from Scifi Wire
Rowling Teases New Potter
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling offered up hints to future novels while answering children's questions at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Aug. 15, her official Web site reported. "Well, I don't think it is giving too much away to say that [Harry] will survive to book seven, mainly because I do not want to be strangled by you lot, but I am not going to say whether he grows any older than that, because I have never said that. You are good at putting me on the spot!"
Rowling, who is currently writing the sixth volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, talked about the new books in an elliptical way. "I thought that I would give you something though, rather than get to the end of today and think that I have not given you a lot. There are two questions that I have never been asked, but that I should have been asked, if you know what I mean. If you want to speculate on anything, you should speculate on these two things, which will point you in the right direction. The first question that I have never been asked—it has probably been asked in a chatroom, but no one has ever asked me—is, 'Why didn't Voldemort die?' Not 'Why did Harry live?' but, 'Why didn't Voldemort die?' The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn't he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he did to make sure that he did not die. I will put it that way. I don't think that it is guessable. It may be—someone could guess it—but you should be asking yourself that question, particularly now that you know about the prophecy. I'd better stop there, or I will really incriminate myself."
Rowling added, "The other question that I am surprised no one has asked me since [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix] came out—I thought that people would—is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry? I know that I am giving a lot away to people who have not read the book. Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason. When I mentioned that question to my husband—I told Neil [Murray] that I was going to mention it to you—he said that it was because Voldemort knows that there are two more books to come. As you can see, we are on the same literary wavelength. [Laughs.] That is not the answer; Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that. If you want to wonder about anything, I would advise you to concentrate on those two questions. That might take you a little bit further."
:rolly2:
