PotterCast 130: The One with JK Rowling Transcript

Part 3 (32:18 - 48:17)

SU: Can we just ask a kinda sad thing, though? What did the Longbottoms do that they earned that wrath from Bellatrix? Such- their three times, like the Potters...

JKR: They were efficient!

SU: Thrice defying the Dark Lord.

JKR: They were efficient. That's all they needed to be to earn her wrath. They were-They had rounded up Death Eaters. They were very good Aurors. They knew what they were doing. They were responsible for a lot of captures and arrests and imprisonments. And so there you are.

MA: What about the three times, the thrice defying of Voldemort?

JKR: Of James and Lily?

MA: Of Neville's parents. Well, James and Lily too.

JKR: Well it depends how you take defying, doesn't it? If you're counting, well which I do, any time you arrested one of his henchmen, any time you escaped him, any time you thwarted him. That's what he's looking for. (SU: Yeah.) And both couple qualified because they were both fighting. Also James and Lily turned him down, that's established in Philosopher's Stone. He wanted them, (SU: Wow.) and they wouldn't come over, so that's one strike against them before they were even out of their teens.

SU: Rock. That's so cool, I was glad to hear more about them, the night of their murder in Deathly Hallows but there's still a little bit of confusion about those twenty four hours, Jo. (laughs) And how did Dumbledore find out about what happened in Godric's Hollow?

MA: And what happened? There's this whole twenty four hours that people have been fantasizing about for years.

JKR: Yeah, I know. I've got a bit of problem with this myself because every time I get it straight in my head I go back and look at what the fans are theorizing about and I think "Yeah, maybe they're got a point". Dumbledore- Well there's an easy answer to how would Dumbledore know. Because you can-He. (laughs) You can, one can.

MA: Yeah. Yeah. (SU laughs)

JKR: Forgive me as I speak as though it's all real for a moment. (clears her throat)

SU: It is real! What do you mean it's not?

JN: That's what we all feel.

JKR: I know, exactly! That's how I feel as well. Yeah, so okay. Obviously Dumbledore could cast a spell on a dwelling that would immediately alert him if something happened to it. (SU: Oh.) So he could know instantaneously, that's not a problem at all. And then he could dispatch Hagrid and so on. I think The Scottish Book will have to answer that question. ( SU and MA and JN laugh) I'm gonna have to really go back through notes and either admit that I lost twenty four hours or I don't know, hurriedly come up with some back story to fill in (SU laughs) Either way, you either get to be right, or you get more story. So you can't complain. Okay.

MA: No.

JN: Now I have to ask, (JKR: Uh huh.) and I don't know if it's something that- you probably haven't even decided it yet. But, when you do go back and you do, in ten years so be it, (JKR: M-hmm.) do The Scottish Book, are you thinking more in line of a- Like an account of events or small stories for things?

JKR: Well to be honest John, at the moment, I'm not going to say, "Don't hold me to this," but I'm just gonna say, "This might change," but I imagined it as half of it, maybe on facing pages, but that might be difficult just through layout. But the ideal would be to have- say on the left hand side you've got a page showing all your back story, extra details on characters, or an entry on wands, showing what every character's wand was and all of this stuff. (JN: Mm-hm.) And I think also it might be interesting to have information about the actual writing and what I discarded. So on one side it's acting like the whole world is true and it's giving you extra information on that real world (JN and SU: Yeah.) and on the other side we're admitting that it's actually fiction and I'm showing yeah, discarded plots, characters that didn't make it, problems in the plot. I think both lots of information are interesting so it would be nice to unite both of them.

JN: Absolutely. That sounds like a student's textbook. (JKR: Yeah. Yeah.) Where in the margins they have (MA laughs) fact tables and things and then there's also snippets of stories that they rescued from things and then...

JKR: Well, exactly, to be honest, I think the only- the point of doing it, if I'm going to do it, it's about doing the absolute definitive, giving people everything guide. (SU: Yeah.) Well everything could I ever give everything? But everything that I've got, put it that way. That's what I aspire to do at the moment. It might, for practical reasons not be possible to do both sets of information in that way but I would like to, that would be the ideal.

