what an old bat she is.

Nigel: Can Harry speak Parseltongue when he is no longer a horcrux?

J.K. Rowling: No, he loses the ability, and is very glad to do so.

Nikki: How did Sirius' twoway mirror end up with Aberforth or is it another twoway mirror?

J.K. Rowling: You see Aberforth meeting Mundungus in Hogsmeade. That was the occasion on which Dung, who had taken Sirius’s mirror from Grimmauld Place, sold it to Aberforth.

Tierney Roth: If Moody got a magic eye, and Wormtail got a magic hand, couldn't there be some way to form a magical ear, if only to cover up the hole and make George look more symmetrical?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, he could wear a false ear (I’m starting to giggle at the thought. Perhaps he’s better off with the hole!)

Lucy: What is Dumbledore's boggart?

J.K. Rowling: The corpse of his sister.

Pablo: What is toadface Umbridge doing now?

J.K. Rowling: Glad to see you like her as much as I do! She was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.

Tina: Do the muggles notice that there aren't any weird things going on now that Voldemort's gone?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, the world seems a much sunnier place (literally — with the Dementors gone the weather gets better!) We are having a heavily Dementor-influenced summer here in the UK.

Katie Mosher: How exactly do muggleborns receive magical ability?

J.K. Rowling: Muggleborns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene re-surfaces in some unexpected places.

Maggie: Is Rita Skeeter still reporting?

J.K. Rowling: Naturally, what could stop Rita? I imagine she immediately dashed off a biography of Harry after he defeated Voldemort. One quarter truth to three quarters rubbish.

Maggie Keir: Was Hermione able to find her parents and undo the memory damage?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, she brought them home straight away.

Lola Victorpujebet: Was Minerva in love with Albus?

J.K. Rowling: No! Not everybody falls in love with everybody else…

Rachel Nell: Jkr, thank you for such amazing books! I would like to know how come no one seemed to know that Lily and Snape were friends in school they were obviously meeting for chats, etc didn't James know their past?

J.K. Rowling: Thank you for your thank you! Yes, it was known that they were friendly and then stopped being friends. Nothing more than that would be widely known. James always suspected Snape harboured deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James’ behaviour to Snape.

Abbey: Will the Chuddley Cannons ever win the Quidditch World Cup?

J.K. Rowling: Bless them, perhaps. But they’d need to replace the entire team and down several cauldrons of Felix Felicitas.

Hayleyhaha: Why did Regulus have a change of heart?

J.K. Rowling: He was not prepared for the reality of life as a Death Eater. It was Voldemort’s attempted murder of Kreacher that really turned him.

J.K. Rowling: Scorpius has a lot going against him, not least that name. However, I think Scorpius would be an improvement on his father, whom misfortune has sobered!

Stephval: Is Scorpius as misguided as his father, or has Draco improved and taught his child(ren) better?

J.K. Rowling: Sorry, technical hitch — just answered a question before seeing it! I am clearly getting better at Legilimency.

Lona: Did Draco and Harry lose their animosity towards eachother when Voldemort died?

J.K. Rowling: Not really. There would be a kind of rapprochement, in that Harry knows Draco hated being a Death Eater, and would not have killed Dumbledore; similarly, Draco would feel a grudging gratitude towards Harry for saving his life. Real friendship would be out of the question, though. Too much had happened prior to the final battle.

Hannah: Why was Snape so badly groomed?

J.K. Rowling: Hmm. Good question. Poor eyesight? Did he look in the mirror and believe he was gorgeous as he was? I think it more likely that he valued other qualities in himself!

Ea: Will the stone ever be found, since it was left just sitting on the forest floor?

J.K. Rowling: I think not. I imagine that it was squashed into the ground by a centaur’s hoof as the centaurs dashed to the aid of the Hogwarts fighters, and thereafter became buried.

Adwait313: Has the jinx on the dada teaching post at hogwarts been lifted?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, at last! Incidentally, I know some have asked about Quirrell with regard to this question. He 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.

Emily: What ever happened to Aberforth?

J.K. Rowling: He is still there, at the Hog’s Head, playing with his goats.

Lee: I recently purchsed Nimbus TwoThousand. It has a terrible knack of veering left. Is their anything I can do (wihout the use of a wand it was broken by a hippogriff) to repair it back to it original straight flying state?

J.K. Rowling: Hm. I would advise a trip to Arkie Alderton’s Kwik-Repair Shop. Never attempt to mend a broom at home, the consequences can be disastrous.

Abjoppotter: Is Narcissa Malfoy really a Death Eater?

J.K. Rowling: No, she never had the Dark Mark and was never a fully paid-up member. However, her views were identical to those of her husband until Voldemort planned the death of her son.

Emzzy: Did Mr Weasley ever get around to fixing Sirius' motorbike?

J.K. Rowling: Of course, and it ended up in Harry’s possession.

Lulu: Do you think Dumbledore was a little more fond of Ron than either Ron or Harry believed?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, I do. Through Harry’s account of Ron, and from reports of the professors who taught Ron, Dumbledore understood Ron better than Ron ever knew, and liked him, too.

Chelatina: Was Firenze ever welcomed back into the herd?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, the rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenze’s pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.

Kristy: What was your favorite scene to write in Deathly Hallows?

J.K. Rowling: Chapter 34: The Forest Again.

Chely: James' Patronus is a stag and Lily's a doe. Is that a coincidence?

J.K. Rowling: No, the 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).

Jon: Since Voldemort was afraid of death, did he choose to be a ghost if so where does he haunt or is this not possible due to his horcruxes?

J.K. Rowling: No, he is not a ghost. He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in King’s Cross.

Angela Morrissey: Were there seven horcruxes not six as Dumbledore intimated to harry if so, does this mean that Voldemort had an 8 part soul not a 7?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, Voldemort accidentally broke his soul into eight parts, not seven.

Laura Trego: Did Hermione really put a memory charm on her parents she says she did but then about 50 pages later tells ron shes never done a memory charm?

J.K. Rowling: They are two different charms. She has not wiped her parents’ memories (as she later does to Dolohov and Rowle); she has bewitched them to make them believe that they are different people.

Maura: How come Voldemort was no longer employing occlumency against Harry, as he was in the 6th book?

J.K. Rowling: He is losing control, and unable to prevent Harry seeing into his mind. The connection between them is never fully understood by Voldemort, who does not know that Harry is a Horcrux.

Gandalfxj9: Did Krum ever find love?

J.K. Rowling: Of course, though he had to go back to his native Bulgaria to do so.

Twinkletoes: Why did you feel that Hedwig's death was necessary?

J.K. Rowling: The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood. I’m sorry… I know that death upset a LOT of people!

Lecanard: Will we see Harry and his friends having their own history on chocolate frogs cards?

J.K. Rowling: Definitely, and Ron will describe this as his finest hour.

Mike: What is the incantation for creating a horcrux?

J.K. Rowling: I cannot possibly tell you. Some things are better left unsaid.

Samantha: Was Snape the only Death Eater who could produce a full Patronus?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.

Jess: How did Nagini could see Harry and Hermione if they were under the invisibility cloak?

J.K. Rowling: Snakes’ sense are very different from human ones. They can detect heat and movement in a way that we can’t.

Chucky: Have you had another alternatives as book title apart from Deathly Hallows?

J.K. Rowling: The two other possibilities were ‘the Elder Wand’ (used instead as a chapter title) and ‘the Peverell Quest’, which I decided against quite quickly. I think the word ‘Quest’ is a bit corny!

Iglooanne: What would your Patronus be?

J.K. Rowling: I’d like an otter, like Hermione, but I’ve got a feeling it might be a large dog.

The Stoic Cycle: Why is it that Voldemort is unaware that the gaunt ring is a hallow, when he has worn it (such as in the memory the diary shows Harry in book 2)

J.K. Rowling: Wearing the ring would not make the stone work. The stone existed outside the ring originally, and to use it you had to turn it three times in your hand.

Finchburg: Does the dark mark remain on those that Voldemort has branded after his death or does the tattoo dissapear now he is gone thanks for considering my question!

J.K. Rowling: My pleasure, Finchburg! The Dark Mark would fade to a scar, not dissimilar to the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead. Like Harry’s, these scars would no longer burn or hurt.

Katie Mosher: How is the Quibbler doing these days?

J.K. Rowling: Pretty well, actually. It has returned to its usual condition of advanced lunacy, and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.

Camille: Dear Mrs Rowling, while I'm here I want to thank you for making me laugh, cry (a lot! Most of all for Sirius!) since I'm 11 quite a long time for me as I'm 20 Harry's magic and yours will be with me forever! Thanks!

J.K. Rowling: Thank you very much, Camille, and I’m sorry about Sirius. That man’s got a lot of fans. Mostly female, I might add.

Nicofr: Does Winky still drink a lot of butterbear?

J.K. Rowling: She’s dried out a bit now.

Isabel: Did Bellatrix ever love her husband, or did she have love only for Voldemort?

J.K. Rowling: She took a pureblood husband, because that was what was expected of her, but her true love was always Voldemort.

jenny: How did Snape keep his Patronus secret from the rest of the order?

J.K. Rowling: He was careful not to use the talking Patronus means of communication with them. This was not difficult, as his particular job within the Order, ie, as spy, meant that sending a Patronus to any of them might have given away his true allegiance.

Darchey: Did Voldemort ever love a girl?

J.K. Rowling: No, he loved only power, and himself. He valued people whom he could use to advance his own objectives.

Leo: What would your wand be made of?

J.K. Rowling: I’d like Harry’s wand — holly and phoenix feather.

Brian: Did the DA keep the coins?

J.K. Rowling: Naturally. They would be like badges or medals of honour — proof that the owner had been at the heart of the fight against Voldemort from the start! I like to imagine Neville showing his to his admiring pupils.

Tracie: How relieved are you that you can finally talk about the series no more secretkeeping!

J.K. Rowling: I’m elated! It is great to be able to do this at last, I’ve looked forward to it for so long!

Lou: How did Snape get into Grimmauld place to get the second half of the letter, if there were protection spells on the house stopping Snape getting in?

J.K. Rowling: Snape entered the house immediately after Dumbledore’s death, before Moody put up the spells against him.

Koen Van Der Voort: Why is the scar on Harry's forehead lightning shaped?

J.K. Rowling: To be honest, because it’s a cool shape. I couldn’t have my hero sport a doughnut-shaped scar.

Louie: Did Marietta's pimply formation ever fade?

J.K. Rowling: Eventually, but it left a few scars. I loathe a traitor!

Katie B: Why was Kings Cross the place Harry went to when he died?

J.K. Rowling: For many reasons. The name works rather well, and it has been established in the books as the gateway between two worlds, and Harry would associate it with moving on between two worlds (don’t forget that it is Harry’s image we see, not necessarily what is really there.

J.K. Rowling: We seem to have over-run. We’ve had over 120,000 questions, I’ve been told! What can I say? Thank you so much for sticking with me, and with Harry, for so long. You have made this an incredible journey for Harry’s author.

J.K. Rowling: I like this question, so I’ll take it for my last.

Tess: What muggle song do you imagine would be played at Dumbledore's funeral?

J.K. Rowling: Surely ‘I did it my way’ by Frank Sinatra.

J.K. Rowling: I’m very aware I haven’t answered everything… keep an eye on my website, and I’ll try and answer some more questions in due course!

Thanks very much everybody, I’ve had a great time, and I hope I’ve covered some of the outstanding questions (I hear a distant roar of ‘YOU DIDN’T GET TO MINE!’)

That’s it… I’m Disapparating. Bye

July 31, 2007 1:45

William Gibson's Spook Country

Finished Spook Country, the new William Gibson. I doubt there will ever be a Gibson novel I won't read, and read with pleasure, but there is, after nine novels, a certain undeniable sameness to his work. Maybe he's just a victim of his own success -- there's so much faux-Gibson out there that even real-Gibson starts to sound like faux-Gibson after a while. But he does have an unflagging fondness for sexy, emotionally vague heroines; shadowy billionaires; conceptual artists; mongrel subcultures; obscure firearms; drug addicts; &c. I'm just saying. They crop up a lot.

But enough cavilling: to business. Hollis Henry is a journalist on assignment for a shadowy magazine called Node that may or may not exist, covering a new art world trend: "locative" art, holographic images projected over a specific location, identified by its GPS coordinates. Hollis is also the ex-lead-singer of an 80's cult band -- it's a running gag that everybody in the book recognizes her and just wants to talk about her old band. (When Hollis turns up at a critical moment, somebody remarks drolly, “At least it’s not Morrissey.”) Our Maguffin is a mysterious shipping container, contents unknown, which is being shipped from place to place. Lots of people want to find it for some reason.

The plot threads connecting the various characters in Spook Country are gossamer-thin -- in fact the whole plot can more or less be hygienically disposed of. But Gibson novels aren't so much about the plot, they're really just an excuse to sort through the rattle-bag of Gibson's random thoughts, like this one: "He'd once dated a woman who liked to say that the windows of Army surplus stores constituted hymns to male powerlessness." Blimey. And Gibson does find the most interesting stuff, like Volapuk, a rough-and-ready slang Russians use for typing in Cyrillic on a Roman-character keyboard (this is actually a real thing).

Later Gibson reminds me a bit of the AI artist in Count Zero, endlessly sifting through the detritus of civilization and piecing together lovely little Cornell boxes out of it. They're lovely, but at the end of the day, they are just little Cornell boxes. Now, I ain't saying he's gone soft on us, but isn't he nostalgic at all for the angry, vicious far future of the Sprawl? At all? All those nasty prosthetics and hideous body modifications and whatnot? Come on, just one little cortex bomb. A tissue graft. Throw me a distorted, polymer-enhanced, vat-grown bone here.

July 30, 2007 3:31

Whatever Happened to Joss Whedon?

I was dickering around with Ain't It Cool News's Comic-Con updates, which contain some tidbits about Joss Whedon -- he's thinking about doing a BBC movie about Rupert Giles from Buffy. And I felt a pang when I realized I hadn't seen anything by Whedon onscreen since Serenity two years ago.

Anyway, there was a link to an incredibly charming webcomic Whedon did called "Sugarshock." It's exactly as fluffy as it sounds ("Dude, GWAR fell on your car!") but it -- I think I said this -- charmed me incredibly. And I felt a double-pang when I realized how good it was. Come back, Joss Whedon! Make Goners or whatever it is you have to do, just come back!

July 30, 2007 12:34

They Might Be Giants; Melted Brains; Futurama

I have almost -- but not quite -- nothing to blog about today, so I will simply note that I am grooving, really intensely, to "The Mesopotamians," off "The Else," the new album by nerd-rock legends They Might Be Giants. There's an intermittent quality to TMBG's brilliance, but I don't think that makes their genius any less genuine.

I've been scrounging around the Net for a functional stream of this song -- there may be one on Rhapsody here, but I think it's interacting weirdly with our corporate firewall; likewise it looks like there might be something on TMBG's site, but it requires an ultra-current version of Quicktime, and I don't have privileges to update software on my work machine...something in my brain just melted.

Oh, and yeah, speaking of intermittently brilliant, we're getting more Futurama.

July 27, 2007 12:21

Now in Paper-Vision: Neil Gaiman and Stardust

I wrote a short profile of Neil Gaiman in the print magazine this week. It's here. For those curious about Gaiman's presumably-now-lost English school novel, the full quote is as follows (I only had a measly page for this piece):

“Many years ago, when I was 17, I plotted my own story set in an English public school. Most of which I've now forgotten. I do remember that the hero was a werewolf, and whenever kids were accidentally killed, the biology teacher would snaffle the body – he was building this boy in the basement out of bits. And at the end all of the dead teachers came back to life, there was sort of this plague of zombies ripping the thing apart. And our decapitated hero had his eyes pecked out by the school peacock. And that for me was like trying to write a version of my own public school experience that was nicer and more fun.”

I can't help but feel for the young Neil Gaiman, whose name is even more easily mockable than my own.

The reason someone like Gaiman would have lunch with someone like me is that he's stumping for Stardust, which is, amazingly, the first big Hollywood movie based on one of his books. According to Gaiman, the big studios have been trying to get Stardust made for years -- Miramax optioned it in 1999, and had talks with Tom Cruise's production company (were they going to rename it Legend 2: Return of Meg Mucklebones?), but it stalled, and the rights reverted to Gaiman, who was relieved. He's friends with Alan Moore, and he'd seen what Moore went through with his movie adaptations. Not pretty.

July 27, 2007 12:11

Report from Comic-Con

I'm not there, but Time's got you covered. (Maybe that should be our new slogan. Did we have an old slogan?) Rebecca Winters Keegan, our one-person Los Angeles bureau, is covering it.

For a more granular breakdown of the Indy 4 presentation, swerve over to Ain't It Cool. Wow, Karen Allen looks good.

July 27, 2007 11:04

Three Die in Virgin Galactic Spaceship Test

Three people are dead and three more injured in an explosion that occurred at a spaceport in the Mojave Desert. These were people from Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's outfit, the folks who won the X-Prize with Spaceship One, who in latter days have morphed into Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's as-yet-notional space tourism outfit. Apparently they were doing a fairly safe rocket motor test, and nobody quite knows what went wrong.

I don't know why I find this so shocking. You build a spaceship, people are probably going to get hurt. I guess I thought of Scaled Composites as different, smarter and cheaper and safer than NASA -- they were supposed to be the "fun" space initiative. Maybe it seems different when you're dying for a bunch of future millionaire space tourists, instead of for science. Which is ridiculous, it's equally sad either way.

July 26, 2007 3:13

Rowling Speaks, Again

This time to USA Today. I wish they'd gotten her to talk more about Deathly Hallows. This is probably the most interesting quote:

"I'm sort of writing two things at the moment," she says. "One is for children and the other is not for children. The weird thing is that this is exactly the way I started writing Harry. I was writing two things simultaneously for a year before Harry took over. So one will oust the other in due course, and I'll know that's my next thing."

Update: OK, I'm just catching up with the stuff that came out on the Today show, thanks to commenter Matt S. Official version here on MSNBC, Wikipedia version here. She says:

“Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.”

Personally I don't see how Ron and Harry could have become Aurors without finishing another year at Hogwarts, given the rigorous academic requirements. So I'm going to assume they went back. I'm a little impressed that Ron squeaked in even with that final year, and a letter of recommendation from Kingsley Shacklebolt.

July 26, 2007 12:23

I'm Not at Comic-Con in San Diego

While I wasn't looking Comic-Con kinda sorta became the biggest event on the nerd-media calendar. You know, where everything happens and everything exciting gets previewed. I'm not there. Instead I'm stuck picking up dribs and drabs on the Internet like everybody else.

Said drabs include the trailer for Beowulf, which looks quite appealing. "300 with snow" would be one way to summarize it, though I think with Neil Gaiman writing the screenplay it'll be subtler and funnier and more literary than 300 was. It's shot in that weird semi-animated Polar Express-vision, which gives the faces a curiously inert quality, but probably allows for some rockin' FX elsewhere in the movie.

And oh yeah, it's in 3D. And Crispin Glover plays Grendel. Glover is terrifying in his human incarnation, so I can only imagine the emotions he inspires when in monster form. I once heard somebody suggest that the story of Beowulf and Grendel is really a story left over from the time when Neanderthals and Homo sapiens co-existed on earth -- basically it's a story about the last Neanderthals, and how the humans treated them as monsters. Food for thought.

Meanwhile, the Watchmen movie was cast. I don't know who any of these people are.

July 25, 2007 2:16

A Token Non-Harry-Potter-Related Post. Almost.

It still feels weird to post about anything besides Harry. Maybe that's why nothing else really seems worth posting about today anyway. A video of some astronauts throwing away an ammonia tank, in slow motion, in space? Some computer program is pretty good at poker? They're making a movie of the good-but-IMHO-overrated comic Y the Last Man?

I mean, the world hasn't ended. Penny Arcade is still funny. They seem to have mostly laid off Potter, but this one stays with me.

In other news, I've been rocking out to the Remus Lupins' "Loosen Your Tie" (there's an MP3 here.) Any other wizard rock recommendations? Gina? Are you still out there?

July 24, 2007 4:03

Rowling Speaks!

To Meredith Vieira. Rowling is on the Today show tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, and on Dateline on Sunday. NBC has released a partial transcript (transcribed with touching fidelity, I might add), which I'm slapping in below. No bombshells, but it's always great to hear the source speak. (Thanks to Jim Poniewozik for the hook-up.)

