Full text of the “Garp” interviews

More new canon! Wheeee!

I have just finished uploading to the Quick-Quotes-Quill what I hope are definitive versions of the press conference and readings Jo did in New York last week. These transcripts use the best from other fansites with corrections and extra research, so I hope you will use these versions as your reference copies.

We will be posting the interview summaries soon over at Madam Scoop’s Index to J.K. Rowling Interviews. Until then, here are some of the bits of new canon that can be gleaned from the interviews:

From the press conference:

• “a couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve”

Reading and questions from August 1:

• Hermione would see the trio “alive and unscathed and Voldemort finished” in the Mirror of Erised. She may also see herself in a romantic embrace.
• Magical potions always have a magical component “at some point” so Muggles cannot brew magical potions even if they found a real wand.
• If a Muggle tired to wield a real wand there would be some sort of violent accident.
• We will learn more about the relationship between wands and their wizards/witches in book 7.
• All of Jo’s main characters except for Voldemort can be considered redeemable.
• Harry believes that Draco would not have killed Dumbledore even if he had all the time in the world. Indeed he would not have; this will have implications for Draco’s future.
• Wandmakers can choose wand cores “that are particular to their country.”

Reading and questions from August 2:

• “There is a little more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye and you will find out what that is in book seven”
• Dumbledore will not “do a Gandalf;” he is truly dead.
• Madam Pince the Hogwarts librarian had to be mean so that Hermione had to figure things out herself.