JN: I think fans would wait ten years (MA: Yeah.) for something like that.

JKR: Oh well (JN: To be honest.) if that's the case then I'm delighted because I don't- what I really- I don't wanna get into- God know I do not this near Christmas (SU: Yeah.) want to talk about legal stuff, it's just too depressing. But I think there's no point in me doing it unless it's amazing. And I think there's no point in writing it unless it is everything and the last thing that I want to do is to feel that I have to rush something out because (SU: Right.) do you know what I mean? My hand is being forced or there's demand and other people will fill it first. I think, I just want to do it right or not do it at all. And I really do want to do it right.

SU: Well I'll wait ten years if you give me a little bit of the history of Hufflepuff and then I'll really be a happy camper.

JKR: Yeah well, (JN laughs) I will definitely- (MA: Oh, God.) that's all of it, yeah.

MA: (laughs) Oh Hufflepuff.

JN: It's been a hundred and thirty some weeks and we've managed to get you on the show, so ten years what's it matter?

JKR: Yeah what's it matter? That's the spirit, John!

MA: You guys are being a little too permissive about this ten years thing. (laughs) I don't know, man. Let's not expand it. No, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. (JKR laughs) Since you mentioned Hufflepuff, I wanted to ask a sort of specific question about Hannah. (SU: Yes.) Hannah...

JKR: Hannah Abbott?

SU: Yes, (MA: Yeah.) yes.

JKR: Oh, I like her.

MA: There's a line in Deathly Hallows when Harry (SU: Yeah.) sees someone that he thinks might be Hannah Abbott's long-lost relatives. What's her deal? Is she a Muggle-born? Is she- Did she lose her family?

JKR: Oh, you mean the grave? (MA: Yeah.) No. She's not Muggleborn. She's- no, I'm pretty sure Hannah's a pureblood. I know her mother died...

MA: In an old documentary, you showed a picture that had like all the family associations, and Hannah appeared to be Muggleblood in the (JKR: Did she?) fan's carefully constructed image of that picture.

JKR: Because I'll tell you what. If that's the- I've got that notebook, and that's one of my cornerstone notebooks. In that case, then I've been mis-remembering that, because I thought she was pureblood. Hm, interesting. (MA: Hm.) Because I've certainly (MA: Okay.) written about her, and thought about her for years now (MA: Mm-hm.) as pureblood, so that's interesting. (laughs) Maybe we'll just split the difference and call her half-blood. (MA and JN laugh) Yeah, that's how decisions are taken in the fairly random world of J.K. Rowling. (MA and JN laugh)

SU: I didn't care though, because Hannah goes on to become landlady at the Leaky Cauldron, my favorite pub. And I was-

JKR: Damn right she does, and I think that's a very cool- I think that's (JN laughs) a pretty cool career, and I think that makes Neville quite cool (JN: Yeah.) that he married her, don't you think?

SU: Yes it does. (applauds) Woohoo.

MA: Oh yes.

JKR: Thank you. (JN laughs)

SU: Thank you, Jo. (JKR: My pleasure.) I loved it. You know, I love your website. You made Hufflepuff, and when you did the (MA laughs) four founders and you had all that stuff- so we were really, really grateful to learn about all those things, so (JKR: Thank you.) bring it on.

JKR: I know that the website's been really quiet lately. I said in my diary entry, people around me keep saying, "Oh, it must be really quiet now." They have no idea. The second half of (MA laughs) 2007 has been insane and manic and strange, (SU: Right.) and full of stuff that I'd really rather not deal with. And I'm afraid to say the website's one of the things that kind of went by the by. I hoped (SU: Oh.) by starting the website, which I've enjoyed so much. It's been a great way to directly communicate with the fans, and definitely the most effective way I could have found. I was getting a lot of pressure, or a lot of requests to do a fan club. From people (SU: Oh, yeah.) who wanted to run it, and people who wanted to have a fan club. And I really didn't want to do a fan club, because I thought that they're nearly never as good as they promised to be. (SU: Right.) And they're never free, and you've got to pay, and then a lot of material needs to be generated. And so I thought doing the fan site, creating that, at least it would be free, and people would feel that they were getting something. So if there was a quiet phase, then it wouldn't matter too much. I do need to update, and I will. I will.

