Hermione has a sister, or at least she had a sister. Rowling wrote her in in the beginning, but it’s been so long our author hasn’t decided yet whether or not to keep her canon.
She was originally going to write some scenes with Hermione the witch trying to interact with her family. They got cut early on.
She’s strongly hinted that we’re going to hear a lot more about it – so you get your wish here
She told us once that some of the teachers have spouses, but there was a good reason they hadn’t been brought up. She said we’d eventually find that out. Since we haven’t, it must be for book 7.
She estimates 2 years. She wants to spend this first year with her new daughter Mackenzie, and believes that it’ll take a year to write book 7.
Of course, she’s also said that she gets eager to write if she’s away from it long, and has already drawn up part of the plan for 7. So maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll start early.
Frankly, I hope so too. Dumbledore said that, as far as he knew, the only surviving artifact of Goderic Gryffindor was the sword that Harry killed the basilisk with. And it doesn’t seem like Voldemort has ever had a chance to make that item a horcrux. So some artifact of Ravenclaw’s seems more likely. Unless the last horcrux is something else entirely.
She confirmed in the interview posted yesterday that Harry’s grandparents on the Lily/Petunia side died of ordinary Muggle causes, and that his grandparents’ on James’ side of the family died of common wizarding illnesses (there are some magical illnesses that only wizards get, like Dragon Pox).
None of their deaths fir into the story in any larger way, and have nothing to do with Voldemort. Rowling said she killed them off for story considerations – Petunia had to be Harry’s last remaining close relative, so he’d be forced to live with the Dursleys.
She did tell us a little about James’ family in that interview. They were “elderly” when they had him – I presume that means at the end of their childbearing years, though since wizards live longer, that would be elderly in Muggle terms. They were Pureblood. James was an only child, and rather spoiled.
We know from previous interviews that they were wealthy (the fortune in galleons came to James from them) and that the invisibility cloak is an old family heirloom. and the books told us that they half-adopted Sirius, so they were probably fairly nice people.
I didn’t see it that way – for me, the only difficult issue was size. It’s part of the ongoing theme of love conquering all – in Mr. Hagrid’s case, it crossed all the physical and cultural boundaries imaginable.
When you look at his son, the way he dotes on bloodthirsty horrors as if they were cute puppies or kittens, it seems to be a trait that runs in the family.
She said once that while the stories are largely planned and set in stone, sometimes she lets the characters wander off and do their own thing if it doesn’t interfere with the larger storyline.
SPEW came out of that – it seemed like something Hermione would do, and wasn’t planned at first.
Interestingly, in book 1, Harry knows exactly where the kitchen is, and then in book 4 he doesn’t – so I wonder if the house Elves of Hogwarts were even in the original design.
She answered very recently that when Voldemort chose Harry, Neville was no longer a factor in the prophecy. It doesn’t tie him mystically to Harry at all.
Indeed, she said in that interview yesterday that the prophecy would never have worked if Voldemort hadn’t chose to act on it, and – if Harry and Voldemort both chose – the two of them could agree not to fulfill it.
She said she was fascinated by Macbeth, and that was the inspiration – she believes the witches weren’t foretelling the future, but setting all the events of the play into motion. None of it would have happened without them.
Thus, since Voldemort didn’t involve Neville in the prophecy, he has nothing to do with it.
She’s strongly implied there’s something up with Dumbledore’s family. From yesterday’s interview:
(That was a great interview. From that, we discover that Ron’s Patronus is a Jack Russell Terrier, which will look very funny next to Harry’s magnificient stag and Tonks’ werewolf :))
And vtynos, if the last paragraph is like that, I’m asking for my money back. I doubt it will be, though, since she’s confirmed a couple of times that we’re going to get a chapter at the very end of the last book telling us what’ll happen to the survivors after year 7. If the survivors are all in Harry’s head, that’s unlikely to happen.
There are dozens of students we hear about and never see. They usually just get attached years (“a sixth year” “a first year”). McClaggan was likely always there and never mentioned. In book 5, Blaise Zabini (who was named in book 1) is merely refered to as “a stringy Slytherin” who can see Thestrals. Harry doesn’t know his name because he’s never interacted with Blaise.
She did get the name recently. She mentioned in an interview before the book came out that she’d recently heard the name, and decided to steal it for one of her characters. She may have changed the name (she’s done that with quite a few). Anyway, after fans heard that, there was wild speculation about McClaggan being the DADA teacher or the Half-Blood Prince.
Well, the whole point of the Half-Blood Prince’s book is that there’s more than one way to make a potion. Maybe in all his experimenting, Snape found a really easy way to make a complicated potion.
Or maybe he just forgot. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them notes that Snape was wrong about Kappas when he took over Lupin’s class, and Defence Against the Dark Arts is supposed to be his specialty.
A good decision. Giving every character a backstory and a complicated, plot relavant family tree is getting a little old. I like that she left out Hermiones.
I swear one of the books mentioned Dumbledore having a still-living brother somewhere. I wouldn’t be suprised if he were brought in as a Dumbledore replacement in the next book.
Harry mentions at the end of THBP that Fawkes, like his master, is gone forever.
I’m almost positive Snape had the hots for HP’s mom, and that he blames Harry for her death as she died protecting him. This also explains his hatred for JP and why Snape was so torn up about having given Voldemort the prophecy that led to Lily Potter’s death. Also would explain why Dumbledore trusted Snape so explicitly, as Snape probably hates Voldemort for killing Lily
Aberforth Dumbledore runs the Hog’s Head tavern. He keeps an eye of Hogsmeade’s shadier residents and gave that info to Dumbledore. He was the one who caught Snape eavesdropping.
Aberforth was involved in some scandal involving goats, and smells like a goat. Rowling insists she won’t explain it
In book seven I hope she tells us a little more about Petunia and Lily’s relationship. I would like to know just how much Petunia knows about Lily’s world.
I don’t know if Rowling will clear this up but maybe someone on the board will tell me.
How the heck is Hermione pronounced? Unless I’m mistaken the books imply Her-my-own-knee while in the movie it’s Her-my-knee.
I would also like to know why Rowling, who is so excellent with names, saddled her newborn daughter with the hideous moniker of Makenzie.
Things I’d like to see in Book 7:
more direct info on Lily
more direct info on Snape (seems pretty likely)
a scene where we get some real interaction with Aberforth Dumbledore instead of just having him as a background character
Lupin to get a happy ending - I suppose that’s what Tonks is for, but I really think that relationship came out of left field, since we’ve barely seen them together at all.
Neville to sort out Bellatrix Lestrange
Her-my-own-knee. The movies frequently botch pronunciation, but Scholastic Publications keeps a pronunciation guide on their website, with info from rowling herself.
Other mistakes in the movies include the pronounced “t” at the end of Voldemort (it’s silent), and the short “i” sound in Slytherin (it’s long as in “sly”).
One I just know they’re going to botch is “Lestrange.” It’s a real name, and it’s not pronounced as “strange” – the “a” sounds like the “aw” in “paw” or “saw.”
Yep. Their magic works very differently. There are things wizards can’t do that elves can’t, and vice-versa.
If Voldemort is smart, he should collect House-Elves for an assault on Hogwarts.
