Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (split)

[Xandra]

Eee, the OotP Paperback edition is being released tomorrow!

Oh, and Miranda Richardson has been cast to play Rita Skeeter, and Ralph Fiennes has been cast as Voldemort...

Mirando Richardson is right-on, but Ralph Fiennes... Huh?

[Twitchy]

Eee, the OotP Paperback edition is being released tomorrow!

Oh, and Miranda Richardson has been cast to play Rita Skeeter, and Ralph Fiennes has been cast as Voldemort...

Mirando Richardson is right-on, but Ralph Fiennes... Huh?

A frind sent me an e-mail saying whow as playing rita skeeter.....The haven't filmed any scences with voldey in 'em at the mo.....

[The Fifth Marauder]

They've done a decent job at casting so far. I wasn't too happy with Lupin (that might be the little mustache, though...), but they chose a good Rita Skeeter. I suppose Ralph would do a good job as Voldemort. I heard he was good in Red Dragon, but I'm too chicken to watch it.

Oh, by the way, yesterday was Ginny Weasley's birthday, according to jkrowling.com.

[Twitchy]

really? HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINNY!lol

[Xandra]

New HBP news from JKR!

The 'Do Not Disturb' sign is off.

So...

Highlight to read instructions. Second quote includes our new reward. Remember- loads and loads of spoilers! Especially as our new prize is an excerpt from HBP! (Yes, JKR's letting us read part of the sixth book)

I'll tell you everything to do, and give you a few numbers to remember- 302723. (To get this number, go to JKR's bulletin board. Wait until Peeves blows through, then look at the 'Good Lynn' business card that has now surfaced in the top right corner. The numbers on it are the ones I've posted. ^_^ )

Go to the 'Do Not Disturb' door, and open it. Turn on the light- the switch is in line with the windowsill- to quote MuggleNet, 'A light switch can be found in line with the windowsill, a small way in (just keep clicking).'

You will see a dartboard and darts to the lower right corner of the board. Put the three darts into these spaces, in order: 7, 1, 3. For the HP geeks out there, that's one of the Gringotts Vaults, I believe.

A safe has been revealed. Put in the numbers I told you to remember.

Click the paper, and you've won your reward.

The excerpt, for those of you who don't want to spend ages doing the riddle (trust me, it'll take a long time)...

He looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of grey in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp.

*Dances*

Thoughts on who the excerpt may be about?

My bets are Aberforth Dumbledore or the new DADA teacher- or both, if he'll become the new one...

[Amethyst]

Aberforth is probably a good guess...that's who I'd suspect it's about. But it might be the DADA teacher.

JKR seems to have changed her writing style a bit, though...

[Robin]

New HBP news from JKR!

The 'Do Not Disturb' sign is off.

So...

Highlight to read instructions. Second quote includes our new reward. Remember- loads and loads of spoilers! Especially as our new prize is an excerpt from HBP! (Yes, JKR's letting us read part of the sixth book)

I'll tell you everything to do, and give you a few numbers to remember- 302723. (To get this number, go to JKR's bulletin board. Wait until Peeves blows through, then look at the 'Good Lynn' business card that has now surfaced in the top right corner. The numbers on it are the ones I've posted. ^_^ )

Go to the 'Do Not Disturb' door, and open it. Turn on the light- the switch is in line with the windowsill- to quote MuggleNet, 'A light switch can be found in line with the windowsill, a small way in (just keep clicking).'

You will see a dartboard and darts to the lower right corner of the board. Put the three darts into these spaces, in order: 7, 1, 3. For the HP geeks out there, that's one of the Gringotts Vaults, I believe.

A safe has been revealed. Put in the numbers I told you to remember.

Click the paper, and you've won your reward.

The excerpt, for those of you who don't want to spend ages doing the riddle (trust me, it'll take a long time)...

He looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of grey in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp.

*Dances*

Thoughts on who the excerpt may be about?

My bets are Aberforth Dumbledore or the new DADA teacher- or both, if he'll become the new one...

It'll take me even longer than you, I'm on dialup with a computer that hates flash and that site hates me anyway :-P So thanks for the tip!!

[The Fifth Marauder]

Oy! Just got it open. Watch out for spoliers if you don't want to open the door.

It may be Godric Gryffindor, because it said he was like a lion. At first I thought it was Lupin (yellowish eyes), but he doesn't wear glasses, does he?

[Robin]

Oy! Just got it open. Watch out for spoliers if you don't want to open the door.

It may be Godric Gryffindor, because it said he was like a lion. At first I thought it was Lupin (yellowish eyes), but he doesn't wear glasses, does he?

Er.... I don't THINK he does... I think its a flashback of Gryffindor, or mabye *dun dun DUNNNN* its a description of the mysterious HALF BLOOD PRINCE!!!!

[Xandra]

Personally, I've always thought of Aberforth as lion-like, opposite Albus Dumbledore's pheonix-like personality (and patronus)... Gryffindor I've always imagined as a mostly clean-shaved guy that looks more like a young lion, than anything. Eh.

