J.K. Rowling responded to a Twitter user who asked her about Alan Rickman’s character, Severus Snape, from the Harry Potter series.
Rickman had once talked about how Rowling gave him a bit of information to help him understand his character’s motivations for his actions throughout the series, according to HitFix. He had never revealed what this was. He died last week after a battle with cancer.
The question Rowling received asked her “Will you tell us the piece of information you told Alan Rickman about Severus Snape? Or will that forever be a secret?”
Rowling told the fan she had explained the reason behind the phrase “always.” Harry Potter fans know this was the response Snape gave Dumbledore when the latter realized he never stopped loving Lily Potter.
Another Twitter user responded, telling Rowling the news caused her to be "extremely emotional.”
Rickman had also revealed this was the only thing he knew about his character and knew nothing about his work as a double agent.
He said at the time of the first film, Rowling had “only written three or four books, so nobody knew where it was really going except her. And it was important for her that I know something, but she only gave me a tiny piece of information which helped me think it was a more ambiguous route.”