SU: Yes, because we're dying about those W.O.M.B.A.T.s, you know.

JKR: Oh God! Listen, (MA and SU laugh) I've got to tell you, the W.O.M.B.A.T.s are done. I'm sorry. (SU: Oh.) There are no more W.O.M.B.A.T.s. (SU: Okay.) I'm sorry.

JKR: I did- I worked really hard on those W.O.M.B.A.T.s.

SU: What was the purpose of them, though? Just for fun? Just to do those? I mean, why did you- we felt like, "Oh man!"

JKR: I'll tell you what it was. And this is kind of sad. (SU: Yeah.) I was told that it would be very unwise to put hints about Hallows on my site, because we've had enormous trouble in Half-Blood Prince, because I had put hints about it. And then it was argued in court by people who wanted to put the whole book on the Internet, or (SU: Oh!) press people who had (MA laughs) gotten hold of it, and wanted to put it out early. And they would- an argument would be, "Well, you put it on your site, so we have the right to put it up as well." So I was told it would be very foolish to start putting chapter headings and so on up. I would be weakening my own case against people who wanted to do spoilers. So then I started looking for something that I could give fans that wasn't foreshadowing. Although, I hope you noticed- Sorry, I'm going off on a slight tangent. (SU: Yeah.) I was going to say, to give fans stuff that wasn't foreshadowing Book Seven. But in fact, if you were (MA: Mm-hm.) paying attention, W.O.M.B.A.T. Three had loads of stuff from Book Seven in it. (laughs) And no one knew, (SU: Yeah.) and no one realized (MA and SU and JN laugh) including the lawyers. Yay! So I win. (MA laughs)

SU: Yay! And Jo wins! Yes, you do. You go, girl! That's awesome.

JKR: Thank you.

MA: Jo against the lawyers. Oh, that's funny.

JKR: Actually there was a whole lot of stuff in W.O.M.B.A.T. Three that was taken from Seven. And people picked up on it, on some of it. I had some stuff in there about Gryffindor's sword and a few other things. So.

MA: Will you put up the answers so that people can kind of figure it out?

JKR: You know, I could. I could put it. Would you like that? Would that-

SU: Yes, please!

MA: Oh, we'd love that.

JKR: That would be fun? (JN laughs) Okay, that would be cool. But it did amuse me. I can't remember, someone gave- Wait, wait. Some site gave a guide to what you should be putting, and I think people who followed their advice were not getting the top marks, so (JN laughs) anyway, they-

JN: I mean, I got an O on all of mine. (SU: He didn't! MA: Uh-huh. John, I'm sure.) So I didn't really need the answers.

JKR: Did you? Well the embarrassing thing is my husband only got Acceptable, and he was in the room while I was writing the questions. (MA and SU laugh) And was listening to me telling him the answers, so (SU: (laughing) That's awesome.) what that tells about how much my husband listens to me, I shudder to think.

JN: That sounds very much like a Hermione-Ron kind of thing.

JKR: Yeah. (MA: Yes it does.) We have our moments, believe you me. Yeah. So he (JN laughs) got an Acceptable, and then got discouraged, and didn't take another one. (laughs)

SU: Yeah.

JN: Aw.

MA: Oh, that's very Ron.

JKR: Yeah.

SU: Oh, (MA: Well, did...) speaking of Ron and Hermione-

JKR: Yeah, did they graduate from Hogwarts?

SU: Yes. Did they?

JKR: Harry and Ron didn't go back. Hermione did.

SU: (gasps) Ooh!

MA: Oh my...

JKR: Did you bet right? You must- I mean, come on, nobody's going to think Hermione wouldn't go back.

SU: I predicted. Yeah.