And it's talking about the present, unless Godric's walking in a painting, so... I don't think there are any pensieves that old. xP

It'll take me even longer than you, I'm on dialup with a computer that hates flash and that site hates me anyway :-P So thanks for the tip!!

Well, I'm also on dial-up and a computer that hates flash. Though the .com site hates me (it hates everyone), jkrowling.co.uk works for me.

[Twitchy]

New HBP news from JKR!

The 'Do Not Disturb' sign is off.

So...

Highlight to read instructions. Second quote includes our new reward. Remember- loads and loads of spoilers! Especially as our new prize is an excerpt from HBP! (Yes, JKR's letting us read part of the sixth book)

I'll tell you everything to do, and give you a few numbers to remember- 302723. (To get this number, go to JKR's bulletin board. Wait until Peeves blows through, then look at the 'Good Lynn' business card that has now surfaced in the top right corner. The numbers on it are the ones I've posted. ^_^ )

Go to the 'Do Not Disturb' door, and open it. Turn on the light- the switch is in line with the windowsill- to quote MuggleNet, 'A light switch can be found in line with the windowsill, a small way in (just keep clicking).'

You will see a dartboard and darts to the lower right corner of the board. Put the three darts into these spaces, in order: 7, 1, 3. For the HP geeks out there, that's one of the Gringotts Vaults, I believe.

A safe has been revealed. Put in the numbers I told you to remember.

Click the paper, and you've won your reward.

The excerpt, for those of you who don't want to spend ages doing the riddle (trust me, it'll take a long time)...

He looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of grey in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp.

*Dances*

Thoughts on who the excerpt may be about?

My bets are Aberforth Dumbledore or the new DADA teacher- or both, if he'll become the new one...

ohh yay! I am gong to try and try that.

here are a load of piccies of cedric:http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/pictures/galleries/newsid_3901000/3901849.stm

edit:extra news in:JK Rowling gave fans some tantalising titbits about the future Potter books at her reading at the Edinburgh Children's Book Festival on Sunday.

She said she was well into writing book six. She said she was "just over halfway through it". She added it was her favourite book so far.


"Of course I am the only one who has read it and I think it's rather good."

Two key questions



She did not give much away about book six, which will be called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but she said a lot of questions will be answered in it.

She also revealed there were two key questions about the whole plot that she had never been asked.

The first is Why didn't Voldemort die when he tried to kill Harry? JK said that in the end of book four, Voldemort had said he had taken various steps against dying, but we should be wondering exactly what he did.

Dumbledore knows more!

The second question is Why didn't Dumbledore try to kill Voldemort in that scene at the end of book five?



Dumbledore gave a kind of reason to Voldemort but it's not the real answer, and that Dumbledore knows something more.

JK said if we are wondering about the overall plot, we should be concentrating on those two questions.

Squib?

She also tantalisingly answered a question about Aunt Petunia. When asked, JK said no, Petunia is not a squib, as she is muggle-born, but...... and left the sentence hanging.

She said we will find out a bit more about her in the other books and that there's more to Petunia than meets the eye!

She also revealed some more general snippets of information, including:


Aberforth Dumbledore is the barman in the Hog's Head
Dumbledore's patronus is a phoenix
Grawp will be more controllable in the sixth book
We will see a bit more of Rita Skeeter
There will be a new character called McLagan
Harry does NOT have a godmother
The full transcript of the Q&A session will be available on JK's official website soon.

[Igg]

Oy! Just got it open. Watch out for spoliers if you don't want to open the door.

It may be Godric Gryffindor, because it said he was like a lion. At first I thought it was Lupin (yellowish eyes), but he doesn't wear glasses, does he?

Er.... I don't THINK he does... I think its a flashback of Gryffindor, or mabye *dun dun DUNNNN* its a description of the mysterious HALF BLOOD PRINCE!!!!

Unlikely. That'd be too easy.

[Twitchy]

What I can't belive is that dumbledors BROTHER is the barman at the hogs head!LLOL

[Xandra]

Long post, beware.

JKR Edinburgh Q&A Session

It's a long read, but quite a few things caught my eye when reading it:

<i>there are some people who would not come back as ghosts because they are unafraid, or less afraid, of death.</i>

That one sentence (well, sentence fragment, now that I've copied+pasted it... ) answers quite a few questions. Why do people become ghosts? Because they're <i>afraid of death</i>. Why isn't Sirius/Cedric/Lily/James/Quirrel/flobberworm #90241 a ghost? Because even though they died, they were <i>not afraid of death</i>. Though, in Quirrel's case, he wasn't afraid because he was that dedicated to his lord and master, Voldemort. And, of course, the flobberworm and the rest of his species are a highly intelligent people (fleople?) and know something about death that we don't. Trust me, book seven will be named 'Harry Potter and the Intricacies of a Flobberworm's Mind, and How He <i>Finally</i> Realized (random top-secret flobber-worm stuff) Is the Meaning of Life and the Only Way How to Destroy You-Know-Who, the Stupid Boy'.

<i>[Aunt Petunia] is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]. You will have to read the other books. You might have got the impression that there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will find out what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a very good guess. <b>Oh, I am giving a lot away here.</b></i>

Evil author lady is being cruel to us, once again.

