In various interviews and blog entries, J.K. Rowling expanded on the "19 years later" epilogue, giving away information such as Neville becoming Herbology professor and living with his wife, the new landlady of the Hog's Head, and Cho Chang marrying a muggle, etc. Does anyone have a link to a page that collects all of these future tidbits in one place?
This is a compilation I made some time ago, there may have been further interviews revealing more data since then:
The Aftermath
- The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was eradicated. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future careers.
- Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up his new Auror department. Harry did so (just because Voldemort was gone, it didn’t mean that there would not be other Dark witches and wizards in the coming years). Ron joined George at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner... After a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet!
- Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a “really good place to be”. “They made a new world,” Rowling said.
- Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head. “Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.”
- Harry can’t speak Parseltongue now that he isn’t a horcrux, he lost the ability, and is very glad to do so.
- Harry would ensure that Snape’s heroism was known. Of course, that would not stop Rita Skeeter writing ‘Snape: Scoundrel or Saint?’
- Harry and his friends will have their own history on chocolate frogs cards; Ron will describe this as his finest hour.
- I’ve got a feeling Harry didn’t give the Marauder’s map to any of his children, but that James sneaked it out of his father’s desk one day.
- Hermione began her post-Hogwarts career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures where she was instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves and their ilk. She then moved (despite her jibe to Scrimgeour) to the Dept. of Magical Law Enforcement where she was a progressive voice who ensured the eradication of oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. Hermione is “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in “Deathly Hallows”. “I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding,” Rowling said.
- Hermione was able to find her parents and undo the memory change. She brought them home straight away.
- There is no chance, however, that Neville’s parents, who were tortured into madness by Bellatrix Lestrange, ever left St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies. “I know people really wanted some hope for that, and I can quite see why because, in a way, what happens to Neville’s parents is even worse than what happened to Harry’s parents,” Rowling said. “The damage that is done, in some cases with very dark magic, is done permanently.” Rowling said Neville finds happiness in his grandmother’s acceptance of him as a gifted wizard and as the new herbology professor at Hogwarts
- Luna ended up marrying (rather later than Harry & co) a fellow naturalist and grandson of the great Newt Scamander (Rolf)! “I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures,” Rowling said. “She’s a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is.” Luna comes to see the truth about her father, eventually acknowledging there are some creatures that don’t exist. “But I do think that she’s so open-minded and just an incredible person that she probably would be uncovering things that no one’s ever seen before,” Rowling said.
- Neville marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, in that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.
- Cho Chang married a Muggle.
- The DA members, naturally, kept their coins. They would be like badges or medals of honour — proof that the owner had been at the heart of the fight against Voldemort from the start! I like to imagine Neville showing his to his admiring pupils.
- Marietta's pimply formation eventually faded, but it left a few scars. I loathe a traitor!
- Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster (“McGonagall was really getting on a bit”) as well as a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That position is now as safe as the other teaching posts at Hogwarts, since Voldemort’s death broke the jinx that kept a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from remaining for more than a year. While Rowling didn’t clarify whether Harry, Ron and Hermione ever return to school to finish their seventh year, she did say she could see Harry popping up every now and again to give the “odd talk” on Defense Against the Dark Arts.
- Slytherin House has become diluted. It is no longer the pureblood bastion it once was. Nevertheless, its dark reputation lingers, hence Albus Potter’s fears.
- The absence of Snape’s portrait in the headmaster’s office was deliberate. Snape had effectively abandoned his post before dying, so he had not merited inclusion in these august circles. However, I like to think that Harry would be instrumental in ensuring that Snape’s portrait would appear there in due course, right beside Dumbledore's. As for whether Harry would go back to talk to him, I think, I'm not sure he would have done.
- The new improved Percy ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.
- The Malfoys weaseled their way out of trouble (again) due to the fact that they colluded (albeit out of self-interest) with Harry at the end of the battle.
- Teddy Lupin is a Metamorphmagus like his mother. Teddy was raised by Andromeda. However, unlike Neville, who was also raised by his grandmother Teddy had his godfather, Harry, and all his father’s friends in the Order, to visit and stay with.
- Victoire, who was snogging Teddy — Lupin and Tonks’ son — is Bill and Fleur’s eldest child.
- I don’t think that George would ever get over losing Fred, which makes me feel so sad. However, he names his first child and son Fred, and he goes on to have a very successful career, helped by good old Ron.
- Hagrid never did marry and have children. Realistically, Hagrid's pool of potential girlfriends is extremely limited. Because with the giants killing each other off, the number of giantesses around is infinitesimal and he met one of the only, and I'm afraid, she thought he was kind of cute, but she was a little more, how should I put it, sophisticated than Hagrid.
- Winky is still at Hogwarts, and she was one of the oncoming house-elves who attacked the Death Eaters in the final battle.
- Kingsley would see that Azkaban doesn’t use Dementors again. The use of Dementors was always a mark of the underlying corruption of the Ministry, as Dumbledore constantly maintained.
- Victor Krum found love, though he had to go back to his native Bulgaria to do so.
- Lockhart would never recover. Nor would I want him to. He’s happy where he is, and I’m happier without him!
- Aberforth is still there, at the Hog’s Head, playing with his goats.
- Umbridge was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.
- Rita Skeeter is still reporting. I imagine she immediately dashed off a biography of Harry after he defeated Voldemort. One quarter truth to three quarters rubbish.
- The animosity between Harry and Draco didn’t disappear. There would be a kind of rapprochement, in that Harry knows Draco hated being a Death Eater, and would not have killed Dumbledore; similarly, Draco would feel a grudging gratitude towards Harry for saving his life. Real friendship would be out of the question, though. Too much had happened prior to the final battle. “I think the very worst burden Harry could have put Malfoy under was this one, that Malfoy has to feel any kind of gratitude. So I tried to show that slightly in the epilogue when they look slightly at each other and there's a, "Hi. It's so embarrassing, you saved my life. No one will ever let me forget it." I think, does he owe him a debt, probably not. I think Malfoy would go back to being an improved version of what he was but we shouldn't expect him to be a really great guy any time soon”.
- I imagine the Resurrection Stone was squashed into the ground by a centaur’s hoof as the centaurs dashed to the aid of the Hogwarts fighters, and thereafter became buried.
- Mr. Weasley fixed Sirius' motorbike, and it ended up in Harry’s possession.
- Firenze was welcomed back to the centaurs, the rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenze’s pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.
- Voldemort didn’t return as a ghost. He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in King’s Cross.
- The Dark Mark on the Death Eaters would fade to a scar, not dissimilar to the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead. Like Harry’s, these scars would no longer burn or hurt.
- The Quibbler is doing pretty well, actually. It has returned to its usual condition of advanced lunacy, and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/
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http://www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter/content.asp?sec=3&sec2=1
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http://blog.nola.com/living/2007/10/new_orleans_students_give_rowl.html
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http://the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/...neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more