Quotes from JKR Interviews

 

 

Finished 'Potter'? Rowling tells what happens next.

Harry, Ron and Hermione
We know that Harry marries Ginny and has three kids, essentially, as
Rowling explains, creating the family and the peace and calm he never
had as a child.

As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror
Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is
now the department head.

"Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said.
“They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what
else they’ve done.”

Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical
Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in
“Deathly Hallows.”

“I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark
Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding,” Rowling said.

Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at
odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves
into a “really good place to be.”

“They made a new world,” Rowling said.

 

Confused by Potter? JKR sets the record straight.

Why 19 years later?
Of all the time in the Harry’s life that you could have chosen to set the epilogue, why 19 years later?

“I didn’t want some people to have children too young because I don’t
think that’s good,” Rowling said. “So 19 years was just enough time for
the next generation to have reached the point I wanted them to reach
when the Hogwarts Express is departing.”

There is no significance to the number, no magical explanation. At the Battle
of Hogwarts Ron and Hermione are 18 and Harry is 17, and Rowling said
she wanted them to have some peaceful time before they started having
children.

“I don’t want to encourage teenage pregnancies,” Rowling said, laughing. “It couldn’t be much earlier than 19.”

Bloomsbury Web Chat (Bloomsbury website or TLC) [073007]:

Leaky Cauldron: What, if anything, did the wizarding world learn, and
how did society change, as a direct result of the war with voldemort?
(i.E., not as a result of harry, ron and hermione’s future careers.)

J.K. Rowling: The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley
at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was
eradicated. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant
part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future
careers.

Fomy: What did you feel when you finally wrote the kiss, awaited so much by the fans, of ron and hermione

J.K. Rowling: I loved writing it, and I loved the fact that Hermione took the initiative! Ron had finally got SPEW and earned himself a snog!

Katieleigh: Does hermione still continue to do work with spew and is life any better for house elves!

J.K. Rowling: 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.

Blodeuwedd: Hi jk, first of all thank you for all the books I have
enjoyed each and every one of them could you tell us what professions
harry, hermione, ron, ginny and luna go on to have did the trio do
their final year at school and take their newts who became hea

J.K. Rowling: Thank you! I’ve already answered about Hermione. Kingsley became
permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up
his new Auror department. Harry did so (just because Voldemort was gone, it didn’t
mean that there would not be other Dark witches and wizards in the
coming years). Ron joined George at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner. 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!

Camille: How is george getting along without his twin

J.K. Rowling: Well, I don’t 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.

Sampotterish: Why did dumbledore want ron to keep his deluminator

J.K. Rowling: Because he knew that Ron might need a little more guidance than the other two. Dumbledore understood Ron’s importance in the trio. He wasn’t the most
skilled, or the most intelligent, but he held them together; his humour
and his good heart were essential.

Jess Mac: What was the third smell that hermione smelt in the amortentia potion in hbp (ie the particular essence of ron)

J.K. Rowling: I think it was his hair. Every individual has very distinctive-smelling hair, don’t you find?

Nicole: What do you think is the funniest moment you have written in the series

J.K. Rowling: It sounds very vain to answer this! My favourite in this
book is probably that line of Ron’s ‘really captures the scope and
tragedy of the thing, doesn’t it?’

Katie Mosher: How exactly do muggleborns receive magical ability

J.K. Rowling: Muggle-borns 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.

Maggie Keir: Was hermione able to find her parents and undo the memory damage

J.K. Rowling: Yes, she brought them home straight away.

Lulu: Do you think dumbledore was a little more fond of ron than either ron or harry believed

J.K. Rowling: Yes, I do. Through Harry’s account of Ron, and from
reports of the professors who taught Ron, Dumbledore understood Ron
better than Ron ever knew, and liked him, too.

Laura Trego: Did hermione really put a memory charm on her parents
she says she did but then about 50 pages later tells ron shes never
done a memory charm

J.K. Rowling: They are two different
charms. She has not wiped her parents’ memories (as she later does to
Dolohov and Rowle); she has bewitched them to make them believe that
they are different people.

