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I saw a post once, which claimed that Rowling had actually planned a different path for the events of the Deathly Hallows.

In particular, the relationship between Harry and Ron was going to decay further after Ron leaves Hermione and Harry on their search for Horcruxes, to a point of complete breakup.

JKR was forced to abandon these plans because of the fan pressure.

Has there ever been such a thing? Is there an interview by JKR that confirms this?

Gallifreyan
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    https://www.bustle.com/articles/92656-7-alternate-endings-for-harry-potter-that-could-have-happened-according-to-jk-rowling – Valorum Dec 24 '16 at 19:36
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    Are you just looking for Deathly Hallows' ending? I know she changed plans for things like Arthur Weasley's planned death in Order of the Phoenix. – Thunderforge Dec 24 '16 at 19:36
  • @Thunderforge - Yes, DH only. I'll edit the question. – Gallifreyan Dec 24 '16 at 19:37
  • @Valorum - interesting read. Yet I'm particularly interested in the fan pressure bit. – Gallifreyan Dec 24 '16 at 19:40
  • @Valorum - Interesting, but they keep on misdescribing Pottermore. – ibid Dec 25 '16 at 00:03
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    That spoiler tag tho... – BarneyFifeFan Dec 25 '16 at 18:57
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    @BarneyFifeFan - you have to build suspense, otherwise no one's interested! :D – Gallifreyan Dec 25 '16 at 19:06
  • @ibid what do you mean? – OrangeDog Dec 25 '16 at 21:02
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    @OrangeDog - "J.K. Rowling hinted that she might write a Harry Potter encyclopedia addressing all these questions. But eventually, she launched Pottermore, and began posting snippets of writing sharing all the info that didn't make the epilogue. The main trio worked for the ministry! Hermione went back and finished her seventh year! Ginny played pro Quidditch!" The Pottermore writings were really just excerpts from her unpublished encyclopedia and were there to provide worldbuilding, not post-epilogue information. I'm not sure they even looked at what she Rowling posted on Pottermore. – ibid Dec 26 '16 at 00:32
  • She was pressurised and threatened by here agent that if she didn't change it he wouldn't publish the book and he'd drop the series – Agent Jay Jan 02 '17 at 21:45
  • @AgentJay Pressurised? Really? – SQB Jan 09 '17 at 20:18

1 Answers1

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Not very likely.

In an interview published in The Sunday Times in 2014, JK Rowling herself states about another relationship, the pairing of Hermione and Ron:

"I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment," she says. "That's how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron."

(...)

"I can hear the rage and fury it might cause some fans, but if I'm absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people’s hearts by saying this? I hope not."

The interview is behind a login (possibly pay) wall on the site of The Sunday Times but excerpts are available in an article by Time Magazine. The quotes above are from that article, emphasis mine.

There is an excellent answer elsewhere on this site that goes into further detail about Hermione and Ron, but these quotes make it perfectly clear that JKR kept to her original plans, without yielding to possible outrage by fans.
It's unlikely that she would've yielded on other points.


Also, while it's hard to prove absence, I've never heard of such supposed outrage by Harry Potter fans over a possible rift between Ron and Harry.

SQB
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