Better Not Be Any Weasleys. Even Percy. June 26, 2006 zuzu J.K. Rowling hints that two characters die in the next book. Don’t you touch Fred and George, missy.
A friend was just telling me about this on the phone, and my response was “oh, it better not be a Weasley!”
I have a guess on one (and a well-founded one at that) and on how he goes out. I mean, that one’s so totally OBVIOUS. The second… (and maybe third? Hmm) No idea, man. But it had better not be the wonder twins, dammit.
I just hope none of them are Snape. Presumeably one of them is Voldemort, and all things considered the odds favor a Weasley. I’ve heard some people reading a lot into the characters’ names and using that to speculate that it’ll be Hagrid and Ron . . . something about the mythical process of creating the Philosopher’s Stone being in color-coded phases of black (Sirius), white (Albus), and red (Hagrid, which means red), and something about “Ron Weasley” being similar to “Ron the Weasel” who apparently died in some battle sometime in the distant past *is too lazy to Wikipedia either theory* . . . anyway, I’m not very confident at all of my ability to get in her head lately, despite previous successes . . . I just hope it isn’t Snape. She said not to get too attatched to Draco, however. I rather hope Fred and George make it through as well. But, never mind. No matter who dies in the last book, all you have to do is open up the first one (or the second or third as the case may be) and there they are, alive as can be.
Only two? Drat, she’s wimping out on us… What kind of big showdown ends with only two dead? (Unless it’s Voldemort and Harry. Harry counts at least triple.)
The part that worried me is that she said she wants to go after main characters. I still think Harry’s off-limits, though- the world would riot. Admittedly, yeah, Voldemort is probably a given. But now I’m worried about Ron and/or Hermione. After Harry, they’re THE main characters… After them, I’d bet on Hagrid. McGonnigal’s needed to run the school, and Hagrid would be self-sacrificing. Neville will actually manage to do something important and not get killed.
I haven’t either, but they audiobooks are handy for roadtrips and bedtime listening. And I have grown rather attached to the twins. Voldemort will die, but he dies in all of them, so that may not be what she’s talking about. I forsee Malfoy the elder and Hagrid
Hermione is my bet. Possibly Hagrid as well. These are two characters Harry relies on very heavily and it would knock him off balance.
Checking on mugglenet, they claimed she said that she edited the last chapter and killed off two characters who hadn’t initially died and gave another one a reprieve. If this is right, it’s much better, because seriously, a huge war with only two casualties is sort of idiotic. Also, only in the very last chapter? Are we never supposed to be at all worried until then? So I’m thinking that probably the interview has been mischaracterised, except I’m way too lazy to listen to it. If it is only two, I guess she means two major characters — excluding Voldemort, because, well, that’s also stupid. One good guy and one bad guy will die! That’s it! It’s totally time for a Weasley to die. I occasionally think only one of Fred & George will die (though the other might die heriocally sacrificing himself because of grief), only they’re totally undifferentiated. I like them, but they’re one character split into two bodies.
Embarassing confession: I have never read a single Harry Potter book. Me neither. Aren’t they children’s books?
I don’t know that I would be all that broken up if it was a Weasley, provided it was Percy of course.
I gave in and listened to the part of the interview where she talks about deaths. She wrote the last chapter of the book around the time she wrote the first book. Since then, it’s been locked up, but recently she edited this chapter and added two deaths to it but removed another. So there may well be more than 2 deaths in the last chapter, and there are probably deaths in other chapters as well. Other things: she is talking about major characters here, though I don’t know who she considers minor.
Nah, Neville’s not gonna die. One of the characters ends up as a Hogwarts professor, remember, and it’ll be Neville with Herbology. As much as I love Hagrid, I think it’d be neat to read a Hagrid death with an enraged Grawp retribution scene afterward.