Alright. Petunia's not a Squib, is a Muggle, but... What?

As for the text I bolded... Well. She isn't a squib, though that's a good guess. Hmm. Are her parents squibs? Did she get the Hogwarts letter, but flat-out refused to go (unlikely, as we've seen, in SS/PS, what will happen to you if you ignore the letter(s))? Is she going to get magical powers late in life (I think not).

Well, why is she so bitter about Lily having been a powerful witch? Jealousy? After all, Lily was pretty, near-perfect, had a handsome boyfriend (and later, a husband), had great friends, was intelligent, and, on top of all that, was a witch, with magical powers. So... was/is Petunia simply green with envy? Well... Perhaps, but I don't think she'd have held a grudge <i>that</i> long.

But then again... Why are two sisters so different? Not just in personalities and lives, but in looks? Aunt Petunia has mousy brown hair. Lily? Flaming red curls (I think her hair was curly...). Petunia? Ugly. Lily? Beauty.

A bit odd, don't you think? Perhaps one of them was adopted? I don't really support this theory, but after all, it does fill in quite a few holes.

<i>Why do you think that [the barman of the Hog's Head] is Aberforth? [Audience member: Various clues. He smells of goats and he looks a bit like Dumbledore]. I was quite proud of that clue. That is all that I am going to say. [Laughter]. Well yes, obviously.</i>

Alright. Well, that quite disqualifies Aberforth from being the mysterious man from the HBP excerpt, doesn't it? The man described looks nothing like Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, whereas Aberforth the bartender looks like his brother. And smells of goats.

Sooo. Mysterious man? DADA professor? Very probable.

<i>There are two questions that I have never been asked but that I should have been asked, if you know what I mean...The first question that I have never been asked...is, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” Not, “Why did Harry live?” but, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn’t he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he did to make sure that he did not die—I will put it that way...The other question that I am surprised no one has asked me since Phoenix came out...is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry...Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason...Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that.</i>

Okay. Let's repeat the obvious, first. Voldemort didn't die when the curse boomeranged, for a reason. That is quite clear. However, <i>why</i> didn't he die? We've all been overlooking this, apparently.

Now, <i>Harry</i> didn't die and had the curse rebound because of Lily's love, and (I'm guessing- I think this was in the books- if it wasn't, it's a theory of mine, then) a spell she used to make sure her son wouldn't die.

We know that. But why didn't <i>Voldemort</i>, the truly evil, utterly heartless, cruel character who's one of, if not the, most powerful and intelligent humans with magical powers (he's a wizard) in the entire world, not die? Because he's one of (if not the) most powerful and intelligent wizards on Earth.

But how did he survive? Yes, he's powerful, magically and in other ways, and smart, and has magically powerful followers (minions, if you prefer to call them that). However. He was hit with the <i>Killing Curse</i>. That is <i>not</i> something you get up and walk away from, even if in a severly weakened state that's not even human anymore. I doubt even Dumbledore could survive Avada Kedavra, even if it boomeranged, thus losing some power.

Well, Voldemort took precautions, 'steps', to ensure that he did not die. In other words, he was probably able to achieve temporary immortality (I don't think he protected himself against Avada Kedavra- as I said, it is the Killing Curse, and will kill you unless you've protected yourself by some amazing means). But how?

That's something we'll have to wait for, until 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' comes out.

Second question... Why didn't Dumbledore kill Voldemort in the MoM?

My thoughts on this... He (Dumbledore) knows something. Maybe Tom is immortal. Perhaps he'd just pop back if the prophesy wasn't fulfilled, or the curse would rebound, and hit Dumbledore, as Harry is the only one who can kill him (Voldemort).

Or perhaps it's pity. Sort of like the Gollum/Sam/Frodo plot in LotR... Just on a larger scale, I suppose.

Again, we'll have to wait for the next book to be sure of anything.

Other info revealed-
1. Sirius never married; he was a rebel.
2. People need to stop asking (in my opinion) whether or not the Good Ship R/Hr will sink, as it's obvious the ship Ron/Hermione will sail on into the sunset (last bit not in my opinion, as it <i>is</i> obvious).
3. Harry has no godmother, so everyone can stop writing OMG LIEK HAIREE HAS A GOSMOTHER ADN SEH WIL BRIN SIRIUS (LIEK OMG SOOO HAWT!!1) BCK FRM TEH DED ADN THEYLL GT MAYREED!11!!1 (PS: SERENITY SELENA MOONFLOWER IS <b>NOT</b> A MARY SUE!!1 (WATS A MARY SUE?????)) fanfiction that makes me want to clean/scrub my eyes and brain with copper wool and bleach. (Again, my opinion, though I'm quite sure it's shared with most other fanfiction readers)
4. We’ll be seeing more of Blaise Zabini (male Slytherin in Harry’s year).
5. Yup, character with the last name of McClaggan. DADA teacher, maybe? I think the last name sort of matches the looks, anyway. But that’s just me.
6. Draco Malfoy=Bad guy (<I>who does every girl under the age of 15 fall in love with? Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. Girls, stop going for the bad guy.</I>) (No surprise here, but hey, many people do still think Draco’s miraculously going to wake up one day and say, “Golly gee! Being a nice guy sounds like a great thing to do! Bye daddy and everything I’ve ever known and been brought up to believe! I’m gonna join the Voldie-Busters!”)
7. Dudley is as he seems. There is nothing about him that we don’t already know.
8. Voldemort/Tom Riddle has never loved or cared for anyone. If he had, he wouldn’t be what he is in the books. We will learn more about this.
9. Grawp will be more controllable in book six.
10. Hermione has no siblings, and her parents will probably stay in the background (JKR didn’t say this in those words, but she did say Hermione’s parents have been in the background deliberately, and I took that to mean they’ll stay there).
11. Magical paintings are quite different from reality, though they do have the same personality and looks as the person they were painted of.

