Interview Evidence

"Harry is changing as he's getting older. He and his friends are 14 now and their hormones are kicking in, so it's really fun to write about. Everyone's in love with the wrong person, it's brilliant."

"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."

Q: Will Harry find romance in book four?
A: He tries, but he doesn't get very far.
They're all kind of after the wrong people, as in life. Hermione gets the first date, and it's quite a cool one because I thought I owed her a bit of fun.

Q: Is Harry Potter ever going to fall in love with Hermione or is he going to fall in love with Ginny Weasley?
A: In Book 4 Harry does decide he likes a girl, but it's not Hermione or Ginny. However, he's only 14, so there's plenty of time for him to change his mind. ;-)

"Last time you met him he was 13. He's 14 now and he's started to realise girls are quite interesting. I think if someone is engaged in the books, he's not going to be too disappointed if, at some point, his hero holds hands with a little girl."

Q: Can you discuss the possiblity of a central character dying? And as Harry matures, does a love interest develop between he and Hermione?
A:Well, as I said, there will be deaths, but I am giving nothing away there, as for Harry & Hermione... d'you really think they're suited?

"Part of the reason [Book 4] is so much fun to write is that they're discovering their hormones. And they're mainly in love with all the wrong people, just to make it lifelike."

"Oh no, is that us? (The train pulls slowly out of the station as Rowling waves exuberantly to a long line of fans. An elderly woman waves and wipes a mock tear from her cheek. A young girl runs along with the train, waving with all her might.) Oh God, this is heartbreaking, isn't it? This is like a long torture. It's always the little freckly girls, 'cause I was a little freckly girl. They warm my heart."

"There's stuff coming with the Dursleys that people might not expect, but I'm not going to give too much away there if that's OK. . . . Finally, I gave you something. Ginny (Weasley) does have a bigger role in Book Five."

Also, Rowling said, Ginny Weasley - little sister to Harry's best friend, Ron, who's been nursing a crush on Harry for the first four books - "will play more of a role in Book Five."

"I would say Harry has flaws and failings. He was too proud [in the fourth book] to talk to Ron about what was bothering them both. Harry was walking around thinking, "I'm the one with all the problems," and he did have a lot of problems, but Ron had been a faithful friend for three years, and I would have cut Ron a little more slack. And what about Ginny? Poor Ginny, languishing in love for Harry, and he's merrily asking out other girls right under her nose! But that's just a boy thing."

Q:Will Harry ever notice the long-suffering Ginny Weasley?
A: You'll see... poor Ginny, eh?

Q: Thanks for the interview! So... will Harry be receiving a second kiss in his last two years at Hogwarts? ;)
A: He might well be receiving another kiss (or two) but I'm not saying who the kisser's going to be..

Q: Do you plan for Ginny to take on a major character role in the next two books?
A: Well, now that Ginny has stopped being mute in Harry's presence I think you can see that she is a fairly forceful personality (and she always has been, remember Ron saying that she 'never shuts up' in Chamber of Secrets)?

Q: Will Harry fall for another girl in book six, or will he be too busy for romance?
A: He'll be busy, but what's life without a little romance?

"I am very protective of my characters and the storyline; I stick fiercely to what I believe is right for them even if I know that it will make some fans unhappy (for instance, some of the romance in book six disappointed readers who were hoping for other pairings). However, resisting this kind of pressure is not as difficult as you might think, because I did a lot of planning in the seven years between having the idea for the Potter books and the publication of 'Philosopher's Stone', so I have a kind of map to keep me on track."

MA: How much fun did you have with the romance in this book?
JKR: Oh, loads. Doesn't it show?
MA: Yes.
JKR: There's a theory - this applies to detective novels, and then Harry, which is not really a detective novel, but it feels like one sometimes – that you should not have romantic intrigue in a detective book. Dorothy L. Sayers, who is queen of the genre said — and then broke her own rule, but said — that there is no place for romance in a detective story except that it can be useful to camouflage other people’s motives. That's true; it is a very useful trick. I've used that on Percy and I’ve used that to a degree on Tonks in this book, as a red herring. But having said that, I disagree inasmuch as mine are very character-driven books, and it’s so important, therefore, that we see these characters fall in love, which is a necessary part of life. How did you feel about the romance?
[Melissa puts her thumbs up and grins widely while…]
ES: We were hi-fiving the whole time.
JKR: [laughs] Yes! Good. I'm so glad.
MA: We were running back and forth between rooms yelling at each other.
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!
ES: 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 - 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.]
JKR: 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]
JKR: - 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...