Lecanard: Will we see harry and his friends having their own history on chocolate frogs cards

J.K. Rowling: Definitely, and Ron will describe this as his finest hour.

 

An Evening With Harry, Carrie and Garp (Fan Report from MN) [082006]:
Question #1: "What would Hermione see in the mirror of Erised?"

At the moment, she would see the three of them, still alive and unscathed with Voldemort defeated. She [JKR] also added that Hermione would see herself "closely entwined with another person."

JKR Interview for HBP(TLC/Mugglenet Interview w/ JKR) [072005]:
ES: We thought it was clearer than ever that Harry and Ginny are an item and Ron and Hermione — although we think you made it painfully obvious in the first five books —
JKR: [points to herself and whispers] So do I!
What was that?
JKR: [More loudly] Well so do I! So do I!
[All laugh; Melissa doubles over, hysterical, and may have died.]
ES: Harry/Hermione shippers - they're delusional!
JKR: Well no, I'm not going to - Emerson, I am not going to say they're delusional! They are still valued members of my readership! I am not going to use the word delusional. I am however, going to say — now I am trusting both of you to do the spoiler thing when you write this up —
[More laughter.]
I will say, that yes, I personally feel - well it's going to be clear once people have read book six. I mean, that’s it. It’s done, isn’t it? We know. Yes, we do now know that it's Ron and Hermione. I do feel that I have dropped heavy -
[All crack up]
- hints. ANVIL-sized, actually, hints, prior to this point. I certainly think even if subtle clues hadn't been picked up by the end of “Azkaban,” that by the time we hit Krum in Goblet...
But Ron — I had a lot of fun with that in this book. I really enjoyed writing the Ron/Lavender business, and the reason that was enjoyable was Ron up to this point has been quite immature compared to the other two and he kind of needed to make himself worthy of Hermione. Now, that didn't mean necessarily physical experience but he had to grow up emotionally and now he's taken a big step up. Because he's had the meaningless physical experience - let’s face it, his emotions were never deeply engaged with Lavender -
[Much laughter in which Melissa emits a "Won-Won"]
- and he's realized that that is ultimately not what he wants, which takes him a huge emotional step forward.
ES: So he's got a little bit more than a teaspoon, now there’s a tablespoon?
JKR: Yeah, I think. [Laughter]
MA: Watching all this, were you surprised when you first logged on and found this intense devotion to this thing that you knew was not going to happen?
JKR: Yes. Well, you see, I'm a relative newcomer to the world of shipping, because for a long time, I didn't go on the net and look up Harry Potter. A long time. Occasionally I had to, because there were weird news stories or something that I would have to go and check, because I was supposed to have said something I hadn’t said. I had never gone and looked at fan sites, and then one day I did and oh - my - god. Five hours later or something, I get up from the computer shaking slightly [all laugh]. ‘What is going on?’ And it was during that first mammoth session that I met the shippers, and it was a most extraordinary thing. I had no idea there was this huge underworld seething beneath me.
ES: She’s putting it into a positive light!
JKR: Well I am, I am, but you know. I want to make it clear that delusional is your word and not mine! [Much laughter.]
MA: You're making our lives a lot easier by laying it on the table -
JKR: JKR: Well I think anyone who is still shipping Harry/Hermione after this book -
ES: [whispered] Delusional!
JKR: JKR: Uh - no! But they need to go back and reread, I think.
ES: Thank you.
JKR:Yeah.
MA: That is going to -
JKR: Will it make your lives slightly easier?
[All three]: Yeah, yeah.
JKR: I think so.
MA: I have to tell you, I'm looking forward to [this coming out], because, you know, a lot of this is predicated upon a necessary hate for another character. Ron has suffered horribly at the hands of Harry/Hermione shippers.
JKR: That bit makes me very uncomfortable, actually. Yeah, that bit does make me uncomfortable.
ES: Honestly, I think the Harry/Hermione shippers are a very small percentage of the population anyway.
MA: Yeah, if you do a general poll -
ES: They seem more prominent online, but that’s just because the online fandom is very -
MA: Militant was the best word I heard -
JKR: Militant is a beautifully chosen word. Energetic. Feisty.
[Laughter.]

