JKR: [re: Grindelwald] I think he was a user and a narcissist and I think someone like that would use it, would use the infatuation. I don't think that he would reciprocate in that way, although he would be as dazzled by Dumbledore as Dumbledore was by him, because he would see in Dumbledore, 'My God, I never knew there was someone as brilliant as me, as talented as me, as powerful as me. Together, we are unstoppable!' So I think he would take anything from Dumbledore to have him on his side.

MA: It reminds me of WICKED, did you ever read WICKED?

JKR: No.

MA: Maguire does retellings of old fairytales and he made a very cerebral book about the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, and how they used to be best friends.

JKR: Oh really...

MA: It's very similar; she went one way to fight injustice and fight the wizard, and Glinda went the other, to be the political figure and play into the system. Really interesting.

JKR: Well, it's the old fallen angel idea in some ways, isn't it? It's God and Lucifer.

MA: I wanted to ask you about that, because Grindelwald resembles - the golden curls, the first person I thought of was Lucifer.

JKR: Mm-hm. So you can call it a fraternal bond, but I think it makes it more tragic for Dumbledore. I also think it makes Dumbledore a little less culpable. I see him as fundamentally a very intellectual, brilliant and precocious person whose emotional life was absolutely subjugated to the life of the mind - by his choice - and then his first foray into the world of emotion is catastrophic and I think that would forevermore stun that part of his life and leave it stultified and he would be, what he becomes. That's what I saw as Dumbledore's past. That's always what I saw was in his past. And he keeps a distance between himself and others through humour, a certain detachment and a frivolity of manner.

But he's also isolated by his brain.  He's isolated by the fact he knows so much, guesses so much, guesses correctly. He has to play his cards close to his chest because he doesn't want Voldemort to know what he suspects. Terrible to be Dumbledore, really, by the end he must have thought it would be quite nice to check out and just hope that everything works out well. [Laughter.]

MA: Because he's set up this massive chess game -

JKR: Mm, this massive chess game. But I said to Arthur, my American editor - we had an interesting conversation during the editing of seven - the moment when Harry takes Draco's wand, Arthur said, God, that's the moment when the ownership of the Elder wand is actually transferred? And I said, that's right. He said, shouldn't that be a bit more dramatic? And I said, no, not at all, the reverse. I said to Arthur, I think it really puts the elaborate, grandiose plans of Dumbledore and Voldemort in their place. That actually the history of the wizarding world hinged on two teenage boys wrestling with each other. They weren't even using magic. It became an ugly little corner tussle for the possession of wands. And I really liked that - that very human moment, as opposed to these two wizards who were twitching strings and manipulating and implanting information and husbanding information and guarding information, you know?

Ultimately it just came down to that, a little scuffle and fistfight in the corner and pulling a wand away.

MA: It says a lot about the world at large, I think, about conflict in the world, it's these little things -

JKR: And the difference one individual can make. Always, the difference one individual can make.

Part of what was so gratifying about traveling the country with PotterCast was that even if I wasn't doing a dedicated book event, I met a ton of you who had read Harry, A History and either wanted to talk to me about it or have me sign the book. From my desk in New York it's really hard to appreciate how many of you out there have interacted with this book and helped fill out the other half of its story - that is, yours. As I said at LeakyCon, this book does not exist without the reader, and I don't mean that in terms of sales: I mean part of the point of this book was for it to tie into your own history, to make the book and the person reading the book part of one shared reading experience. It's my sincerest wish - and I've been told it occurs - that anyone even slightly open to that kind of experience gets it with this book. Thank you for sharing those stories with me.

And now...pictures!

I really only took iPhone pics this summer so I hope you'll deal with some less-than-stellar quality.

This is half of the room at the Potter panel at Comic-Con international. About 500 people were in line. It was insane.

Right after the panel was my signing. This is the line. I actually had to barrel my way down from the panel to the convention floor for this and was late to my own signing; when I got there I was panting and sweating. I was shocked to discover this many people had made it down there faster. I absolutely booked it down there, knocking over a few Storm Troopers and possibly one pint-sized Avatar, and they beat me. Curse you giant conference hall!

In Texas I ran into not ONE -

But TWO -

loud-and-proud nerds carrying Harry, A Historys.

He really might be the youngest Harry, A History fan.

Onstage with Harry and the Potters!

A Harry display in Los Angeles!

And finally the Paramus mall where I got to play host to a Tom Felton event.

Thank you all for a great summer! Hang on for a Vault entry!

Make sure to also check out the German edition of this website, HarryPotterPhaenomen.de.

More updates including summer signings soon!

As you see in the sidebar, I'll be at the Contra Costa Library just outside San Francisco on May 3, where I'll be doing a keynote as well as a signing and a Q-n-A. I'm also speaking about and signing the book at two Harry Potter conferences (LeakyCon in Boston in May and Azkatraz in San Francisco in July). I'll get more specific about times and dates soon: for both conferences you must be a registered guest to attend - and at LeakyCon, I'll be putting together a program that includes information from the JKR interview and other bits that would otherwise be Vault entries.

There's more info about upcoming events on the way, but in the meantime, before I forget again: if you are interested in having a Harry, A History event (I love going to schools and libraries!) please contact David Buchalter at davidb@greatertalent.com.

Renee Raudman does a marvelous job on the audio; I am greatly in her debt. You can hear a preview (of bits of the opening chapter, so that you can 'hear' Sue Upton, John Noe and Paul DeGeorge) below: