Post Deathly Hallows Information!

This page is going to host all the post Deathly Hallows information we get from JK Rowling about the characters and books. For now it is going to be kind of jumbled but once I get more information up it will be better organized.

———————————————————————————————— Meredith Vieira: You know, you left us hanging a little bit. J.K. Rowling: A little. But I have to say that I – it would have been humanly impossible to answer every single question that comes up. Because I am dealing with a level of obsession in some of my fans that will not rest until they know the middle names of Harrys great-great-grandparents. Meredith Vieira: (LAUGHTER) Well, yeah, people have gotten a little obsessive. J.K. Rowling: Yeah, I love it. Im all for that. Im delighted they feel that way. But, you know, this is – its a book. You know? Maybe one day therell be an encyclopedia and that would be a different – a different kettle of fish. But within a novel, within a novel, you have to resist the urge to tell everything ———————————- Meredith Vieira: And as you would put it: All is well. J.K. Rowling: Exactly. From the Today Show Transcript ————————————————————————————————

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Harry Potter

• Harry pops up[to Hogwarts] every now and again to give the odd talk on Defense Against the Dark Arts
• What child did Harry give the marauders map to if any? Ive got a feeling he didnt give it to any of them, but that James sneaked it out of his fathers desk one day.
• Can Harry speak Parseltongue when he is no longer a horcrux? No, he loses the ability, and is very glad to do so.
• Why is the scar on Harrys forehead lightning shaped? To be honest, because its a cool shape. I couldnt have my hero sport a doughnut-shaped scar.
• Why was Kings Cross the place Harry went to when he died? 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 (dont forget that it is Harrys image we see, not necessarily what is really there.
• Q: What did Dumbledore write in the letter to make the Dursleys take Harry?
  JKR: Very, very good question. As you know, as we find out in book seven, Petunia once really wanted to be part of that world. And you discover that Dumbledore has written to her prior to the Howler…Dumbledore wrote to her very kindly and explained why he couldn’t let her come to Hogwarts to become a witch. So, Petunia, much as she denies it afterwards, much as she turns against that world when she met Uncle Vernon, who is the biggest anti-wizard you could ever met in your life, a tiny part of her, and that’s the part that almost wished Harry luck when she said goodbye to him in this book, she just teetered on the verge of saying, I do know what you’re up against and I hope it’s OK. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Years of pretending she doesn’t care have hardened her. But Dumbledore appealed in the letter you’re asking about, so that part of Petunia that did remember wanting desperately to be part of the world and he appealed to her sense of fair play to a sister that she had hated because Lily had what she couldn’t have. So that’s how she persuaded Petunia to keep Harry. Good question.
• When Harry was stabbed by a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, since he was a Horcrux shouldn’t it have been destroyed then?
  JKR: I have been asked that a lot. Harry was exceptionally fortunate in that he had Fawkes. So before he could be destroyed without repair, which is what is necessary to destroy a horcrux, he was mended. However, I made sure that Fawkes wasn’t around the second time a Horcrux got stabbed by a basilisk fang, so the poison did its work and it was irreparable within a short period of time…. I established early in the book, Hermione says that you destroy a Horcrux by using something so powerful that there’s no remedy. But she does say there is a remedy for basilisk poison but of course it has to be administered immediately and when they stab the cup later – boy I’m really blowing this for anyone who hasn’t finished the book – there’s Fawkes, is my answer. And thank you for giving me a chance to say that because people have argued that quite a lot.
• Q: Harry often wondered about his parents lives before he died. What did Lily, James, Remus, Lupin and Sirius do after Hogwarts?
  JKR: To take Remus first, Remus was unemployable. Poor Lupin, prior to Dumbledore taking him in, lead a really impoverished life because no one wanted to employ a werewolf. The other three were full-time members of the Order of the Phoenix. If you remember when Lily, James and co. were at school, the first war was raging. It never reached the heights that the second war reached, because the Ministry was never infiltrated to that extend but it was a very bad time, the same disappearances, the same deaths. So that’s what they did, they left school. James has gold, enough to support Sirius and Lily. So I suppose they lived off a private income. But they were full-time fighters, that’s what they did, until Lily fell pregnant with Harry. So then they went into hiding.

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Hermione Granger-Weasley

• 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.
• What was the third smell that Hermione smelt in the amortentia potion in hbp (i.e. the particular essence of Ron)? I think it was his hair. Every individual has very distinctive-smelling hair, dont you find?
• Was Hermione able to find her parents and undo the memory damage? Yes, she brought them home straight away.

