Tom Riddle to LV

[B.G.]

No: HPFGUIDX 128833

BG writes:
The email regarding Tom Riddle and his transformation into LV made 
me think about an interview with JKR.  She said she has volumes on 
her characters - even on some who were never fully developed in the 
books.  Dean Thomas was the focus of the quote I remembered and 
found online (see below).  So you know she has volumes on LV and the 
other characters we have come to know, love or hate.  I for one, 
hope she publishes these character bio's once she has completed the 
series. 

"When it came to the casting on the film version of 'Philosopher's 
Stone', however, I told the director, Chris, that Dean was a black 
Londoner. In fact, I think Chris was slightly taken aback by the 
amount of information I had on this peripheral character. I had a 
lot of background on Dean, though I had never found the right place 
to use it. His story was included in an early draft of 'Chamber of 
Secrets' but then cut by me, because it felt like an unnecessary 
digression. Now I don't think his history will ever make it into the 
books.

Dean is from what he always thought was a pure Muggle background. He 
has been raised by his mother and his stepfather; his father walked 
out on the family when Dean was very young. He has a very happy home 
life, with a number of half-brothers and sisters.

Naturally when the letter came from Hogwarts Dean's mother wondered 
whether his father might have been a wizard, but nobody has ever 
discovered the truth: that Dean's father, who had never told his 
wife what he was because he wanted to protect her, got himself 
killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them. The projected 
story had Dean discovering all this during his school career. I 
suppose in some ways I sacrificed Dean's voyage of discovery for 
Neville's, which is more important to the central plot." JKR