Here’s why JK Rowling did not kill off Arthur Weasley’s character in the Harry Potter books! (Photo Credit – Koimoi)
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If you thought the Harry Potter series left you all emotional, wait until you hear about the characters that almost didn’t make it. J.K. Rowling once spilled the tea to being a “ruthless killer” regarding her characters. While fans mourned the losses of Sirius Black and Fred Weasley, Arthur Weasley’s fate too hung in the balance.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Arthur faced a terrible attack from Nagini (Voldemort’s serpent sidekick), while he was on guard at the Department of Mysteries. For a moment, it felt like we were going to lose him. Thank the magical stars he pulled through, but it could’ve gone so differently.
Rowling admitted that she felt pressure to kill off parental figures to amplify the fear surrounding Voldemort. However, she had a soft spot for Arthur: “If there’s one character I couldn’t bear to part with, it’s Arthur Weasley,” she told The Today Show back in 2007. She recognized that good father figures were scarce in the series, making Arthur’s survival even more crucial.
Switching gears to another Weasley, J.K. Rowling also toyed with the idea of killing off Ron. Yes, Harry’s best mate was almost sent packing! In an interview for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD, she joked to Daniel Radcliffe that midway through writing, she contemplated “polishing one of them off” out of sheer spite. But she quickly realized her heart wouldn’t let her go through with it.
“I planned from the start that none of [the trio] would die,” she reflected, showing us just how close we came to losing Ron. That one tense moment in Order of the Phoenix, when we thought we saw Ron’s corpse (it was just Mrs. Weasley’s Boggart), might have been Rowling’s way of letting off some steam about her earlier thoughts.
But the toll of war wasn’t easy for Rowling to handle. The survival of Arthur meant the sacrifice of another character, Remus Lupin. Rowling shared on Twitter, “Arthur lived, so Lupin had to die. I’m sorry. I didn’t enjoy doing it.” She even revealed that she only cried in front of her editor about Lupin’s fate. Losing a good father and a loyal friend left fans wondering if we could have had both.
Sadly, while Arthur and Ron made it, Fred Weasley didn’t fare so well. His death came as a shock, occurring just moments after he shared a rare laugh with Percy. Rowling described Fred’s passing as “the worst for me.” She explained that Fred, being the funnier of the twins, was chosen to die because readers might have assumed George was the more vulnerable one.
And let’s not forget about the minor character Florean Fortescue, the ice cream parlor owner in Diagon Alley. JK Rowling admitted to feeling guilty about his fate. Originally, Fortescue was supposed to have a more significant role, but the plot thread got cut. “He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about,” she confessed.
Ultimately, while the series faced significant bloodshed, the decision to spare Arthur Weasley left fans grateful. After all, who wouldn’t want to keep the heart of the Weasley family around? So, here’s to Arthur, who lived to fight another day—thank goodness for that!
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