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Ron Weasley

• Ron [in addition to being an Auror, I think] joined George at Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner
• Why did Dumbledore want Ron to keep his deluminator? Because he knew that Ron might need a little more guidance than the other two. Dumbledore understood Rons importance in the trio. He wasnt the most skilled, or the most intelligent, but he held them together; his humour and his good heart were essential.
• Do you think Dumbledore was a little fonder of Ron than either Ron or Harry believed? Yes, I do. Through Harrys account of Ron, and from reports of the professors who taught Ron, Dumbledore understood Ron better than Ron ever knew, and liked him, too.

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The Trio

• Jobs: Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. So Harry and Ron lead the way in recreating the new Auror Department. I would imagine that Harry is heading up that department, which is not corrupt in any way. And Hermione shes now pretty high up in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. Where I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the dark arts operate would really give her a sound grounding. So theyre all at the ministry but its a very new ministry. They made a new world.
• Will we see Harry and his friends having their own history on chocolate frogs cards? Definitely, and Ron will describe this as his finest hour.

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Severus Snape:

• Do you think Snape is a hero?: 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. Thats pretty heroic!
• Did Lily ever have feelings back for Snape? 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 loathsome people and acts.
• Does the wizarding world now know that Snape was Dumbledores man, or do they still think he did a bunk? Harry would ensure that Snapes heroism was known. Of course, that would not stop Rita Skeeter writing Snape: Scoundrel or Saint?
• How come no one seemed to know that Lily and Snape were friends in school they were obviously meeting for chats, etc didnt James know their past? It was known that they were friendly and then stopped being friends. Nothing more than that would be widely known. James always suspected Snape harbored deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James behaviour to Snape.
• Why was Snape so badly groomed? 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!
• Was Snape the only Death Eater who could produce a full Patronus? Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.
• How did Snape keep his Patronus secret from the rest of the order? 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, i.e., as spy, meant that sending a Patronus to any of them might have given away his true allegiance.
• 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? Snape entered the house immediately after Dumbledores death, before Moody put up the spells against him.
• Q: Is Severus Snape’s portrait in the headmaster’s office?
  JKR: Some have been asking why hasn’t the portrait appeared immediately. It doesn’t. The reason is that the perception in the castle itself and everyone who was in the castle, because Snape kept his secret so well was that he abandoned his post. So all the portraits you see in the headmaster’s study are all headmasters and mistresses who died, it’s like British royals. You only get good press if you die in office. Abdication is not acceptable, particularly if you marry and American. I’m kidding! [laughter] I digress. I know, because I thought this one through, because it was very important to me, I know Harry would have insisted that Snape’s portrait was on that wall, right beside Dumbledore’s. [Applause.] As for whether Harry would go back to talk to him, I think, I’m not sure he would have done. Snape, I was really [?] the week after I finished the book. And I went to a chat room – not a chat room, what am I talking about? [laughter] I never go in chat rooms. I went onto a fan site because I was looking for questions to put up on my Web site, which is sometimes difficult. And I was so heartened to see that people on the message boards that people were still arguing about Snape. The book was out, and they were still arguing whether Snape was a good guy But that was really wonderful to me, because there’s a question there, was Snape a good guy or not? In many ways he really wasn’t. So I haven’t been deliberately misleading everyone all this time, when I say that he’s a good guy. Because even though he did love and he loved very deeply and he was very brave, both qualities that I admire above anything else. He was bitter and he was vindictive… but right at the very very end, he did, as your question acknowledges, acheive a kind of peace together and I tried to show that in the epilogue.

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Voldemort

• How did he get his wand back? 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!
• Whose murders did Voldemort use to create each of the horcruxes?
  • 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.
• 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?Yes, Voldemort accidentally broke his soul into eight parts, not seven.
• 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)? 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.
• 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? No, he is not a ghost. He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in Kings Cross.
• How come Voldemort was no longer employing occlumency against Harry, as he was in the 6th book? 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.
• Did Voldemort ever love a girl? No, he loved only power, and himself. He valued people whom he could use to advance his own objectives

