J.K. Rowling killed off many major characters during the seven Harry Potter novels, but only one death left her really sad. Surprisingly, it was a minor character, not Dumbledore.
In a new post on Pottermore, Rowling said that the death of ice cream shop owner Florean Fortescue, who appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, really hurt. She had initially big plans for the character, but eventually decided against it.
“I originally planned Florean to be the conduit for clues that I needed to give Harry during his quest for the Hallows, which is why I established an acquaintance fairly early on,” Rowling explained, reports The Hollywood Reporter. “The problem was that when I came to write the key parts of Deathly Hallows, I decided that Phineas Nigellus Black was a much more satisfactory means of conveying clues.”
She admitted that she killed him for “no good reason.” Even though he wasn’t the first wizard Voldemort killed, “he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault.”
Rowling has also been posting new Potter stories on Pottermore this month. She started her 12 straight days of new stories with a look at Severus Snape.
However, as Time notes, today’s story left some fans puzzled, since it really wasn’t a full new piece. Instead,fans could look at a scene from The Half Blood Prince where Dumbledore uses a pensieve, which allows him to look into the past. However, since Dumbledore and Harry can’t interact with what they are shown, neither can the reader.
image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFGoff.com