Books

JK Rowling Just Apologized For A Major Character’s Death

by Emma Oulton
John Phillips/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Never have Potterheads on Twitter been so divided: J.K. Rowling just apologized for killing Snape at the Battle of Hogwarts. Let's recap: with the creation of Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling brought us Muggles a lifetime of joy and magic — but then she wrote the Battle of Hogwarts and killed off all our favorite characters. Rude. For the last few years, Rowling has taken time on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts to apologize for the death of a fan-favorite character — but this year, not everyone's convinced that Snape is the guy she should really be apologizing for.

The tradition started in 2015, when Rowling tweeted that she was "really sorry" about killing Fred Weasley. A year later, she apologized for killing Remus Lupin — while also dropping the major bombshell that she hadn't even planned to kill him off until The Order of the Phoenix. Like, his death wasn't even integral to the master plan she all know she had worked out since Day 1. Ouch, that news hurt.

So this year, on the 19th anniversary of the brutal Battle of Hogwarts, Potterheads of the Internet were all waiting with baited breath to see which tragic death she would apologize for this time. Maybe Colin Creevey's crushing death? Tonks? Poor Lavender "Lav-Lav" Brown?

But no, Rowling decided to apologize for Snape — one of the most divisive characters of the entire series.

Unsurprisingly, much of Twitter is not happy.

Of course, many Potterheads have leapt to Snape's defense — and so the whole hero vs villain argument has come to the surface. Hence the "flame wars" J.K. warned against.

There's one thing we can all agree on though — and that's that there are many other deaths that need commemorating. Wands in the air everybody.