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The Weasleys

• Arthur Weasley:
  • As I went into writing Phoenix that I was going to reprieve Mr. Weasley and I was going to kill someone else (two people actually).
  • Did Mr. Weasley ever get around to fixing Sirius motorbike? Of course, and it ended up in Harrys possession.
  • How different would the last two books be if Arthur had been killed in the middle of book five? I think they would have been very different and it’s part of the reason why I chose my mind. … By turning Ron into half of Harry, in other words by turning Ron into someone who had suffered the loss of a parent, I was going to remove the Weasleys as a refuge for Harry and I was going to necessarily remove a lot of Ron’s humor. That’s part of the reason why I didn’t kill Arthur. I wanted to keep Ron intact … a lot of Ron’s humor comes from his insensitivity and his immaturity, to be honest about Ron. And Ron finally, I think, you see, grows up in this book. He’s the last of the three to reach what I consider adulthood, and he does it then [ when he destroys the horcrux] and faces those things. So that’s part of the reason. The only other reason I didn’t kill Arthur was that I wanted to come full circle. We started with an orphan, someone who lost their parents because of the war. And so I wanted to show it again. … Even though you don’t see Teddy, I wanted to express in the epilogue, that he gets an even better godfather than Harry had, because Sirius had his faults, I think we must admit. He was a risky guy to have as a godfather. Because Teddy gets someone who really has been there, and Harry becomes a really great father figure for Teddy as well as his own children. I hasten to add that I didn’t kill Lupin or Tonks lightly. I loved them as characters…so that hurt, killing them.
• Fred Weasley:
  • Freds Death: I always knew it was going to be Fred. I think that most people would have expected it to be George I think. Because thats the ringleader. Hes always been the instigator. Hes slightly harder than George. George is slightly gentler. Fred is normally the funnier but also the crueler of the two. So they might have thought that George would be the more vulnerable one and, therefore, the one to die. Either one of them would have been terrible to kill. It was awful killing Fred. I hated that.
• George Weasley: I dont 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.
• Molly Weasley:
  • How did you decide that Molly Weasley would be the one to finish off Bellatrix? I always knew Molly was going to finish her off. I think there was some speculation that Neville would do it, because Neville obviously has a particular reason to hate Bellatrix. ..So there were lots of options for Blelatrix, but I never deviated. I wanted it to be Molly, and I wanted it to be Molly for two reasons.The first reason was I always saw Molly as a very good witch but someone whose light is necessarily hidden under a bushel, because she is in the kitchen a lot and she has had to raise, among others, and george which is like, enough… I wanted Molly to have her moment and to show that because a woman had dedicated herself to her family does not mean that she doesn’t have a lot of other talents.Second reason: It was the meeting of two kinds of – if you call what Bellatrix feels for Voldemort love, I guess we’ll call it love, she has a kind of obsession with him, it’s a very sick obsession … and I wanted to match that kind of obsession with maternal love… the power that you give someone by loving them. So Molly was really an amazing exemple of maternal love. … There was something very satisfying about putting those two women together.
• Ginny Weasley-Potter: 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
• Percy Weasley: The new improved Percy ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.

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The Lupins

• Dora Tonks-Lupin: Tonks was killed by Bellatrix
• Remus Lupin: Remus was killed by Dolohov
• Teddy Lupin:
  • Teddy was raised by Andromeda [Grandmother]
  • Teddy Lupin is obviously okay. He has an ongoing relationship with Harry and hes got a very good-looking girlfriend because hes kissing in the epilogue Bill and Fleurs eldest daughter. (Victoire)
  • Hes a Metamorphmagus like his mother.

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Luna Lovegood

• I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures, shes a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is.
• She ended up marrying (rather later than Harry & co) a fellow naturalist and grandson of the great Newt Scamander (Rolf)!