What I can't belive is that dumbledors BROTHER is the barman at the hogs head!LLOL

What's so unbelievable about that?

And finally...

Not really HBP-related, but a few other things I've (sort-of) discovered, that may be important in the sixth book (the following has been copied+pasted, and edited slightly, from an entry in my LiveJournal):

Looking over this page, which contains a picture of the BBC TV special "Harry Potter and Me", where JKR showed everyone a few glimpses of her famous notebook, I noticed a few odd things, mostly about the magical blood of the students.

Susan Bones- according to JKR's notebook, she's a... half-blood? This is definitely something to remember, as Susan says she's a pureblood, in the books. However, JKR may have changed this- remember, Seamus was originally a pureblood, Michael Corner a Hufflepuff, and Daphne Greengrass Queenie Greengrass.

Millicent Bulstrode- is a half-blood, as well. And she's in Slytherin. <i>And</i> happens to be one of the elitest 'purebloods' of Hogwarts, even hanging out with Draco and his gang.

Tracey Davis- all my times using her when RPing aside, guess what. She's a half-blood and Slytherin, too. However, she has yet to be mentioned in the books, even in passing.

[Twitchy]

(another long posts)

an interveiw with JK Rowling:

Jeremy Paxman: So this is it?

JK Rowling: This is it.

JP: Are we allowed to look inside it?

JKR: Hmmmm. Yes a bit. You can have a look there.... yes so, that's it.

JP: How many pages?

JKR: 766... All with writer's block, which I think you'll agree is a bit of an achievement.

JP: But do you find the whole secrecy issue, the need for secrecy, a bit ridiculous?

JKR: No.

JP: Why not?

JKR: No not at all. Well, a lot of it comes from me.

JP: Really?

JKR: Yeah definitely. I mean, of course one could be cynical, and I'm sure you would be disposed to be so and say it was a marketing ploy, but I don't want the kids to know what's coming. Because that's part of the excitement of the story, and having - you know - sweated blood to create all my red herrings and lay all my clues.... to me it's not a... this is my... this is my... I was going to say this is my life, it's not my life, but it is a very important part of my life.

JP: Has it come at a price this success and fame?

JKR: The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous. You know, my fantasy of being a famous writer, and again there's a slight disconnect with reality which happens a lot with me. I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen. Being able to sit at home in the parsonage and your books would be very famous and occasionally you would correspond with the Prince of Wales's secretary.

You know I didn't think they'd rake through my bins, I didn't expect to be photographed on the beach through long lenses. I never dreamt it would impact my daughter's life negatively, which at times it has. It would be churlish to say there's nothing good about being famous; to have a total stranger walk up to you as you're walking around Safeways, and say a number of nice things that they might say about your work... I mean of course you walk on with a bit more spring in your step. That's a very, very nice thing to happen. I just wish they wouldn't approach me when I'm buying you know.

JP: Loo roll?

JKR: Items of a questionable nature, exactly. Always, always. Never when you're in the fresh fruit and veg section. Never.

JP: Do you think success has changed you?

JKR: Yes.

JP: In what way?

JKR: I don't feel like quite such a waste of space anymore.

JP: You didn't really feel a waste of space?

JKR: I totally felt a waste of space. I was lousy. Yeah I did, yeah . And now I feel that, it turns out there was one thing I was good at, and I'd always expected I could tell a story, and I suppose it's rather sad that I needed confirmation by being published.

JP: And what about the money? A lot of people when they suddenly make a lot of money, feel guilty about it. Do you feel guilt?

JKR: Yes I do feel guilty about it. Definitely I feel guilty.

JP: Why?

JKR: When it first happened I didn't immediately become very rich. The biggest jump for me was the American advance which was enough for me to buy a house, not outright, but you know we'd been renting until then. And I didn't feel guilty, I felt scared at that point. Because I thought I mustn't blow this: I've got some money, I mustn't do anything stupid with it. And then yeah, yeah, I felt guilty. Yeah I did. I mean at least I could see cause and effect. I knew I had worked quite hard for quite a long time. Of course the rewards were completely disproportionate but I could see how I got there so that made it easier to rationalise.

JP: Let's talk a little bit about the next book. Harry and Ron and Hermione are all going to be older. How are they going to change?

JKR: Quite a lot because I find it quite sinister, the way that, looking back at the Famous Five books for example, I think 21 adventures or 20 or something, they never had a hormonal impulse - except that Anne was sometimes told that she would make someone a good little wife whenever she unlaid the picnic things.

JP: But that's the usual pattern of children's books isn't it? Swallows and Amazons is the same isn't it? The children never age. But your...

JKR: And it reaches its apotheosis in Peter Pan obviously, where it is quite explicit, and I find that very sinister. I had a very forthright letter from a woman who had heard me say that Harry was going to have his first date or something and she said "Please don't do that, that's awful. I want these books to be a world where my children can escape to." She literally said "free from hurt and fear" and I'm thinking "Have you read the books? What are you talking about free from hurt and fear? Harry goes through absolute hell every time he returns to school." So I think that a bit of snogging would alleviate matters.

JP: So there will be some pairing up will there in this book?

JKR: Well in the fullness of time.

JP: Unlikely pairings? Not Hermione and Draco Malfoy or anything like that?

JKR: I don't really want to say as it will ruin all the fan sites. They have such fun with their theories... and it is fun, it is fun. And some of them even get quite close. No-one has ever - I have gone and looked at some of it and no-one's ever... There is one thing that if anyone guessed I would be really annoyed as it is kind of the heart of it all. And it kind of explains everything and no-one's quite got there but a couple of people have skirted it. So you know, I would be pretty miffed after thirteen or fourteen years of writing the books if someone just came along and said I think this will happen in book seven. Because it is too late, I couldn't divert now, everything has been building up to it, and I've laid all my clues.

JP: Is Harry going to become a bolshy teenager?

JKR: He's a lot, lot, lot angrier in this book. He really is quite angry a lot of the time and I think justifiably so, look at what he has gone through. It is about time he started feeling a little bit miffed at the hand life has dealt him.

JP: Well when you look at a lot of that marketing stuff, that merchandise, when you look at things like the Harry Potter Ice Pumpkin Slushie maker and all that junk.

JKR: Is that a real thing or have you made it up?

JP: I'm serious. There's a list of about 50 of these things. Harry Potter Embroidered Polo Shirts, the Late Night Ride Towel, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley alarm clock. I mean it goes on and on.

JKR: I knew about the alarm clock. How do I feel about it? Honestly, I think it's pretty well known, if I could have stopped all merchandising I would have done. And twice a year I sit down with Warner Brothers and we have conversations about merchandising and I can only say you should have seen some of the stuff that was stopped: Moaning Myrtle lavatory seat alarms and worse.

JP: I thought that sounded rather fun.

JKR: I knew you were gonna say that. It's not fun. It was horrible, it was a horrible thing.

JP: But you could have said "No, I'm not gonna have any merchandising".

JKR: I don't think I could at the time. Not at the time. I'm so bad with dates. It must have been about 1998-99, I started talking to Warner Brothers, and at that point I just didn't have the power to stop them. That is the nature of the film world. Because they are very expensive films to make, and if they keep making them which is obviously not guaranteed, but if they do keep making them, they are going to get really even more expensive, and I mean I shudder to see what they say when they see Book Five. Because I think they are starting to feel I am writing stuff just to see if they can do it. Which of course I'm not. But I know there are headaches about the scale of the world that I'm writing.

JP: But do you never worry that perhaps your legacy will be not this entire world that you created but lots of bits of plastic?

JKR: Do I worry honestly? Completely honestly. No. I don't worry about it. I think the books will always be more important than the bits of plastic. And that's... I really, really believe that, and maybe that sounds arrogant but that's how I feel.

JP: Do you even know, when it gets to the level you're at. Do you even know what you are earning?

JKR: No...

JP: Do you know what you earned last year?

JKR: No.

JP: Well it's tens of millions, I guess...

JKR: I met my accountant recently and I said "They say in the rich list that I am richer than the Queen, so that means you've embezzled quite a lot of money." I mean I do know what ball park I've got. I mean I'm not that clueless. And I certainly have not got £280 million.

JP: What is it roughly?

JKR: Would I tell you?

JP: I don't know. You can't blame me for asking.

JKR: No I don't blame you for asking

JP: You mentioned in the previous books you finished one and immediately started the next. Have you started the sixth one?

JKR: Yeah.

JP: How far are you into it?

JKR: Not that far because I had a baby. But yeah, I started it when I was still pregnant with David. And I actually did get some writing done the other day, and that's not bad going considering he's only ten weeks. So he's pretty full time at the moment. But yeah I did a bit more the other day.

JP: Are we going to discover in book 5, why Voldemort has such an animus against Harry's parents?

JKR: Yes.

JP: Can you give us a clue as to...

JKR: No. It's not long now. Come on. Yes you do find that out in book 5.

JP: What else are you willing to tell us about what's in book 5?

JKR: Obviously a new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher.

JP: Is that going to be a woman?

JKR: Yes. And it's not Fleur which everyone on the internet speculates about. And it's not... Who's the other one they keep asking about? Mrs Figg. It's not Mrs Figg. I've read both of those.

