Following up on The Herald piece we told you about yesterday, where reporter Anne Johnstone looked back on the past ten years and previous interviews with Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, our Floo partner Accio Quote now has the June 2000 interview cited in the article included in their collection. Not only is this interview an addition to the resource’s archive, it also provides us with further canon detail on the topic of death. The original article expands on the notation made by Miss Johnstone in her latest article about the title characters fate in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As cited on the Accio Quote News Blog, Jo says in the original article from 2000:
One of her fundamentals is that you can’t reverse death: “That’s a given. Without it the plot would fall apart, though in Book Seven you’ll see just how close you can get to the dead. You can be brought back from being petrified and from injuries that in the real world are mortal, depending on the degree of skill that a particular wizard possesses. You can’t go to any wizard and say ‘Will you cure my terminally ill relative?’ It’s a mirror image of the real world in that sense.”
Also from the article, Jo also remarks of Professor Snape as a ‘compendium of all the bullying teachers she ever encountered,’ and relates a particular event with a previous book editor and a ‘particularly violent bishop.’
“In Philosopher’s Stone I had a game of chess between Harry and Ron which Ron won by using a particularly violent bishop. My editor made me take it out. He didn’t want me to have a bad bishop. Well, he’s back, I have a different editor now.” [This refers to GoF23, where Ron beats Harry at chess with the bishop.]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on July 21st.
great find you guys! and it has rekindled my hope that my dear Sirius may still be alive!!!!
i hope beyond hope!!!!
<3padfootrocksmysocks
Posted by padfootrocksmysocks on June 30, 2007, 11:15 PM
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Definitely a beyond the veil reference. And I hadn’t thought about it before reading these comments, but I do now see that as possibly a reference to Snape’s healing skills too. Also, didn’t Dumbledore say something to the effect that those we love never truly leave us? And didn’t Harry, at the end of HBP, without really understanding why he was saying it, say something to the effect of “he’s not as gone as you might think” about Dumbledore? On the back of the UK children’s cover, in the light streaming out of Hogwarts, if you turn the cover upsidedown, an image of possibly Dumbledore can be seen in the light. Note that no previous headmaster/mistress of Hogwarts was ever buries at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore specificly requested it. I think that some form of his “presence” will be in action to some degree at Hogwarts.
It has to be that they go behind the veil.
Do you think its just coincedence that Jo says:”It’s a mirror image” Could it possibly be related to Harrys two-way mirror? The one Sirius gave him.
Just a though
Mabey that means the draught of the living death….or if Harry is a horcrux mabey he dies after expelling it from himself? But who has the power to help him, Slughorn? Snape..Hmmmm.
rubbing my chin thoughtfuly very interesting.
“You can be brought back from being petrified and from injuries that in the real world are mortal, depending on the degree of skill that a particular wizard possesses. You can’t go to any wizard and say ‘Will you cure my terminally ill relative?’”
Am I the only one who thought of the Longbottoms?
No one has commented about the Bishop part. I can visualise (whats that woman name who wants the books banned?) jumping up shouting – “see! I told you she is blasphemous!” ha. I have to say Jo is a little mischeivous and rebellious at times which just adds to the charm of Jo.
I have to admit what she says about death and book 7 is the biggest hint dropped that I am shocked she said it! All this effort to avoid spoilery and of all the people to slip a big hint is Jo!! I interpret this that we will be meeting the dead somehow. We already meet some of the dead in the form of Hogwarts ghosts, wall paintings and from the clash of Harry and Voldermonts wands. But all of these are just the traces of when they were alive – not the actual dead. We are certainly going behind the veil methinks as Luna says her mother is behind it along with we know for sure Sirious. We hear voices from it. We visit it twice in OOTP. It is too big and significant to be a red herring.
Spoiler warning for Dark Materials (Golden Compass):
I hope we dont get a similar state of afterlife visit as in the Dark materials trilogy which in itself was a brilliant but scary depiction of death. I will not help making comparisons to Dark materials if Jo goes in that direction. In dark materials – the dead were trapped souls and the veil in OOTP sounds very much like trapped souls (the voices, the image of sirious “falling” into it)
End Spoiler *
One things for sure though – its going to be a hellova read – my heart is beating fast as we get ever closer to the release date!
I don’t think that we should accept this straight up as going behind the veil, it could mean Harry almost dieing and then being revived by Snape? or Someone, but still being affected, like Eragon in Eldest, for those who haven’t read it, Eragon has a problem with his back and any time he exerts himself he gets a massive pain… maybe something similar will happen to Harry? Though i hope not.
Also, in the interview Jo didn’t directly say that Snape was a compendium of all bullying teachers, that was written by the interviewer. So snape still needs explaining rather than saying “yep he dies bad” we still aren’t sure… Anyone know what Myopia is?
Potterdämmerung, Dumbledore isn’t dead. Therefore, they’re not return-from-the-dead theories. Personally, I don’t care about Sirius, but here’s an interesting point: Siris fell trhough the veil. If Harry’s going behind the veil (and returning), that means theoretically Sirius could return too.
Harry was still looking out of the window, feeling increasingly nervous. Ernie didn't seem to have mastered the use of a steering wheel. The Knight Bus kept mounting the pavement, but it didn't hit anything; lines of lampposts, mailboxes, and trash cans j
yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! Godric Gryffindor!!!!!!!!!!!