JKR: Of course she'd go back. She has to get her N.E.W.T.s. Ron was really dumb with schooling (laughs). I think that (SU: Yeah.) it would be kind of tempting to go back just to mess around for a year and have a break, but he goes (JN: Yeah.) into the Auror Department. He's needed. Anyone who was in that battle the right side. Kingsley would want them to help clean up the- I mean anyone who's old enough to do it, who's over age (JN: Hm.), but Kinglsey would have wanted Ron, Neville, Harry, and they would've all gone, and they would've all done the job. And I think that would've been a good thing for them too, because to go through that battle, and them be relegated to the sidelines, I think they would've felt a need to keep going, and finish the job. So that would've have been rounding up the corrupt people who were doing a Lucius Malfoy, and trying to pretend that they really weren't involved.

SU: Wow!

JN: Wow. Yeah, we had all been thinking perhaps these big complicated- Well we always over complicate things. Like (JKR: Yeah you do (laughs) do that.), they do this distance learning kind of thing (JKR laughs) where (JKR: Kwikspell course!) they finish school from home (JKR: (laughing) Yeah.). Yes, exactly.

MA: Yes. (SU: And with Filch.) We were imagining Hermione on the back of the dragon on the Deluxe Edition doing her N.E.W.T. (SU: Yeah we did!) You know?

SU: It was funny.

JKR: No, she would definitely, definitely go back. And she would want to graduate, and I think that she was- I mean,I love Hermione. She went with Ron and Harry because she has a really good heart. That's not about brain. Ultimately, she had a bigger heart than she had a brain and that's saying something for Hermione. But did she- Was she naturally drawn to battle? No, she wasn't. She's not a Bellatrix. She's not a woman who actually wants to be hurting, fighting, killing. Not at all. She would be glad to go back to school, be glad to get back to study, and then would join them at the Ministry.

JN: Now, you know what I'm curious about now (SU: Mm-hm.), is that one of the neatest things about the Hogwarts tradition is the entrance ceremony, from the whole riding the boats to the castle to the sorting ceremony. What kind of traditions is there for graduation, and leaving Hogwarts?

JKR: Do you know, John, I'm really glad you asked that, because I felt a huge sadness that I wouldn't write a graduation scene. (JN: Yeah.) Yeah, I really did. I knew, I mean I knew from early days that we were never going to see them graduate. I knew that he would, well not he, but they, all three of them would not- We would not see them at school during what should've been their final year of education, but I really, during the final book, kept thinking it would've been- It felt sad that the book wasn't going to end with that feast scene, the graduation scene, but it couldn't, it just couldn't. That's not the way it could've ended. It would've felt far too trite, and a lot of people felt the epilogue was too sentimental. I think to have a graduation scene on top of what just (SU: Yeah.) happened would've been absurd (SU laughs) (JN: Aw.) anticlimax.

JN: Did you have ideas for kind of traditions they would do, like ride the boats back out of Hogwarts (JKR: Oh yeah definitely!) or something? Because I know I'm not as good as thinking these things.

JKR: The boats would've been the most poetic and beautiful way to for them to leave, and symbolic in that they- Harry would have seen the Threstrals again. You know what I mean? It would've been a return to innocence really, and passage of water is so symbolic, in history of magic. So yeah (JN: Yeah.), I think it would've been great.

MA: Jo, you just hit on something that happens all the time here on PotterCast. John says- He throws out some nonsense thing he just thought of off the top of his head...

JKR: And then it turns out to be accurate.

MA: And then it's the perfect thing, and it turns out to be accurate. I can't tell you how much he got right in Deathly Hallows.

JKR: I think I find that very interesting because I- It's often those things that strike you like lightening that are the right things. Sometimes you have to work very hard for something, and finally something shifts in your brain, and you just say, "Yeah! Yes, of course, that's it," but I love it, and there's no better feeling when it just comes out of nowhere, and you think, "Ah perfect! Thank you."

JN: Don't forget to tune in next week guys for Part Two with J.K. Rowling.

JN: This week's PotterCast was produced by the PotterCast trio and Stede Bonnet. Thanks as always to our awesome Transcription Elves for transcribing this and all our other episodes on PotterCast.com. For more information about the show and how to contact us and be apart of future episodes, visit PotterCast.com.