JP: Are we going to discover anything more about Snape ?

JKR: Yes.

JP: And Harry's mother? Did he have a crush on Harry's mother or unrequited love or anything like that?

JKR: Hence his animosity to Harry?

JP: Yes.

JKR: You speculate?

JP: I speculate, yes, I'm just asking whether you can tell us.

JKR: No I can't tell you. But you do find out a lot more about Snape and quite a lot more about him actually.

JP: And is there going to be a death in this book?

JKR: Yes. A horrible, horrible

JP: A horrible death of a significant figure.

JKR: Yeah. I went into the kitchen having done it...

JP: What, killed this person?

JKR: Yeah. Well I had re-written the death, re-written it and that was it. It was definitive. And the person was definitely dead. And I walked into the kitchen crying and Neil said to me, "What on earth is wrong?" and I said, "Well, I've just killed the person". Neil doesn't know who the person is. But I said, "I've just killed the person. And he said, "Well, don't do it then." I thought, a doctor you know... and I said "Well it just doesn't work like that. You are writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer."

JP: Is it going to upset people?

JKR: Yes. It upset me. I always knew it was coming, but I managed to live in denial, and carry on with the character and not think about it.

JP: So you know what is going to become of all the major characters over the span of the series?

JKR: Yeah... yeah.

JP: Why stop when they grow up? Might be interesting to know what becomes of Harry as an adult.

JKR: How do you know he'll still be alive?

JP: Oh. At the end of book 7?

JKR: It would be one way to kill of the merchandising.

JP: That really would be killing the Golden Goose wouldn't it?

JKR: Yeah well. I'm supposed to be richer than the Queen what do I care?

(JK Rowling and Jeremy Paxman move into the kitchen)

JKR: I'm happier now I would say than I've ever been in my life, yeah definitely...

JP: But that's not just to do with writing of course

JKR: No... but it does have a lot to do with that. I needed to take off the time between books four and five, and I really feel like I got to grips with a lot of things. I sort of put my head up and got a big lungful of air, and I looked around, and I saw what had happened, and I allowed myself time to deal with it a bit better. I think if you'd interviewed me four years ago, I don't think I would have been nearly as relaxed.

JP: There's an element in which, a way in which you've become public property.

JKR: Yeah.

JP: That you belong, because of what you've created, that people feel like you belong to them.

JKR: Yes that's definitely true. I think we get a thousand letters a week to this office - come and open my fete, write a personal letter to my daughter, come to my son's birthday party - you know what I mean. And in some ways that's very touching , that they think, really that they think that I have the time.

JP: Well if you don't ask you don't get.

JKR: I don't blame them for trying, I absolutely don't. Except for the woman who wrote to me and said would I please make her and her husband an annual payment because they hadn't been to the theatre in 3 years - and as begging letters go that wasn't a great angle.

JP: As begging letters go, you must get loads. Do you give a lot of money away?

JKR: Well... mmmmm. I give money away, that's all I can say.

(Moves to JK Rowling and Jeremy Paxman sitting at a table)

JKR: This must not be seen too closely. This is the plan for Order of the Phoenix. I have these grid things for every book - well I have about twelve grid things for every book. It's just a way of reminding myself what has to happen in each chapter to advance us in the plot. And then you have all your sub-plots. It's just a way of keeping track of what going on.

JP: And these scraps of paper which you've filed elegantly in a carrier, they're plot ideas or...

JKR: Well some of them are totally redundant now because its been written and I keep them out of sentimentality's sake, I suppose. But some of it has backstory in it like this - in here is the history of the Death Eaters and I don't know that I'll ever actually need it - but at some point - which were once called something different - they were called the Knights of Walpurgis. I don't know if I'll need it. But I like knowing it. I like to keep that sort of stuff on hand.

JP: What's your preferred way of working? I mean lots of people sit down and say "I must churn out 600 words or a 1000 words a day". Do you work like that ? How do you do it?

JKR: No, well it's like painting a fence isn't it?

JP: No - well, some distinguished writers have written like that.

JKR: That's how you do it.

JP: No - "distinguished writers", I said... Somerset Maugham used to write 600 words a day and he'd stop more or less whether he was mid-sentence.

JKR: No I couldn't do that.

JP: So what do you do? You sit down and keep going until you're too exhausted to continue?

JKR: Yeah pretty much actually. It's the flogged horse school of writing. The thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day's work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.

JP: We know that you've written the ending.

JKR: I've written the final chapter of book seven.

JP: So you know where you are going to get to. Do you know how you are going to get there?

JKR: Yes. Yes. I mean I allow a margin. It would be so boring if I really knew. It would be joining the dots, wouldn't it? It's not that well worked out. But it's fairly well plotted. I mean it would be worrying if it weren't at this stage, wouldn't it, if I slid off book five and wondered what shall I write out in book six? You know, it's a complicated story so I need to know what I'm doing.

JP: Do you ever wish you hadn't started on it?

JKR: Yes. But not for the reasons you might expect. Sometimes, yeah, I've had very low moments when I thought "What the hell do I do this for?" But very rare. Very rare.

