What happened in 2006?
Fans anxiously awaited news of Book 7, and we began to get reports on the movie based upon Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as it wrapped up filming. Rowling continued her strategy of granting very few interviews with mainstream media, preferring to communicate directly with her readers via her website.

On December 21, the door opened and the Book 7 title was revealed to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Rating	2006	Title & highlights*	Links	Type
***	Jan 10	There would be so much to tell her... Tatler magazine (UK) JKR: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."	text	interview
****	Jan 17- Feb 23	Interview of Arthur Levine PotterCast #22: The Origins of Harry Potter PotterCast #23: Changing Harry Potter PotterCast #24: Ending Harry Potter	text audio1 audio2 audio3	Levine interview
**	Jan 31	From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read The Guardian (UK)	text	reading list
*****	June 26	'Richard & Judy Show' Channel Four Corporation (UK). Jo "drew a lot" on her sister's "grumpy" adolescence when she was writing scenes for Harry. JKR: "The final chapter is hidden away, although it has now changed very slightly. One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two [main characters] die that I didn't intend to die." JKR: "I've never been tempted to kill [Harry] off before the end of book 7. [...] But I can completely understand the mentality of an author who thinks "well I am going to kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels as they call them, so it will end with me and after I am dead and gone." Jo still won't tell us if Harry dies. "I don't want the hate mail, apart from anything else." JKR: "The last book is not finished, though I am well into it now." Jo wrote the final chapter to Book 7 in 1990. Jo thinks that the Book 1 scene where Voldemort appears in the back of Quirrell's head is "one of the creepiest things I have ever written." Harry discovers that Muggle world problems take an even more extravagant form in the Wizarding World because everything is exacerbated by magic. "Human nature is human nature, whatever special powers and talents you have." The Book 1 "Mirror of Erised" chapter is one of Jo's "favourite chapters in the whole series." Jo still says she might do a kind of encyclopedia of the Wizarding World for charity after Book 7. The other children's book that Jo mentioned in the Tatler article is not finished, "but its pretty far on - about half way." It is an idea she got a few years ago; it will be a shorter story for younger children	text audio1 audio2 video1 video2	interview
**	June 25	Newsround Video and Interview of JKR at Queen's Party BBC Newsround	video	interview
*****	Aug 1	An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp Press Conference with John Irving and Stephen King As of 8/1 she is "well into" the writing of Book 7; she is having fun and feels "quite liberated." JKR: "Some people will loathe it [Book 7], some will love it, but that's the way it should be." When Jo finishes Book 7 she will "probably go through a mourning period." Jo can understand why an author would want to kill off their character 'from a point of view of not allowing others to continue writing after the original author is dead '. She didn't enjoy killing the character who dies at the end of book 6, but it wasn't quite as poignant as we may have imagined because she had planned it for years and had already done her grieving. Dumbledore had to die because 'In these sort of epic sagas, the hero eventually has to fight alone', although Harry still has his two faithful sidekicks. Fundamentally, Jo is saying 'the old wizard always gets it'. JKR: "A couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve."	text photos	interview
*****	Aug 1	An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp Readings with audience question and answer sessions Hermione would see the trio “alive and unscathed and Voldemort finished” in the Mirror of Erised. She may also see herself in a romantic embrace. Muggles cannot brew potions because there is always a magical component, and at some point you would have to use a wand. If a muggle picked up a wand something accidental and possibly quite violent would be likely to occur. The wand is a vessel for what lies inside a person. You need the magical ability to make it work properly. We will learn more about the relationship between wands and their wizards/witches in book 7. Jo thinks that if psychologists were to get Voldemort in a room, pin him down and take the wand away he would be classified as a psychopath. When asked about Draco, Jo said that all of her main characters except for Voldemort can be considered redeemable. Harry believes that Draco would not have killed Dumbledore even if he had all the time in the world.  Indeed he would not have; this will have implications for Draco’s future. Wandmakers can choose wand cores “that are particular to their country.” Ollivander was given her three favourite cores from the many she had written down. JKR: "I’ll probably leave some loose ends hanging." Jo found the shipping wars upsetting and likened it to cyber gang warfare. JKR: "Overall, I think [fandom is] an interesting and exciting thing -- if used wisely!"	text video1 video2 video3 video4	interview
*****	Aug 2	An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp Readings with audience question and answer sessions Why was Aunt Petunia being oddly flushed when she heard that Harry would only be returning to Privet Drive once more? JKR: “There is a little more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye and you will find out what that is in book seven” Dumbledore will not “do a Gandalf;” he is truly dead. Madam Pince was made so nasty because if there had been a nice, friendly librarian half of Jo's plots would have been gone. Jo wanted Hermione to have to go and find the answers herself. Jo had been quite convinced she had a title for book 7 until she thought of another one that morning.	text video photos	interview
***	Sep 4	J.K. Rowling's Response to news that 'Voldemort Voted Top Villain in the Bigbadread' bigbadread.com Lord Voldemort will get the "legroom" he has been "aching" for in book 7.	text	Rowling statement
***	Sep 25	J.K. Rowling discusses Robbie Coltrane and the role of Hagrid South Bank Show (ITV1)	text Video (YouTube) Video (WMV)	interview
Rating	2006	Title & highlights*	Links	Type

*Article highlights created by Deborah Skinner (aka 'Madam Scoop') and Lisa Bunker

Original page date 21 September 2006; last updated 29 May, 2007

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