What We Know About the Final Harry Potter

In each interview, J. K. Rowling seems to reveal another clue about what may happen in the final book. Are these clues to be unraveled? Are there a couple red herrings tossed in?

What could be most important is that Rowling admits if her fans wanted it bad enough, this may not be the end. She may not continue anytime soon, but she might write a follow-up book. This possibility may keep fans going, although it does not prove anything about who will survive and will not. She has already written for her own purposes a detailed description of what will happen in the future of all the surviving characters. It is possible that perhaps later this could become a future book. She has also mentioned an encyclopedia with all the knowledge of the characters and the world.

Two main characters will die in the final book. How main? Hard to tell. She said the last time someone died, and fans questioned how much of a main character these necessarily were. She has changed her mind since she initially wrote the ending in the 90's; one character got a reprieve, but two characters that she did not expect to die did. Speculation has been made to whether one of these characters could be the infamous Potter himself. Rowling has stated in the past that she understands why authors kill off their lead character, so nobody else can write their story. Many epic heros have been killed in the past, at the height of their career, such as Hercules and Sherlock Holmes. Could Rowling do the same? Rowling says she has "never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books". Unfortunately, this still does not clear up the mystery on whether Harry will survive the final tome.