JP: Why do you think that occasionally?

JKR: I haven't thought it for a long time now, but it was while I was writing book four. I went through a very bad patch. The funny thing is that the press were writing that I had writer's block with Phoenix.

JP: That's the next one.

JKR: Yes, the one that's about to come out. And there was speculation that I was finding the pressure... well, it was funny because literally on consecutive days, either you'd have, either I was feeling the pressure too much and I was cracking up - or I was too happy being married. And that was stopping me writing. And you kind of couldn't have both. But in fact, the Order of the Phoenix never gave me any trouble. It was quite a docile book to write. And then a lot of fun to write.

Chamber of Secrets, I really did have writer's block. Briefly, I think. It wasn't a very serious case, it was only about five weeks. And compared to some people, what's five weeks? Goblet of Fire, I was very unhappy towards the end of writing Goblet, and at the point where I realised I was fantasising that I would break an arm and therefore not be able to... I really mean this. I mean I was just a little way away from actually thinking "How can I break my arm so I can tell my publishers that I can't physically do it?" and then that would give me more time.

Because I committed to a totally unrealistic deadline. And I made the deadline But I really did make it by working round the clock really. I was so unhappy.

JP: So you didn't have writer's block. The reason this book has been - what three years... Three years since the last one isn't it? Why has it taken so long?

JKR: Well it hasn't.

JP: Huh?

JKR: Well it hasn't. The book didn't take that long. I decided... What happened was, so Goblet of Fire, I was really in quite a state by the time that book was finished, and I mean at that point I really did feel a lot of things came together with Goblet of Fire. I mean the press attention had reached an hitherto unknown level, and I couldn't work outside the house anymore, and just a hell of a lot of stuff was going on, you know. It was the fame thing. Do I still feel like that? No. But that's because I took the time off.

And I was still writing during those three years because I never stop writing. But I didn't want to be published again. That was the big difference. So when I finished Goblet of Fire, I said to - there were only two publishers who had bought the next book - and I said to both of them, I want to repay my advance. And both of them, you could almost hear them having cardiac arrest on the end of the phone. "Why do you want to repay your advance?" And I said, because I don't want to publish next year. I want to write this book in a more leisurely way and I want to take some time off.

Because I had... I finished Philosopher's Stone, I literally started Chamber of Secrets that afternoon. I finished Chamber of Secrets, I started Prisoner of Azkaban the next day. And I finished Azkaban and I'd already started Goblet of Fire because they overlapped - so there was absolutely no let-up. And I knew I couldn't do it. I just knew I couldn't do it; my brain was going to short circuit if I tried to do that again. So they said "Well, how about we do still get the book when you finish it, but we don't have a deadline?" So I said okay. So that's how we worked it. So there was no deadline. So, just once and for all, and for the record, I didn't miss the deadline. Because there was no deadline.

JP: And you didn't have writers block on that book?

JKR: No! I just produced a quarter of a million words. It's quite hard to do with writer's block.

JP: That's longer than the New Testament you know.

JKR: Oh God, stop it. With all these new facts that I didn't know. Is it?

JP: Yeah. By about 70,000 words or something.

JKR: Do you know the Christian fundamentalists will find a way to turn that into a reason to hate me as well. She's more verbose than God.

JP: Has Book Five - that thing that's the size of a house brick - it was originally much longer than that, was it?

JKR: No, actually it wasn't . It's about the size - originally I thought it would be slightly shorter than Goblet of Fire - and what is the phrase? The tale grew in the telling. It did. The thing is, I've got so much now, so much backstory to tell, but I really mean it this time. Six will not need to be that long. I had to move them around a lot in there, there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in there.

JP: Are you going to have a lot of loose ends to tie up in 7?

JKR: Oh god, I hope not. I'm aiming to tie it all up neatly in a nice big knot... that's it, good night.

JP: So that may not be particularly long either?

JKR: No, I think that will be long because I won't want to let go. I'll just keep writing. I'll probably just start a completely new plot in book seven. It's going to be very difficult to leave it . I mean, I do look forward to a post-Harry era in my life, because some of the things that go along with this are not that much fun, but at the same time, I dread leaving Harry... because I've been working on it over what I sincerely hope will prove to have been the most turbulent part of my life and that was the constant, and I worked on it so hard for so long - then it will be over and I think it's going to leave a massive gap.

JP: Do you know what you will go on to next after that?

JKR: Well, while I was in between, during the three years I've just had, I was writing something else for a while which was really great, it was good, and I might go back to that. I don't know.

JP: Is that an adult novel?

JKR: Mmmm. It's just something completely different. It was very liberating to do it.

JP: Be quite difficult for you though. You'd have to publish under a pseudonym wouldn't you?

JKR: Exactly. But they'll find out within seconds. I don't underestimate the investigative powers of the press, but I don't know what I'll do. I mean, I know I will definitely still be writing. Will I publish? I don't know. It's what you said, of course you write to be published, because you write to share the story.