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Albus Dumbledore

• What he saw in the Mirror of Erised: He saw his family alive, whole and happy – Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.
• What is Dumbledores boggart? The corpse of his sister
• What muggle song do you imagine would be played at Dumbledores funeral? Surely I did it my way by Frank Sinatra.
• Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself? My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extend, but he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!” [laughter] “If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!”
• Q: Why couldn’t Harry speak to a portrait of Dumbledore throughout the last book?
  Well there are two reasons, three reasons actually… The last bit, why did he have to decode? As Dumbledore says to Harry…to tell Harry about the Hallows was to tempt him. And Harry, throughout all seven books has been incredibly impetuous and reckless. That’s one of Harry’s biggest flaws. He does tend to act without thinking, and Dumbledore knows this about Harry. He wants him to work it out slowly enough to gain wisdom along the way. That’s why he passed the information through Hermione, who is the most cautious person in the books, as you know. And Dumbledore says explicitly, so your good heat isn’t overcome by your hot heads. Or I may have paraphrased myself slight there so forgive me. “She doesn’t even know her own book!” [laughter] Yes so that’s one reason. Harry needs to decode. He said, he does say in this book, he’s frightened by his decision not to race for the wand, because he had never chosen not to act. So that’s Harry’s real big coming of age moment, that he’s decided to hold back for the first time very in his life. So the other two reasons that I have for him not to speak to Dumbledore’s portrait, first of all, I created a lot of rules for this world and then later had to navigate my away around them. But this rule was always good, and the rule was that portraits could only move between portraits in the same building. so if I’m in a picture and you’re in a picture and we’re both in Carnegie Hall, then we can move into each other’s pictures. Otherwise we can only move only to other places where we have a portrait. You can’t just move willy nilly through all the – the Louvre, the Met – you can’t do a world tour, as a picture person. You are limited by geography. So there was that reason. And then lastly of course, the third reason, is it really would be too easy and I wouldn’t have had a plot.

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Draco Malfoy

• Did Draco and Harry lose their animosity towards each other when Voldemort died? 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.
• Is Scorpius as misguided as his father, or has Draco improved and taught his child(ren) better? 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!
• Q: Does Malfoy owe Harry a debt?
  JKR: That’s a great question and a lot of people wanted to know that. When Dumbledore said to Harry, Voldemort won’t want a close associate who is in your debt, I wasn’t implying by that there was any kind of magical bond there. It was more that Dumbldore’s extensive wisdom and knowledge of human nature, he knew as Harry later thinks in book seven, he knew that Pettigrew would react a certain way to having saved his life. … He’s weak, fundamentally weak. Pettigrew is a very weak character. He’s not someone I like at all. He’s a weak person and he likes to gravitate to people who are stronger. Dumbledore is right. Pettigrew had an impulsive mercy… would Malfoy be in Harry’s debt? I think the very worst burden Harry could have put Malfoy under was this one, that Malfoy has to feel any kind of gratitude. So I tried to show that slightly in the epilogue when they look slightly at each other and there’s a, “Hi. It’s so embarrassing, you saved my life. No one will ever let me forget it.” I think, does he owe him a debt, probably not. I think Malfoy would go 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.

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Other:

• Q: Did Hagrid ever get married and have children?
  [Aww from crowd] JKR: Oh, did Hagrid ever get married and have children? No. [awwws again] I may change that immediately due to the look on your face. Yes! He had 22! – No, no, Hagrid never did marry and have children. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Oh I feel terrible now. I’ll write another book! [Ovation] Realistically, Hagrid’s pool of potential girlfriends is extremely limited. Because with the giants killing each other off, the number of giantesses around is infinitesimal and he met one of the only, and I’m afraid, she thought he was kind of cute, but she was a little more, how should I put it, sophisticated than Hagrid. So no, bless him. [Awws] I kept him alive, come on! [Applause.]
• Kingsley Shacklebolt: Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic
• Neville Longbottom:
  • Did Neville ever find love? Of course. … To make him extra cool he marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.
• Winky: Shes still at Hogwarts, and she was one of the oncoming house-elves who attacked the Death Eaters in the final battle.
• Dudley Dursley:
  • Superhans: What was Dudleys 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.
• Petunia Dursley:
  • What did Petunia want to say to Harry at the end of the Dursleys departing? 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 couldnt do it; years of pretending that normal was best had hardened her too much.
• Umbridge: She was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.
• Aberforth Dumbledore:
  • What Happened to him: He is still there, at the Hogs Head, playing with his goats.
  • In the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore said his brother was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms [JKR buries her head, to laughter] on a goat; what were the inappropriate charms he was practicing on that goat? I think that he was trying to make a goat that was easy to keep clean [laughter], curly horns. That’s a joke that works on a couple of levels. I really like Aberforth and his goats. But you know Aberforth having this strange fondness for goats if you’ve read book seven, came in really useful to Harry, later on, because a goat, a stag, you know. If you’re a stupid Death Eater, what’s the difference. So, that is my answer to YOU.
• Firenze the Centaur:
  • Was Firenze ever welcomed back into the herd? Yes, the rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenzes pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.
• Viktor Krum:
  • Did Krum ever find love? Of course, though he had to go back to his native Bulgaria to do so.
• Hedwig:
  • Why did you feel that Hedwigs death was necessary? 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. Im sorry… I know that death upset a LOT of people!
• Bellatrix Lestrange:
  • Did Bellatrix ever love her husband, or did she have love only for Voldemort? She took a pureblood husband, because that was what was expected of her, but her true love was always Voldemort.
• Marietta Edgecombe:
  • Did Mariettas pimply formation ever fade? Eventually, but it left a few scars. I loathe a traitor!

