‘Potter’ finale to go for the kill

Children’s author J.K. Rowling has revealed that at least two characters will die in the seventh and final installment of her bestselling Harry Potter series, but she wouldn’t say who.

“No, I’m not going to commit myself, because I don’t want the hate mail or anything else,” she said in an interview broadcast Monday on Britain’s Channel 4.

She did explain that she understood an author’s desire to kill off the main character in a successful series.

“I’ve never been tempted to kill him [Harry] off before the end of book seven, because I always planned seven books and that’s where I want to go,” Rowling said. “I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, ‘Well, I’m going to kill them off because that means there can be no non-author-written sequels ... so it will end with me, and after I’m dead and gone they won’t be able to bring back the character.’ ”