 

From Rumours Section of JKR Official Website [040607]:

Dumbledore is really Ron/Harry ‘from the future’

Your
inventiveness knows no bounds, and I do not mean that sarcastically;
these theories open up exhilarating new vistas of possibility… but
they’re wrong. Could it be that by speculating that Harry/Ron becomes
Dumbledore, you are seeking reassurance that neither dies young?

I’ve
also heard a whisper about Ron and Hermione’s son time-travelling, so I
shall go further and tell you that NONE of the characters in the books
has returned from the future. As for the idea of Ron and Hermione
having a son… (chuckles as the distant roars of a million shippers
reach my ears, all cursing me to an eternity of unsatisfied curiosity).

 

JKR - Edinburgh Book Festival (JKR Official Website) [081504]:

Will Ron and Hermione ever get together?
JKR: Well [Laughter.] What do you think? [Audience member: I think they will]. I'm not going to say. I can't say, can I? I think that, by now, I've given quite a lot of clues on the subject. That is all I'm going to say. You will have to read between the lines on that one.

 

World Book Day Chat [040404]:
renata: What happened between hermiona and viktor krum during the summer?
JK Rowling replies -> Ron would like to know that, too.

 

Dateline NBC - OotP (Katie Couric) [0503]:
JKR: He does have certain adolescent rights of passage happen to him.
KC: Any snogging with Hermione?
JKR: *does the thingie with the eyebrows and the nose* Hermione and Harry do you think so?
KC: NO I'm just kidding.
JKR: Ron and Hermione I would say. There's more tension there.

 

Comic Relief Chat[0301]:
Zsenya: Does Hermione like Ron as more than a friend?
JKR: The answer to that is in Goblet of Fire, Zsenya!

 

HP CoS DVD:In this movie we've seen the kids develop from the first film, can you tell us about the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione and how that is developing film by film?
JKR: Well I think it is developing in the films as it does in the books, which is to say that they are, they're much stronger together than apart. They're much more aware, in the second film, of their particular strengths. So they're more effective, the children are able to do more complex things, for example the Polyjuice Potion. And also Chris in the second film has kind of foreshadowed what I don't do until the fourth book, which is that you get hints of certain feelings between the three of them, that belong to a sort of slightly more mature person.

BN.com [102000]:

Is it just me, or was something going on between Ron and Hermione during the last half of Goblet of Fire? I love your books, by the way, and two of them I've read straight through cover to cover in under 24 hours.

JKR: Well done on the reading speed! Yes, something's "going on," but Ron doesn't realize it yet. Typical boy.

Will Ron ever get a girlfriend?

KR: I'm laughing again.... Why wouldn't he?! Though he's not doing too well at the moment, is he? But then, Fleur Delacour was really aiming a bit high.

 

Press Club (Sean Bowler) [102099]:
SB: Yes. Um, is there anything that you'd want to add?
JKR: No, I'll see one more question, cause we really didn't get an answer for that.
SB: Very good.
JKR: *looking through questions* No, don't like that one. Oh, I like this one . . . do Harry and Hermione have a date? [laughter] No. They are, they're very platonic friends. But I won't answer for anyone else, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. [laughter and sound of kids going 'Aaah!']

BN.com [090899]:
Dear Ms. Rowling, I'd like to ask if there would be a lot of romances between the characters in the upcoming books?

KR: Good question. I'm having so much fun writing Book 4 because for the first time Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are starting to recognize boys and girls as boys and girls. Everyone is in love with the wrong people. Let no one say my books lack realism.

 

~Originally compiled for and by RonandHermione.net