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Other Information:

• Rosi: What does in essence divided mean? J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore suspected that the snakes essence was divided – that it contained part of Voldemorts 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 snakes eyes, just as he regularly sees through Voldemorts. Dumbledore is thinking aloud here, edging towards the truth with the help of the Pensieve. 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 Snapes 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.
• What does it mean to be the master of Death? 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.
• How exactly do muggleborns receive magical ability? 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.
• Will the Chuddley Cannons ever win the Quidditch World Cup? Bless them, perhaps. But theyd need to replace the entire team and down several cauldrons of Felix Felicias.
• Why did Regulus have a change of heart? He was not prepared for the reality of life as a Death Eater. It was Voldemorts attempted murder of Kreacher that really turned him.
• James Patronus is a stag and Lilys a doe. Is that a coincidence? No, the Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of ones life (because they so often become the happy thought that generates a Patronus).
• What is the incantation for creating a horcrux? I cannot possibly tell you. Some things are better left unsaid.
• Does the dark mark remain on those that Voldemort has branded after his death or does the tattoo disappear now he is gone? The Dark Mark would fade to a scar, not dissimilar to the lightning scar on Harrys forehead. Like Harrys, these scars would no longer burn or hurt.
• Did the DA keep the coins? 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.
• Q: Since Ron is able to speak Parseltongue in the last book, does that mean that parseltongue is a language that most witches and wizards can learn or must a person be born with some ability to speak Parseltongue.
  JKR: I don’t see it really as a language you can learn. So few people speak it that who would teach you? This is a weird ability passed down through the Slytherin blood line. However Ron was with Harry when he said one word in Parseltongue, which I do not know so I cannot duplicate for you, but he heard him say “Open,” and he was able to reproduce the sound. So it was one word. Whether he could learn to speak to snakes properly is a separate issue. I don’t think he could. But he knew enough, he was smart enough, to duplicate one necessary sound.
• Q: Many of us older readers have noticed over the years similarities between the Death Eaters tactics and the Nazis from the 30s and 40s. Did you use that historical era as a model for Voldemort’s reign and what were the lessons that you hope to impart to the next generation?
  It was conscious. I think that if you’re, I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime we would think Nazi Germany. There were parallels in the ideology. I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel. It wasn’t really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it’s taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love. [Laughter and applause.] So you ask what lessons, I suppose. The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think ti’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that’s it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.

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What Didnt Happen?:

• Mr. Weasley was reprieved and instead Tonks and Lupin were killed
• Last sentance/word: For a long time the last line was something like: Only those who he loved could see the lightning scar. And that was in reference to the fact that as they were on the platform, people were milling around.
• Have you had other alternatives as book title apart from Deathly Hallows? 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!

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Not Book Stuff:

• The most flattering thing that Ive ever been told-and I have been told it quite a lot-is that the Harry Potter books were the first that made people interested in reading. And theres nothing better than that. If thats what Harry did, then thats the best thing I could possibly, possibly hear.
• Q: What did it feel like completing your first Harry Potter book versus completing the last?
  JKR: What a great question. It felt strangely similar actually. Both feelings were more alike than with any of the other books. When I finished the first book, there was this incredible sense of achievement that i’d actually written a novel, i”d actually finished my book. And it was after seven years of writing and making notes and rewriting. And then when I finished the seventh book, that was 17 years. With the seventh book there was a huge feeling of loss as well. I couldn’t believe I was done. And it took me weeks, as my poor, long-suffering husband will attest. He’s here. [applause] Yes, you should clap him, he’s very patient! [ovation] He’s not the type to stand up and take a bow but trust me. Toward the end of a book i’m not that easy to live with. Yes Neil would bear witness to the fact that for weeks, really… it felt like a bereavement. I knew it was coming. I was prepared, I knew it would hurt, and it was huge. So, that’s why I’m glad to be here and talk about it. Thank you.

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Sources:

• Today Show Transcript
• Part One Today Show Interview
• Bloomsbury Live Chat
• Open Book Tour NYC