J.K. Rowling Reveals Two Characters Die In Book 7

Posted on June 26, 2006

J.K. Rowling horrified fans by revealing that two characters will die in the seventh and final Harry Potter book. She didn't say which two characters, though.

"The final chapter is hidden away, although it's now changed very slightly," she said in an interview broadcast on Monday on Britain's Channel 4. "One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die." When asked to be more specific, she added: "No, I'm not going to commit myself, because I don't want the hate mail or anything else."
She did explain that she understood an author's desire to kill off the main character of a successful series. "I've never been tempted to kill him (Harry) off before the end of book seven, because I always planned seven books and that's where I want to go. "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks 'Well, I'm going to kill them off because that means there can be no non-author-written sequels ... so it will end with me, and after I'm dead and gone they won't be able to bring back the character'."

Of course now we're speculating madly about who these unfortunate characters might be. Who got the reprieve? It's Ron, isn't it? It has to be. That means that Hermione is a goner in the next book. Not that we have the slightest clue, actually. All we know is that it simply mustn't be Harry. That would just be too infuriating.