MA: Did Ginny send Harry the valentine?
JKR: Yeah, bless her.
MA: Was it a Tom Riddle thing, or Ginny Weasley?
JKR: No, Ginny Weasley.
MA: Well, she got paid back for it.
JKR: [laughs] Eventually.
MA: I think you set that up from the train compartment scene [in book one], where he was watching — all the relationships, that scene probably set it up.
JKR: I think so. I hope so. So you liked Harry/Ginny, did you, when it happened?
ES: We've been waiting for this for years!
JKR: Oh, I'm so glad.
MA: Oh my gosh, that kiss!
JKR: Yeah.
ES: It actually materialized!
JKR: It actually happened, I know! I felt a little bit like that.
MA: Had you been trying to get them —
JKR: Well I always knew that that was going to happen, that they were going to come together and then part.

ES: Were you always -----ing it? [We can’t figure out what Emerson actually said here.]
JKR: Well, no, not really, because the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She's tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she's gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he's a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He's a marked man. I think she's funny, and I think that she's very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman. But, I felt — and I'm talking years ago when all this was planned — initially, she's terrified by his image. I mean, he's a bit of a rock god to her when she sees him first, at 10 or 11, and he's this famous boy. So Ginny had to go through a journey as well. And rather like with Ron, I didn’t want Ginny to be the first girl that Harry ever kissed. That's something I meant to say, and it's kind of tied in.
One of the ways in which I tried to show that Harry has done a lot of growing up — in “Phoenix,” remember when Cho comes into the compartment, and he thinks, ‘I wish I could have been discovered sitting with better people,’ basically? He's with Luna and Neville. So literally the identical thing happens in “Prince,” and he's with Luna and Neville again, but this time, he has grown up, and as far as he's concerned he is with two of the coolest people on the train. They may not look that cool. Harry has really grown. And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They've both gone through a big emotional journey, and they've really got over a lot of delusions, to use your word, together. So, I enjoyed writing that. I really like Ginny as a character.
MA: Does she have a larger importance; the Tom Riddle stufff, being the seventh girl —
JKR: The backstory with Ginny was, she was the first girl to arrive in the Weasley family in generations, but there's that old tradition of the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and a seventh son of a seventh son, so that's why she's the seventh, because she is a gifted witch. I think you get hints of that, because she does some pretty impressive stuff here and there, and you'll see that again.

ES: Was James the only one who had romantic feelings for Lily?
JKR: No. [Pause.] She was like Ginny, she was a popular girl.

MA: Someone put it to me last night, that if Ginny, with the diary -
JKR: Harry definitely destroyed that piece of soul, you saw it take shape, you saw it destroyed, it’s gone. And Ginny is definitely in no way possessed by Voldemort.
MA: Is she still a parselmouth?
JKR: No.
MA: Does she have a life debt to Harry from book two?
JKR: No, not really. Wormtail is different. You know, part of me would just love to explain the whole thing to you, plot of book seven, you know, I honestly would.

Q: 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.)
A: 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.
Q: From your fans at www.thesnitch.co.uk. Weren’t we supposed to see Ginny display powerful magical abilities in Deathly Hallows and find out why it’s significant that she’s the seventh child? Was her main role in the books only to be Harry’s love interest?
A: Hi Ryan! Well, I think Ginny demonstrated powerful magic in the final battle, and that for a sixteen year old witch she acquitted herself pretty well. I don’t remember ever saying that her ‘seventh child’ status would prove particularly important in the last book, though — are you sure I said that?!

Q: Hi J.K., 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 N.E.W.T.s?
A: 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!

If you know of any other interviews or articles with Harry/Ginny hints that are not listed here, please email us about it. Be sure to include a link to the article and point out the hint.

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