Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the seventh book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. It will feature the final adventures of Harry Potter as he attempts to bring an end to his nemesis, Lord Voldemort. The title for the seventh book was announced on December 21, 2006^[1] via the publisher and a special Christmas-themed puzzle on the author's website. Rowling has stated that the final volume is a continuation of the story line from the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.^{[citation needed]} She has also stated that she has no intention of writing any further stories about the Harry Potter characters, meaning that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the last book in the Harry Potter series. However, she has said that an encyclopedia of the Wizarding world based on her copious notes may be published in the future, possibly for charity similar to her two other Harry Potter charity books. As of 2006, she has been working on the stories for over 16 years.

Release date

The book's title revealed on J. K. Rowling's website. A video of the reveal can be found on youtube

The release date for Deathly Hallows has not been set by the publisher.^[1] However, a publishing director at Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. said in May 2006 that she hopes the seventh book will be released in 2007, even going so far as to say it is "likely."^[2]

In an interview following the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, Rowling stated:

"Realistically, I don't think I'm going to be able to do real work on it until next year (2006). I see next year as the time that I’m really going to write seven. But I've started and I am doing little bits and pieces here and there when I can. But you’ve seen how young Mackenzie still is, and you can bear actual witness to the fact that I do have a very small, real baby, so I'm going to try and give Mackenzie what I gave David, which is pretty much a year of uninterrupted 'me time', and then I'll start writing seriously again."

In a Christmas 2005 letter on her official website, Rowling stated:

"I have been fine-tuning the fine-tuned plan of [book] seven during the past few weeks so that I can really set to work in January (2006). Reading through the plan is like contemplating the map of an unknown country in which I will soon find myself. Sometimes, even at this stage, you can see trouble looming; nearly all of the six published books have had Chapters of Doom. The quintessential, never, I hope, to be beaten Chapter That Nearly Broke My Will To Go On was chapter nine, Goblet of Fire" (The Dark Mark).

In September 2006, Rowling was nearly barred by US Transportation Security Administration officials from carrying a working manuscript for the seventh Harry Potter novel onto an airplane, due to security restrictions, but eventually she prevailed.^[3] She said at the time she would rather have sailed home in a boat than be separated from the manuscript.

Rowling has newly stated in her diary on her website that she has been writing scenes that she has had in her mind for more than 12 years, and that she is 'alternately elated and overwrought' at the prospect of completing the book.

Background to the series

The Harry Potter series was originally published as a children's book by British publisher Bloomsbury, and American publisher Scholastic Press. However, it rapidly became a phenomenal success amongst children and adults alike. The books each chronicle one year at school for the characters concerned and follows a long tradition of children's series about life in schools. Perhaps unlike some of the traditional series of this format, each book has matured and expanded in complexity and scope compared to the last, approximately developing with the age of the principal characters. Although the author has said that she comprehensively plotted the entire series of books before the first was published, and that this plot remains unchanged, she has also stated that it has undergone a number of revisions as it has progressed. The books started as relatively slim volumes (223 pages Philosopher's Stone UK ed.), but have grown as the series progressed (766 pages Order of the Phoenix UK ed.).

A plain American edition of HPDH.

The books contain a significant element of fantasy and magic, but this is combined with a detective-novel approach to the story. Each volume contains a complete problem and task for the heroes to complete, but each has also added to the background information about the wizarding world in general and contains many pieces of information whose importance only becomes apparent in later volumes (known as foreshadowing). Thus a considerable fan following has developed of people wanting to discover how the many loose ends and unfinished adventures in the book will finally be completed. The author has stated that, more than with any other book in the series, the final volume continues the unfinished story in book six. She has also stated that she doesn't have plans for any other novels concerning Harry Potter.

Known plot details

Continuing storylines from previous books

Harry Potter

• Harry returns to the home of his non-magical (Muggle) relatives, the Dursleys, during the summer. The magical protection which Albus Dumbledore arranged, that requires Harry to have a home with his surviving family, is set to expire on Harry's 17th birthday July 31.^[HP6]

• Harry comes of age (for wizards) when he turns 17, and is therefore entitled to perform magic outside of school and to obtain a licence to Apparate. His friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and many of his classmates, already turned 17 during the sixth year, and Neville Longbottom turns 17 on July 30th — one day before Harry.^[4]

• Harry plans to visit Godric's Hollow, and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger plan on accompanying him on this trip, providing the jumping off point from where they will start the search to destroy the remaining Horcruxes.^[HP6]