RE: THE RELEASE OF THE SEVENTH INSTALLMENT
VIEIRA: It's finally done.
ROWLING: I know.
VIEIRA: How does that feel?
ROWLING: Incredible.
VIEIRA: Incredible good? Incredible bad? A little bit of both?
ROWLING: At the moment-- it feels great, to be honest with you. It feels-- it's a really nice place to be. Yeah. Feel a big sense of achievement. I mean, I am sad. But I've been sadder. I need to be off...writing, I felt-- devastated.
VIEIRA: Really?
ROWLING: Uh-huh. Yeah. For about a week. I was hard to live with for about a week after I finished this book.
VIEIRA: Because-- because you realized it was over or because, I mean, you killed off some of the characters, too. I'm sure that was--
ROWLING: I think-- I think the whole thing. It was this amazing cathartic moment. The end of 17 years' work. And-- that was-- that was just hard to-- hard to deal with for about a week. And it was-- and it's very much tied into things I've done in my life for 17 years that brought back a lot of memories of what had been going on in my life when I started writing. So, yeah.
VIEIRA: Because when you started you were not in the same place you are now by any means.
ROWLING: No. And, in fact, when I started actually I was in a bad place. And then they-- then, you know, life has its ups and downs. So, I mean, Harry's been with me as a result. I think it was that feeling more than any other that I wouldn't have that world to retreat into again that was painful.

RE: HOW FAR BOOK SEVEN WAS FROM HER ORIGINAL VISION:
ROWLING: It's really close, particularly the last third of the book is as I always wanted it. It really is. The only exception would be the one character appears in that last third. And I thought that character was gonna die in Book Five when I started writing.
VIEIRA: Who was that?
ROWLING: Mr. Weasley. He was the person who got a reprieve. I-- when I sketched out the books, Mr. Weasley was due to die in Book Five.
VIEIRA: So what happened there? Why did he get the reprieve?
ROWLING: Well, I swapped him for someone else, and I don't want to say who for the people who haven't-- read. But I-- I made a decision as I went into writing Phoenix that I was gonna reprieve Mr. Weasley and I was gonna kill someone else. And if you finish the book, I expect you probably know and someone else who is a father.

RE: THE TOUGHEST PART TO WRITE
VIEIRA: Overall, the loss of which character brought you to tears?
ROWLING: Definitely the passage that I found hardest to write of all of them in all seven books and the one that made me cry the most is Chapter 34 in this one. But that was-- and that was partly because of the content—and partly because it had been planned for so long and been roughed out for so long. And to write the definitive version felt like a-- a huge climax.
VIEIRA: And can you tell us what was in 34?
ROWLING: It's when Harry sets off into the forest. Again. So that's my favorite passage of this book. And it's the part that when I finished writing, I didn't cry as I was writing, but when I finished writing, I had enormous explosion of emotion and I cried and cried and cried.

RE: WHAT SHE'S LEFT OUT OF PAST BOOKS AND THE FUTURE OF HARRY POTTER
VIEIRA: Were there other things that you left out that-- you wish you could have put in?
ROWLING: There have been all through the books, not just in this book. I've said before that-- Dean Thomas had a much more interesting history than ever appeared in the books for me. And you-- you just see glimpses of it. But to write it really would take us into prequel territory. And that does take us into Star Wars territory. And that's not really a place I'm -- I'm planning to go. [Oh, come on in! You'll get used to it. -- ed.] But-- yeah, so there's always been bits that I knew about characters that didn't make final cuts because they weren't that relevant. And I've said-- on my website I think I said that in a way I had to sacrifice Dean's back story for Neville's back story because, ultimately, Neville's back story was more central to the-- to the climax of the books as I knew it would be.
VIEIRA: We've also had a lot of e-mails-- from people that-- who have read the book now and have questions so I wanna go through some of them, set the record straight. Okay. Number one, 19 years later, who's the headmaster of Hogwarts?
ROWLING: Well, it would be someone new. McGonagle was really getting on a bit. So someone completely new. But if I ever do the encyclopedia, I'm promising I will give details.
VIEIRA: You're gonna do that, aren't you?
ROWLING: I think I probably will. But I'm not going to do it tomorrow. (LAUGHTER) 'Cause I'd really like a break. So you may be waiting--
VIEIRA: You mean you haven't started that yet? (LAUGHTER)
ROWLING: Well, in a way I suppose I have because the-- the raw material is all in-- in-- in my notes. But-- I wanna take a break from publishing for a little while. It would be a-- you know, I've still got a young family.
VIEIRA: Do you-- do Ron and Hermione or Harry ever return to Hogwarts in any capacity?
ROWLING: Well, I can well imagine Harry returning to give the odd talk on-- on defense against the dark arts. And-- I-- and, of course, the jinx is broken now because Voldemort's gone. Now they can keep a good Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from here on in. So that aspect of the—of the wizarding education is now provided for.

