JK reveals what Harry did next

Published on Wednesday 19 December 2007 18:35

JK ROWLING has revealed what Harry Potter and Hermione do when they grow up.

The Edinburgh author answered ten questions about the boy wizard and his companions in Time magazine after being named runner up for the US publication's prestigious Person of the Year title.

She said that now the books are all written "it's a massive, massive sense of release" to be able to answer any question from fans without giving the game away.

She revealed that as adults Harry and Hermione are both employed at the Ministry of Magic, where Harry ends up leading the Auror department.

Ron Weasley helps George at the joke shop, while Ginny Weasley becomes a professional Quidditch player and then sportswriter for the Daily Prophet.

She also revealed that Harry and his arch-Enemy Lord Voldemort are related – distantly, through the Peverell family – but added that "nearly all wizarding families are related if you go back far enough".

Among other revelations, Draco Malfoy marries Astoria Greengrass, younger sister of the Greengrass family and the luckless Neville Longbottom marries Hannah Abbott, who becomes the owner of The Leaky Cauldron.

Rowling said: "I do have it all worked out in my mind because I couldn't stop myself doing that."

Rowling is number three in Time's Person Of The Year list – behind Vladimir Putin and Al Gore.

She called her time with Harry "one of the longest relationships of my adult life."

But she does not rule out writing an eighth Hogwarts book.

She said: "There have been times since finishing, weak moments when

I've said, 'Yeah, all right,' to the eighth novel."

"If – and it's a big if – I ever write an eighth book about the wizarding world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character.

"I feel like I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it ten years and see how we feel then."

She added: "I can only say, and many of my more militant fans will find this almost impossible to believe, but I don't think anyone has mourned (the end of the series] more than I have. It's left the most enormous gaping hole in my life."

She said her books had no religious agenda.

"I did not set out to convert anyone to Christianity, I wasn't trying to do what CS Lewis did," she said.

"It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

"I'm opposed to fundamentalism in any form.

"And that includes in my own religion."