Rowling's interview on British TV

I just watched a 20 minute interview with Jo on some British TV show. I'm not going to link to it because not all of it is family friendly. I want to give my reactions to it.

First, I have to give all my disclaimers. Language, as I'm constantly saying to my kids. Most of the bad stuff was bleeped out, but the meaning is clear and it was in bad taste. Jo was polite to laugh at some of it. I'm not at all familiar with who this guy is, but he's several shades toward an NC-17 rating past Leno and Letterman. What bothered me the most is the guy who did the interview is obviously not clueless about how Harry Potter fandom works. I'm pretty sure he won't be surprised to find out that hundreds of thousands of children will be watching this interview on You Tube by tomorrow morning. That makes it worse, that he was pretty much shameless in some of his topics. I'd say at least 1/4 of the 20 min. was inappropriate for children. That's way too high a figure. The only good thing I can say about that is, at least it didn't contain spoilers.

The other 3/4 was worth watching, however. He praised her work and she was moved almost to tears. He teased a bit of new info from her. Stop reading now if you don't want to know anything that even hints of what might happen, but since it's coming from Jo, I don't count what she told to be spoilers. I'll put it in a separate paragraph just to give you one more chance if you don't want to read it.

So, here's what she said: The last word of the book is no longer "scar", but "scar" is near the end. So she's just re-written the last paragraph in some way (she refused to say what the new last word is) but it still means mostly the same as what she wrote before. She said something that I have been saying since, when was it, last summer? When she gave that interview where she said she'd given one person a reprieve but that 2 people she hadn't intended to die had died. And she confirmed what I've thought since then, that she didn't mean that only 2 people die in DH. "It's a bloodbath," she said. And then she amended that, saying no, not a bloodbath, but more than 2 people die.

Two very significant things that she said that I take as clues to what will happen. First, she said she won't say she'll never write another Harry Potter book. That confirms to me what the Pottercast people have been saying all along, that Harry will not die. It was very clear to me that she was thinking that as she gave her answer. Then, she said that when she wrote a chapter near the end, she finished and was "absolutely howling," crying, whatever. Because "it had been planned for so long," so it couldn't have been one of these 2 new deaths, the ones she hadn't intended to die. It must be someone she's intended all along to die. Hagrid? Ginny? I'm starting to cry already.

One more thing I want to say. I've thought for a while that whoever the 2 people she didn't originally intend to die are, they're not Ron or Hermione or probably even Neville or Ginny or Hagrid. I think she's known all along what would happen to these central characters and whatever their fate is, it's been decided for a while now and didn't change as she wrote this book. I wonder if we'll know who they are, if she'll ever tell us, and who the reprieve person is, as well. I think the reprieve person is Malfoy. Or Luna. I could see her changing her mind about killing off either of them.

I read that Stephen King suggests readers stock up on kleenex before reading this book. :::::sigh:::::