RE: ROWLING'S THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RELEASE OF HER FINAL BOOK
VIEIRA: Is it-- ending this series for you, is it a relief, or is there a sense of mourning? Or maybe a combination of the two?
ROWLING: Definitely both.
VIEIRA: Yeah?
ROWLING: Whole bundle of emotions wrapped up into one. Immediately after finishing writing, I was very...The first two days were terrible. Terrible. And--
VIEIRA: In what way? Tell me what you did.
ROWLING: Just-- I was incredibly low. I think what-- what-- what is probably hard for people to imagine is how wrapped up the 17 years' work is with what was going on in my life at the time. So it all-- it all merges into one. But I was-- I was mourning the loss of this world that I had written for so long and loved so much. I was also mourning the retreat it had been from-- from ordinary life, which it has been. And it forced me to look back at 17 years of my life and remember things. And it was very linked to my mother dying, which happened-- because, you know, a huge—this big long passage from my life is now rounded off. So inevitably you think about what was happening at the beginning of that passage. Inevitably, you're thrown back in-- you know, I went through the birth of three children. I went through different country. I went through two serious bereavements. Breakup of a marriage. And-- and then lots of happy memories, you know? My-- the birth of all three of my children and so on. But, you know, it threw me back into all that. I kept thinking about all of that. The first two days were tough. But the whole of the-- week after finishing writing, I was quite low. And then after a week, suddenly I felt something different. I woke up on kind of Day Eight and-- felt actually quite light-- light hearted and thought I can write whatever I like. And the pressure's off. And it's not as though Harry's gone-gone from my life because he'll always be in my life. And-- yeah, I did. I woke up after about a week and thought, "Oh, what an upside." You know? It's-- there is relief. Of course there's relief. All through, even through the depressed phase, this is my favorite book and I think it's my best book of the series--

July 24, 2007 10:35

A Dozen Really Good Points about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Even More Spoilers Here)

I've been wallowing in yesterday's massive comment trail, thought I'd pick out a few (of the many) good points that got made. Keep in mind that Rowling will give a couple of exit interviews this week -- I know she's giving one to USA Today -- so maybe she'll clear up a few of these? At any rate, if I were interviewing her, these are a few of the things I'd want to talk about:

1. The epilogue. Some people liked it, others didn't. I guess it's kind of a litmus test -- probably it plays poorly with guys like myself in their late 30's who are having mid-life crises and don't want to stop believin'.

Personally I see huge sequel potential in Harry Potter and the Mid-Life Crisis. Ginny and Hermione are sick of Harry and Ron drinking butterbeer every night and whining about the good old days when they used to run and round fighting and dodging curses. And only an invisibility cloak could hide Harry's steadily growing paunch. So one night, after a few shots of fire whiskey, Harry digs up that ol' Deathstick -- you know, just to make sure nobody's tampered with it -- and decides to take it for a spin...

2. Neville. JKR invested so much energy into transforming him from a Hopeless Scrub into the Shrub Stud. And yes, he gets a moment of glory beheading Nagini. But the true payoff would have been to see him taking down Bellatrix. Molly W. certainly earned her shot at Bellatrix -- she paid for it with her son -- but Neville had an equal claim. Maybe they could have double-teamed her? Or I would have been satisfied to see him pair off with Luna. But here's what I really want: for JKR to go back and retell each book from Neville's point of view, giving us his full backstory, what he did during the summers, etc...I guess that's what fan fiction is for.

3. Zé, yeah, it makes sense to me that Ron would replace poor Dead Fred at the Weasley Shop. Maybe George will get himself fitted with a prosthetic extendable ear?

4. Molly points out: "And has anyone else noticed that, once you understand the scene, the cover art completely gives away the ending? Mary GrandPre definitely deserves credit for the subtle depiction of that scene." This is so true. And I've said this before, but I am grateful every day that we're not stuck with those cartoony UK covers.

5. Kit makes a frickin' awesome point: "There was one thing that I was sad about. I wish that when Harry returned to the Headmaster's office and is applauded by all the portraits of the headmasters ... I wish that Rowling would have mentioned Snape having a portrait as well. He was a Headmaster, after all. And in HBP Dumbledore gets a portrait immediately after dying. I wish Snape had too." What a brilliant idea. Getting Harry's kid (middle-)named after you is great and all, but as a longtime Snapeophile, I would have wept to see a Snape portrait in the Headmaster's study. Can I at least get some fan art on this? Someone out there has to be working on Snape's Headmaster portrait...

6. Teddy, my lad: are you or aren't you? A Metamorphmagus who also turns into a werewolf: there's a thought. His fur could be any color he wanted. (whooops -- rereading comments, I see that chryssie got here ahead of me.)

7. Thanks for all correx. Right, it wasn't Ron, it was Fred on the Potterwatch who made the Snape/shampoo joke. And right, it was Bill who gave the goblin lecture, not Charlie. Speaking of whom, Bill came out of his mauling by Fenris pretty well, didn't he? After HBP I figured he was going to a) become all lupine and anti-social, and b) be so disfigured that it would basically be hard to look at him. But in DH he just seems a bit more rugged than usual.

8. The naming of the sprouts. No Lil' Sirius? Lil' Fred? Clearly Ginny and Hermione are going to have to keep at it -- they need more wee wizards to name.

9. Good question from KarenK: "If Voldemort truly was alone when he went to Godric's Hollow on Halloween night and was reduced to 'less than a spirit' when he fled, what happened to his phoenix-feather-core wand? Who kept it for him all those years when he was hiding in Albania?" Somebody shoulda just leaned that thing up against a curb and stepped on it. Snap.

10. re: somebody using magic for the first time later in life. I hadn't even heard this prediction, but if JKR said it, it must be so. But who is it? And does this mean there's still hope for my wizarding career? I could still turn up at Hogwarts...you know, as one of those creepy continuing ed students...

11. I do wonder what the final condition of the poor old Sorting Hat is. Is it charred but still serviceable? Or is it gone? Maybe they'll institute a new housing system now. As Dumbledore said, "Sometimes I think we Sort too soon..."

