[HPforGrownups] OK, this rumor is going to die right here

[Meliss9900 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 52816

In a message dated 2/25/2003 7:05:45 AM Central Standard Time, 
lupinesque at yahoo.com writes:

> I had thought I knew the difference between OP facts and rumors, but 
> apparently not.  So here's a challenge:  if anyone can find a REAL 
> TRANSCRIPT of a REAL JKR INTERVIEW saying this, it would be a public 
> service for him/her to post the link here.  This is your chance to 
> win a lifetime membership in L.O.O.N. (League of Obsessed Nitpickers
> (tm))!
> 

This is the closest reference I can find in an interview is:

Nov 04/2002

By Lizo Mzimba 
CBBC Newsround Online Harry Potter author J K Rowling has revealed for the 
first time that there's a major death in the next Potter adventure. 

She also said that the almost finished fifth book is much darker in tone than 
the previous stories. 

38 chapters long! 

Speaking to Lizo at the world premiere of The Chamber of Secrets she 
described what was in store in The Order of the Phoenix. 

"It is dark," she said. "There's a bad death in it that I haven't enjoyed 
writing." 

J K also said that the book now looked like being even longer than Goblet of 
Fire. She said: "At the moment it's 38 chapters." That's a chapter longer 
than the last book! She's now putting the finishing touches to the manuscript 
which she says is just "weeks away" from being delivered to her publishers. 
"I'm really pleased with it," she said. '[I'm] just going to tweak it a tiny 
bit more, then the publishers will have it." The book should hopefully be 
ready in the shops sometime next year. 
    
    **************
On another note, I did find a comment from JKR in a BBC transcript from fall 
2000 where she specifically mentioned Ron's jealousy:

Why was it important to show some of the strained friendships developing in 
this book?

Well in Book Four for me, Harry, Ron and Hermione are all starting to find 
their own identities - that means, in their various ways, facing up to what 
their parents have imposed on them, or the school. For Harry, that's facing 
up to fame, really facing up to it for the first time. He's been put into a 
situation where for the first time he'll get the weight of outside interest. 
So that's scary. Ron has to deal with his jealousy. He's made friends with 
the most famous boy in the year and that's not easy. And Hermione gets a 
political conscience. Yeah! 

 <A HREF="http://the-leaky-cauldron.net/bbcinterview.shtml">The BBC Transcript</A> 


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