• There is expected to be a continuing relationship between Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, even though Harry told Ginny in the last chapter of the sixth book that he "can't be involved with her anymore" and that they have "got to stop seeing each other" and that they "can't be together", because he's "got things to do alone now". ^[HP6]

Hogwarts

• Hogwarts is expected to have a new head teacher or headmaster, as the previous headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was killed.^[HP6]

• New instructors will assume the posts for Defence Against the Dark Arts (replacing Severus Snape), and possibly Transfiguration in the event Minerva McGonagall becomes Headmistress. There may also be new Heads of Gryffindor House and Slytherin House. Horace Slughorn is the most likely candidate for head of Slytherin House. Rubeus Hagrid is also possible for Gryffindor. If Minerva McGonagall becomes headmistress a new deputy headmaster or deputy headmistress will have to be appointed. ^[HP6]

• If Harry returns to Hogwarts, it will be his seventh and final year. However, at the end of Book 6, Harry stated that he would not return even if Hogwarts were to re-open. Ron and Hermione said that they would leave Hogwarts as well, to help Harry fight Voldemort. Should Hogwarts reopen, Harry and his classmates would be expected to complete their final N.E.W.T. exams.

Other

• Deathly Hallows is expected to identify the mysterious R.A.B., who claimed to have stolen one of Voldemort's Horcruxes with the intent to destroy it, while replacing it with a fake that was recovered by Harry and Dumbledore. In an interview, J. K. Rowling said that Regulus Black was "a fine guess" for R.A.B.'s identity. ^[5]

• Kreacher, the former Black Family house elf which passed to Harry's ownership with the death of Sirius Black, may make an appearance. Rowling told the filmmakers of Order of the Phoenix to include the character in the movie, because he is "very important". ^[6]

• Rowling stated on her web site that there is something "significant—even crucial" about the answer to the question of why Dumbledore had James Potter's Invisibility Cloak. ^[7]

• Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour plan on getting married in August. ^[HP6]

Information from J. K. Rowling

• J. K. Rowling said that Harry might get another pet at some point.^[8] However, Kreacher and/or Buckbeak may have filled this role. She also hinted that Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, might have another role.^[9]

• Rowling wrote the last chapter of the book some time ago, to give her an ending to work up to. The last word of the seventh book, according to Rowling, is currently "scar" ^[10], but she has also said it may change, along with the whole last chapter she has previously written. This last chapter contains details of what happens to each surviving character:

"This is the thing that I was very dubious about showing you... This is the final chapter of book seven. This is really where I wrap everything up, it's the epilogue. And I basically say what happens to everyone after they leave school - those who survive - because there are deaths - more deaths coming. It was a way of saying to myself, 'Well, you will get it, you will get to book seven one day. And then you'll need this!' So I'd just like to remind all the children I know who come around my house and start sneaking into cupboards that it's not there anymore - I don't keep it at home anymore for very, very, very obvious reasons. So there it is." – J. K. Rowling^[11]

• Rowling has stated that there will be no Quidditch matches in Deathly Hallows.^[12]

• We will learn something very important about Lily in Deathly Hallows:

Now, the important thing about Harry's mother - the really, really significant thing - you're going to find out in two parts. You'll find out a lot more about her in book five, or you'll find out something very significant about her in book five, and you'll find out something incredibly important about her in book seven." – J. K. Rowling^[13]

• Rowling has long said that Harry's eyes resembling his mother's is important.^[14]

• Severus Snape has been an important and enigmatic character throughout the books, as his true loyalty has always remained unclear. It is to be anticipated that as a surviving major character, his loyalty will be settled in the final confrontation of the book.^[15]

Questioner: There’s an important kind of redemptive pattern to Snape.

Rowling: He, um, there’s so much I wish I could say to you, and I can't because it would ruin. I promise you, whoever asked that question, can I just say to you that I'm slightly stunned that you've said that and you'll find out why I'm so stunned if you read Book Seven. That's all I’m going to say.^[13]

• She has stated we will learn more about Peter Pettigrew, Dumbledore, and his family.^[12]

• At the Edinburgh book festival, Rowling mentioned that something more would be revealed about Petunia Dursley. Nothing of note occurred in book 6, so this remains to be discovered.^[16]

"..there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye...She is not a squib, although that is a very good guess. Oh, I am giving a lot away here. I am being shockingly indiscreet."