12. I'm legally changing my name to Leverus

July 23, 2007 10:19

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The Spoiler Post. This Post Contains Major Major Major Harry Potter Spoilers. Minor Ones Too.

[Seriously. This is the bit where we talk explicitly about the ending. I'm going to talk about it right now. Stop reading if you haven't already finished Deathly Hallows.]

I had a really great, trenchant, coherent post about the end of Deathly Hallows, which I then left in my apartment, along with my copy of Deathly Hallows itself. So I'm just going to skim off some general notes, from memory, off the top of my head, as a kind of appendix to my main review. Here they are:

-- if there's one loose end I thought JKR was going to work into Deathly Hallows, it was the doorway in the basement of the Ministry, the one where Sirius died. I just figured we'd learn something more about it: why it was there, where it led, who made it. But in a way I'm glad she left it mysterious, too. Rowling is a habitual overexplainer of things, so I can live with some ambiguity around the edges.

-- is it not hard cheese on Griphook -- or whatever that goblin's name was -- that the Sorting Hat nicks Gryffindor's sword at the end? Charlie really put some sweat into building up what a major deal it is when you screw a goblin on a deal. And then the Hat goes ahead and screws a goblin on a deal, and nothing happens? I don't buy it. Sorty better watch its back. (Though how awesome is it when Neville beheads Nagini? Totally reminds me of when Eowyn beheads that Nazgul's ride in Return of the King. How stoked is the actor who plays Neville right now? Answer: so stoked.)

-- And I had it wrong: in my mental inventory of death-predictions, Neville was definitely on my list to bite it. In fact, I was pretty surprised at the way Rowling handled the many deaths of Deathly Hallows. Partly I'd been bracing myself for one of the Big Three biting it, and I was just incredibly relieved when they made it through -- I guess she decided to pile up a lot of minor deaths instead of clipping one of the headliners. When Hedwig and Mad-Eye hit the skids right off the bat, and George got his ear sectumsempraed, I knew the bloodbath was on. But I found the many deaths of the last few chapters oddly underplayed. I mean, Tonks and Lupin died offstage! No death scene! Snape shuffles off pretty briskly, too. I suppose that's the way it happens in real life. Maybe it's because I'm a twin myself, but as it was the only one whose demise I fully felt the impact of was poor old Fred. It's always doubly sad when a comic character turns tragic. (I should note that I was reading fast toward the end, and in an altered state -- it was 7 in the morning -- and it's very very possible that when I reread Deathly Hallows the deaths will play differently. I found that to be the case with Dumbledore's death in Half-Blood Prince.)

-- Speaking of whom. I had hoped to see more of Snape in this final volume. He's been my favorite character for a while now, and it's always a pleasure to see him in his bad-ass double-agent capacity, as we did in the (authentically creepy) first chapter of Deathly Hallows. But he disappears from so much of the middle of the book, and I kind of wish he'd confessed his love for Lily directly to Harry at the end, instead of delivering it as a Pensievegram. I've always felt -- and by now this is Rowling Reviewer's Cliche #214 -- that she relies on the Pensieve too much for handy exposition. Where's Alan Rickman's big death scene? Does JKR want to deny him his Oscar? (And I think it was Ron who charred Snape with that line about the shampoo. Nice one, Ron.)

-- That fancy Elder Wand. Personally I woulda hung on to it, but I guess that's why I'm not a boy wizard. One thing though: if Grindelwald was rockin' the Deathstick, how did Dumbledore best him in a duel? What am I missing?

-- That Epilogue. Sigh. It's the only part of Deathly Hallows that I was really disappointed by -- the only part that left me thinking, I can't believe that's it. I mean, we knew they would all couple off. We kinda figured they'd beget all kinds of offspring and name them after their dead friends (though it was quite charitable of Harry and Ginny to throw Severus a bone). Come on now! Is Harry an auror? Is Hermione Hogwarts' youngest headmistress ever? Is Ron Accioing shopping carts at the local C-town and working on his magical GED? That's all we get -- the three amigos declining in suburban splendor? And what does that mean, Harry's scar hasn't hurt for 19 years? Of course it hasn't! Right? Or? Now I'm full of doubts. After all the joking about it, Rowling really did kinda pull a Sopranos on us.

I realize this post comes off as kind of gripy. Which it isn't intended to. With all pressure on her, and the bar as high as it was, Rowling stepped up and delivered a thoroughly satisfying finale, and that's just a stunning achievement. I just don't really want to stop talking about it, so I'm down to nitpicks. Got any more?

July 22, 2007 4:04

Post-Potter Thoughts

NOTE: This entry contains no plot details from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but may still be slightly spoiler-ish.

Well, I’m finished with Deathly Hallows. I turned the last page at 8:45 Saturday night (I took two four-hour breaks for sleep), and I’m still thinking about it and trying to absorb everything. I loved it. I really did. But it was so, so, different from all the other Harry Potter books. All the others have had a definite climax, near the end of the school year, followed by a wrap-up talk with Dumbledore, and usually a train ride home. In the past few books, that climax has involved a major death, and usually many tears from fans. In Deathly Hallows, however, there were emotional bits all over the place. And rather than a definite ending/climax (though there was one), I felt the book was split up into three or four parts, each with its own intrigue and, unfortunately, deaths.

