Today is the 18th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, the fictional conflict near the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that resulted in the death of Voldemort and the end of his reign of terror. To mark the occasion, its creator is once again atoning for the many atrocities she committed in writing it.
J.K. Rowling has acknowledged the all-important anniversary for Harry Potter fans every year since she became more active on Twitter, but it wasn’t until last year’s anniversary that she started to apologize for the dozens of characters she killed. She started with Fred Weasley, because his death “was the worst” for her.
This year, she turned her attention to another person whose death hit her particularly hard: Remus Lupin.
Once again, it's the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts so, as promised, I shall apologise for a death. This year: Remus Lupin.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
Lupin’s death is an interesting case for fans. After the publication of Deathly Hallows, Rowling revealed that she originally planned to kill Ron Weasley’s dad Arthur, but she couldn’t go through with it; he was supposed to succumb to his wounds from Nagini’s attack in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Instead, she killed Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks in order to make their newborn son Teddy an orphan.
“As happened in the first war when Harry’s left behind, I wanted us to see another child left behind,” she told Today. “And it made it very poignant that it was their newborn son.”
Rowling reiterated that point—that Lupin had to die because Arthur lived—to her Twitter followers while revealing that she cried over young Teddy Lupin’s fate.
In the interests of total honesty I'd also like to confess that I didn't decide to kill Lupin until I wrote Order if the Phoenix.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
Arthur lived, so Lupin had to die. I'm sorry. I didn't enjoy doing it. The only time my editor ever saw me cry was over the fate of Teddy. 😢
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
Now that Rowling has apologized two years in a row, we may end up seeing her do this every year until she runs out of characters to mention. (Let’s face it, she probably doesn’t feel too bad about killing Bellatrix Lestrange or Voldemort.) Plus, this way, maybe we’ll finally get confirmation about the whole Lavender Brown thing.