What Jo says about...
Other Hogwarts students

Please note: unless you see quotemarks, these are summaries, and not JKR's words themselves. Please see the linked article for the actual text.

• Marcus Flint, Slytherin Quidditch captain, had to repeat a year at Hogwarts [Read the exact quote from Scholastic chat #1, 2000]
• The idea of Harry saving Cedric’s body came from the Hector-Patroclus-Achilles triangle in The Illiad [Read the exact quote from Entertainment Weekly, 2000]
• JKR on Voldemort and Cedric's death: "We really are talking about someone who is incredibly power hungry. Racist, really. And what do those kinds of people do? They treat human life so lightly. I wanted to be accurate in that sense. My editor was shocked by the way the character was killed, which was very dismissive. That was entirely deliberate." [Read the exact quote from Time Magazine, 2000]
• Susan Bones' grandparents were killed by Voldmort [Read the exact quote from the Yahooligans! chat, 2001]
• Natalie McDonald is the only real person to be mentioned in the novels. (She is sorted into Gryffindor in GoF). The real Natalie was a young girl who suffered from Leukaemia and whose mother wrote, e-mailed and faxed JK’s publishers. The letter was sent to JK, who got it after coming back from a holiday. She replied, but unfortunately the e-mails were received a day after Natalie passed away. Natalie’s mum and JK have since struck up a friendship. [Read the exact quote from Maclean's, 2000]
• Jo has a chart with every Hogwarts student that lists their house, magical ability, parentage and allegiances. She will need parentage info later "for the death eaters" [Read the exact quote from "Harry Potter and Me," 2001]
• JKR: "Luna is the anti-Hermione because Hermione is so logical and so inflexible whereas Luna is the one who is prepared to believe a thousand mad things before breakfast." [Read the exact quote from Royal Albert Hall, 2003]
• What houses were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Remus Lupin in?
  JK Rowling says: "This is JK herself saying that they were indeed in Gryffindor!" [note that Lupin is repeated twice and Pettigrew was not in this list]. [Read the exact quote from World Book Day, 2004]
• Wormtail used Voldemort’s wand to kill Cedric. [Read the exact quote from World Book Day, 2004]
• Dean Thomas is actually a half-blood whose father was a wizard who got himself killed by death eaters after refusing to join them. His story was sacrificed for Neville's — which is more central to the plot. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Theodore Nott has been raised by an elderly widower and a death eater father. He is a clever loner who does not need to join gangs — including Malfoy's. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Mafalda: was a Weasley cousin whose character was edited out of the books in favor of Rita Skeeter. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• We will finally meet Blaise Zabini (who is male) in the next few books. [Read the exact quote from Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004]
• In CoS, Colin Creavey's muggle camera worked because it was "running off the magical atmosphere" and developed in a magical potion. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• More characters are going to die. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• JK sees Neville and Luna as very different people. She says that, although they share a certain isolation within the walls of Hogwarts, this isn’t enough to foster true love. They may be friends but "Neville would always find Luna’s wilder flights of fancy alarming." [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• The new Gryffindor Beaters will be "completely new finds by the new captain." They will not be either Creevey boy. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Luna is not Snape's daughter; her father is the editor of The Quibbler. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Writing Luna's commentary during the Quidditch match was what caused JK's "fiendish glee" [mentioned on her website]. [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• JK had fun with the romance in Book 6. She hopes that the trends are now entirely clear. "I really enjoyed writing the Ron/Lavender business." Ron needed to "grow up emotionally." [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]