And that was not the only change in Deathly Hallows. I also felt that this volume lacked a major twist at the end. In other words, the ending could have been, and was, guessed in some respects. But the beauty of this novel (and all the Harry Potter novels) was in the small details, that came completely from Jo’s imagination, and that no fan ever thought of. So I don’t really mind that the ending wasn’t a total shock—as Lev said in his review, it was inevitable that somebody online would have guessed it—because Jo put her own unique twist on it that made it fresh and new.

Similarly, I didn’t mind that not all ends were wrapped up. I never expected to find out some of the burning questions of Harry Potter fans, because many of then are simply inconsequential. What I loved, again, was that Jo included details that I had never thought to guess about. One example (and this is a terribly minor spoiler), is how Dumbledore broke his nose. I can’t speak for every fan, but I never wondered about that, and I never thought that we would know the answer. But as soon as it was revealed, I was wonderfully satisfied. The answers to questions I had never asked were, to me, more noteworthy than the non-answers to questions I had asked.

And just one more thing about the book as a whole—it was very dark. Of course it was, I didn’t expect anything else. But another thing for which I must commend the author was, as I wrote in my notes, “the little happy scenes throughout.” These small scenes of joy in such dark times almost made me cry in their own right, for they were so rare and often unexpected. It was, as I had predicted, an emotional roller coaster, but I closed the book very satisfied. And now that I’ve collected my thoughts, I’ll start again tonight, provided that I can steal my book back. Four copies among five people in my house do not seem to be enough.

July 21, 2007 11:19

That Harry Potter Review I Was Talking About Before

My review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is here. (For the record I did turn it in at 5:30 today, but didn't get around to the blog till now.) It's about as spoiler-negative as a coherent review can be, but if you haven't read the book, and want to go in pristine, I'd steer clear. Otherwise, steer on in. I will be posting -- and soliciting -- further thoughts on Monday, about the ending and all that stuff, that will be very definitely spoiler-positive.

July 21, 2007 1:56

The Night of the Deathly Hallows

It’s here. I’ve got it. I picked up my copy at 00:30, and haven’t set it down since. But I haven’t started reading. Right now I’m just clutching it, putting off the moment that I will read the first sentence of a Harry Potter book for the last time. I have read the dedication and the list of chapter titles. The former almost made me cry, while the latter piqued my interest greatly. I can tell this book is going to be amazing.

Tonight has already been long, full, and exciting. At about 8 pm I arrived at the street party Scholastic was holding in SoHo, New York. They had various activities, such as face-painting, a board to write memories on, and a place to take your picture in a cut-out of the US cover. But mainly my friends and I wandered around, absorbing everything. The atmosphere was absolutely amazing—everyone was cheery, everyone was friendly. People in elaborate costumes were willing to pose for picture upon picture with fans. Whenever we got in to a line, we invariably ended up making conversation with the people around us, about either predictions for Deathly Hallows or something entirely different.

Then we walked over to Union Square, where a massive party was taking place in the Barnes and Noble bookstore. After fighting our way through a mob outside, we made it up to the top floor right before it was closed, just as Jim Dale began reading extracts from the earlier books. Instead of craning our necks to see him, we sat at the back with a group of people and watched him on a TV screen. It was amazing to be hearing the Harry Potter books being read aloud with so many fans around you. Everyone laughed at all the jokes, even though we knew they were coming, and (almost) everyone was willing to participate in a loud chorus of Hogwarts’ school song. Once again my theory about the kindness of Harry Potter fans was confirmed—all of us in the group at the back were talking and laughing and sharing memories of Potter, and everyone in the store joined in at the countdown to midnight. It felt like New Year’s Eve, but a million times better.

And then, finally, we started to line up for the book. For a while this mainly consisted of trying to push our way to the front of a crowd, but we soon got to an actual line, and in half an hour we had the books in our hands, and were running out of the store, massive smiles on our faces and tears in our eyes. And now I’m off to read that first sentence. It’s going to be a very emotional weekend.

July 20, 2007 5:40

Counting Down the Minutes

Well, we’re almost there. Less than two hours to go for those in the UK and beyond, and less than seven for the rest of us. In Australia, where the release time is 9 am on Saturday, friends of mine are queuing outside Borders (having woken up at 4 am). In London, fans who were lucky enough to win a contest are eagerly waiting the first reading of Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. If you’re not at a party by that time, tune in to Scholastic.com at 6:50 EST to catch the reading.

Here in New York, we still have some hours to go, but festivities are already starting to kick off. A Scholastic-run street fair started at 5 pm in SoHo, and at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square, there have already been lines round the block to get just a wristband to mark a place in line at midnight. I arrived at 10 am, when the store opened, and waited two hours for my wristband—number 407. Rumors were milling throughout the line that lucky number 1 had started camping late yesterday afternoon.

It really is almost upon us now. People are, one by one, signing offline for the last time before the book, often with long posts about everything Harry Potter has meant to them. The common salute is “see you on the other side,” which somehow seems very fitting. So here’s to a magical night, and “To Harry Potter— the boy who lived!”

July 20, 2007 12:12

T Minus 12 Hours and Still Spoiler-Free

Potter fatigue yet? Yes? Wimps.

Go read this, my paper-edition take on Internet anonymity and the John Mackey scandal. It will make you pine for Hogwarts. (Also this week we have