But I do think back to what happened to AA Milne, and he of course tried to write adult novels, and was never reviewed without the mention of Tigger, Pooh and Piglet. And I would imagine that the same will happen with me. And that's fine. God knows my shoulders are broad enough, I could cope with that. But I would like some time to have some normal life at the end of the series, and probably the best way to get that isn't to publish immediately.

JP: It's not a bad thing to go to your grave with - having invented this entire world and made children want to read?

JKR: Oh God. No. Not at all. Of course I am immensely proud of Harry, and I'm never going to disown it, and I promise I am never, ever, ever going to apologise for it. Never. Because I am proud of it and I will defend Harry against all comers.

JP: JK Rowling, thank you.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling arrived at the Edinburgh Children's Book Festival bright and early to meet Potter fans on Sunday.
The star turned up before 8am to pose for photographers, and then went on to do a reading from Order of the Phoenix.

She said she was "delighted to be there" and said she was planning to read from chapter four, where Ron finds out he is a prefect.

But fans still beat her to it though. They started arriving at 4am!

One Potter-mad fan, Delilah, 12, from Holland, started queuing at 4am to make sure she got a good seat.

JK also planned to anwer fans' questions for over half an hour after the reading.


another interveiw with JK Rowling:

So King's Cross, amazing reception, what was it like?
It was the best - all those children, it was wonderful.
Is this the best part of doing the publicity for a book like this, actually travelling round the country meeting people?
My favourite thing's the writing and then when you have to do the odd promotional bits meeting the children is by far my favourite thing - it's wonderful. And the not so young children.

What's the weirdest thing a child's ever asked you at an event or promotion?
The most startling thing or things I've ever been asked are when children ask me questions that reveal that they are clearly following my thought processes a lot more closely than I would have guessed.

There was - I can say this now because book three's out - a boy asked me in San Francisco: "Where did Scabbers come from, what's Scabbers' history?" And Scabbers, for people who don't know, is a rat who subsequently was revealed not to be a rat at all and I found it quite spooky that he homed in on Scabbers because, of course, I'd known from the first book that Scabbers wasn't really a rat.

That kind of thing keeps cropping up and I think the thing is that children are reading them 12 times, or whatever it might be, and they really are starting to know the way my mind works.

Is that a danger with the Internet as well - you've got this community that ...
Twice I've been on the Internet. Friends of mine were telling me what was on there and I'd never gone looking. The first time I went in there I thought I'm never coming back because it's too scary because some of the stuff that's out there is very weird.

The second time I went in there I was looking for something specific, someone had set up an unofficial fan site where you could be sorted - they had the sorting hat and you could be sorted into a house, so I was Hufflepuff. I wasn't that pleased - obviously I'm supposed to be Gryffindor, if anyone's Gryffindor I'm supposed to be Gryffindor.

Do you find it's a worry that you can say one thing in a conversation somewhere, say something else in an interview somewhere, and people will put all these facts together and draw conclusions that are eerily close to what you're going to do in the books?
Mostly what's happened is that people have put together something I've said, something they like to think I said, something someone else said - which is completely false - and drawn completely the wrong conclusions. That's inevitable, that just happens. But no one yet has guessed what's going to happen or come anywhere close in fact.

Now book four, I finished it - early hours of the morning - very scary ending.
It is very scary isn't it? I think it's very scary.

How difficult was it to write that?
The first time ever I cried while writing - I actually cried twice during the writing of the ending of book four. Basically it's a powerful ending but as you well know from reading it there's a reason why it has to be that powerful, something very important happens at the end of book four, very important.

And having said all along that if you are writing about evil I believe that you should give children - you should have enough respect for them to show what that means, not to dress up as a pantomime villain and say - lots of smoke and thunder, I think, and it's not frightening at all really.

So I can only say that that's the ending I planned and I think it came off okay. I was very happy with it when I reread it, although bits of it made me cry.

Do you rewrite a lot and was it a difficult?
A huge amount. Once ever in the four books that are published I've sat down written something beginning to end and let it stand and that was in the chapter in the Philosopher's Stone where Harry learns to fly.

I remember vividly the afternoon, my daughter fell asleep I ran into the café on a beautifully sunny day, I sat down and I wrote that chapter from beginning to end and I think I changed two words and that's very unusual for me.

There's a chapter in book four I rewrote 13 times and at one point I thought the book will never happen if I keep rewriting chapter whatever it was.

And how vital is book four in the whole seven book series to Harry?
Crucial. The fourth is a very, very important book. Well you know because you read it, something incredibly important happens in book four and also it's literally a central book, it's almost the heart of the series, and it's pivotal. It's very difficult to talk about and I can't wait for the day someone's read all seven and I can talk completely freely about it. But it's a very, very important book.

What was it like with all the pressure? I know you write for yourself very much so, rather than to a target audience but it must have some effect - the expectation and pressure that's built up over the last year around Harry.
Actually the expectation doesn't bother me at all because I think my readers are just sort of thinking well they want to hear the story that I want to write. So I feel that they just want to find out what happens next and my version is the version they want to hear. So I'm kind of confident about that.

But there are other pressures dependent on having a very successful book which I have obviously got with the third book, that was difficult. But the weight of expectation from readers, no it doesn't particularly bother me.