Am I unique?

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 171184

> Goddlefrood:
> The nearest JKR came to letting slip slip that Harry would 
> die was reported in an article in The Scotsman (Number 4 below). 
> She withdrew the comment wuickly apparently but had been taken 
> at first as being serious (and when is she ever, at least until 
> after DH is released?) This is all pasted from my file:
> 
> ************************
> 
> (1) Barnes and Noble interview, March 19, 1999
> 
> With the huge success of the first three books and your seemingly 
> endless imagination, do you think that you might (please, oh 
> please) consider continuing the story past the originally planned 
> seven books? Maybe continuing with Harry as an adult or books 
> about his children?
> 
> So you're convinced I'm not going to kill Harry??!! I try never 
> to say never, because it seems that every time I do I end up by 
> doing the thing I've forsworn. So, there is a remote possibility 
> that there will another Harry book, but at the present time I am 
> planning only seven.

> (4) Miller, Phil. "Writer gives hint of grim fate for Potter in 
> last book," The Scotsman, 21 July 2000 
> 
> She said: "I always planned seven [Potter books], I never said 
> I would do another one, but at the moment there will be just 
> the seven. I've got it planned, and Harry dies obviously." 
> 
> Perhaps to the relief of Potter followers, she quickly added: 
> "But that's just a joke - or is it?" 

zgirnius:
I can take or leave (4), without seeing it myself I don't think I 
have any way of judging whether the initial comment was a joke, or 
whether both comments were premeditated, as a pair, to be her usual 
waffle on the subject, or whether she slipped up and then tried to 
fix it with the claim it might have been a joke.

(1), however, (thanks for posting it) tends to reassure me that Harry 
lives on, just as I would wish. It seems clear to me from context 
that the thing she has forsworn is not killing Harry, but writing 
Potter Book #8. (Which I believe she won't do.)

I don't take her constant reminder that she *might* kill Harry as an 
indication that she will. She often does that when asked questions by 
people who seem to be assuming she will not. Answering without 
addressing the underlying assumption would, to my mind, be confirming 
Harry's survival, something I don't think she would want to do even 
if Harry is slated to live.