BN – Harry Potter Lexicon

Chat with JK Rowling for Barnes & Noble and Yahoo! dated October 2000. This is actually the third Barnes and Noble chat, the first being in March of 1999 and the second being in September 1999 referenced as (BN1).

Interesting facts and notes

Yahooligan_seachellie4 asks: What house was Hagrid in?
jkrowling_bn: Hagrid was in Gryffindor, naturally!

faheem90 asks: Who is the head of Ravenclaw? Professor Sinistra perhaps?
jkrowling_bn: No, the head of Ravenclaw is good old Professor Flitwick!

slickington2000 asks: Hello. I was just wondering how the artist who draws the book covers in the series gets the image of Harry Potter? Did you design him yourself?
jkrowling_bn: No, I didn't have any input on that
jkrowling_bn: Mary Grandpre simply read the books and interpreted them herself

question: Why would you use most of the names in the book written in Latin?
jkrowling_bn: I like to think that the wizards use this dead language as a living language
jkrowling_bn: and it also gives readers a chance to work out clues along the way!

whoopsididitagain asks: Ms. Rowling, did you have to do any research with real witches or is all of your material from your imagination?
jkrowling_bn: No, the material is almost all from my imagination
jkrowling_bn: occasionally I will use a nice, picturesque piece of folklore, which interests me
jkrowling_bn: but real witches... I don't know any!

Why does Professor Dumbledore allow Professor Snape to be so nasty to the students (especially to Harry, Hermione, and Neville)?
jkrowling_bn: Dumbledore believes there are all sorts of lessons in life...
jkrowling_bn: horrible teachers like Snape are one of them!

sam096 asks: Were the Weasley twins inspired by anyone you know?
Yes, they were, but I don't want to say who, because they'll be persecuted.

Yahooligan_auror5 asks: In Prisoner of Azkaban, a character by the name of Colonel Fubster was mentioned. Is he a wizard?
jkrowling_bn: No, he's a Muggle neighbour of Aunt Marge's (poor man)

Publication 20 October 2000

Abbreviation BN

Canonicity Tertiary Canon

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Commentary

moakes40 asks: I was wondering about Dumbledore's facial expression in Goblet when he found out that Voldemort had touched Harry. The narrative says that Dumbledore reacted with a look of triumph. Aside from the problem of interpreting triumph on someone's face, I was wondering if that is an attempt to throw question on Dumbledore's character or is he triumphant, perhaps, that Harry can be touched by LV without being destroyed (or something like that)?
jkrowling_bn: I frequently look triumphant I'll have you know. Well, I'm sure you won't be surprised that i'm not going to explain why Dumbledore looked that way. Well-spotted though.

This question is very indicative of the state of fandom at that time. This was one of the big questions being debated on the Internet constantly.

There is a girl named Susan Bones who was sorted in the first book and there was a family called the Bones that Voldemort tried to destroy, is this a coincidence or will Harry meet her in future books?

jkrowling_bn: Susan Bones' grandparents were killed by Voldemort!

Rowling is referring to this passage in PS4:

"No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age -- the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts -- an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

However, she may have changed her mind about just who was killed, or perhaps added others of the Bones family to the body count! This is from OP9, as Moody is showing a photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix to Harry:

"That's Edgar Bones… brother of Amelia Bones, they got him and his family, too, he was a great wizard…"

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