Rowling repeated this comment at the Radio city charity reading in August 2006. ^[17]

• Whether related or not, Rowling has also said that some non-magical character will perform magic late in life in desperate circumstances.^[18] However, she has also said that Aunt Petunia will not perform magic.^[19]

• Also at Edinburgh, Rita Skeeter was mentioned: "She is loathsome . . . but I can't help admiring her toughness. . . . There is more to come on Rita"^[16]

• On Dolores Umbridge, "It's too much fun to torture her not to have another little bit more before I finish"^[12]

• Viktor Krum is set for a reappearance.^[20]

• The two-way mirror given to Harry by Sirius Black and his flying motorbike will return.^[20] Rowling refused to comment whether Sirius himself might in some way reappear, but she has also said that there was a reason why he had to die.

• Dumbledore was said to have a "gleam of triumph" in his eyes when told that Voldemort had restored his body using Harry's blood, at the end of Goblet of Fire (Ch. 36). Rowling has confirmed that this is "still enormously significant".^[21]

• Someone from Harry's class, not Harry, Ron, or Hermione, also not who most readers would expect, will become a Hogwarts teacher. This seems to indicate that Hogwarts will indeed re-open, though possibly not until after the main events of Deathly Hallows have occurred. ^[13]

• In an interview after the completion of the Prisoner of Azkaban film, she commented that director Alfonso Cuarón had "put things in the film that, without knowing it, foreshadow things that are going to happen in the final two books. So I really got goosebumps when I saw a couple of those things, and I thought people are going to look back on the film and think those were put in deliberately as clues."^[22]

• There are indications that at least two of the main characters will die. In a June 2006 interview about the previously-written ending, Rowling stated that:
  • "One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die...A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil...They go for the main characters, or I do".^[23]

• When further questioned in June 2006 about authors who kill off their main characters, Rowling said "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, well, I'm going to kill them off because that means there can be no non-author-written sequels'".^[23]

• Rowling clarified that "Dumbledore is definitely dead", when asked by Salman Rushdie and others at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Rowling answered the same question three times, each time with increasing conviction.^[24].

• When asked what questions she should have been asked, she admitted that "the final book contains a couple of pieces of information that I don't think you could guess at", and declined to explain further.^[17] On September 13, 2006 she updated her website saying that when she was asked that question, her mind went blank. Since she couldn't make amends, she created a NAQ section of her website, in tribute to the girl who asked the question. In her NAQ section, she states:
  • "Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?"
  • September 29, 2006, she reveals that Severus Snape was not under the cloak the night of the Potters' death in the Rumors Section.
• Asked which five of her characters she would like to invite to dinner, she chose Harry, Hermione and Ron, but then hesitated before choosing her last characters, saying "See... I know who's actually dead", unsure whether she was permitted to invite those who are 'dead'. ^[17]

• Lord Voldemort was voted best villain at the Big Bad Read poll. Responding to the news Rowling commented:
  • "I hope those of you who voted for him in the big bad read enjoy reading about him in book seven, where he finally gets the leg room for which he has been aching all those years in exile."^[25]

• At their appearance in New York City on August 1, 2006, authors John Irving and Stephen King joined Rowling at a charity benefit. While there the two famous authors came together to ask Rowling NOT to kill off Harry Potter in her final book, with Irving saying, "I'll keep my fingers crossed for Harry." [1]

Beyond Deathly Hallows

• Rowling confirmed that there isn't a university after Hogwarts and further Harry Potter books.

Q: Do you think that you will write about Harry after he graduates from Hogwarts? Isn't there a University of Wizardry?

A: There's no University for Wizards. At the moment I'm only planning to write seven Harry Potter books. I won't say "never," but I have no plans to write an eighth book.

• When asked about other books similar to Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling has said that she would consider writing them at some point and that they would also be written for charity. She also mentions writing an encyclopedia-style tome on all the major characters, also for charitable purposes.
• Shortly before the release of book 5, in an interview for the BBC, she was asked about Harry's future by Jeremy Paxman: ^[26]

Jeremy Paxman: So you know what is going to become of all the major characters over the span of the series?

J.K. Rowling: Yeah..yeah.

Jeremy Paxman: Why stop when they grow up? Might be interesting to know what becomes of Harry as an adult.

J.K. Rowling: How do you know he'll still be alive?

Jeremy Paxman: Oh. At the end of book seven?

J.K. Rowling: It would be one way to kill off the merchandising.

• When questioned about possible future books, she jokingly suggested Harry Potter and the Mid-Life Crisis.^[23]