by William, age 9, from Washington, DC: Bellatrix LeStrange hurt so many characters and had so many enemies, how did you decide that Molly Weasley would finish her off?
JKR: “Well, in fact, I always knew that Molly would finish her off. I think there was some speculation that Neville would do it, because Neville obviously has a particular reason to hate Bellatrix…so there were lots of options for Bellatrix, but I never deviated. I wanted it to be Molly, and I wanted it for two reasons. The first reason is that I always saw Molly as a very good witch, but someone whose light was necessarily hidden under a bushel because she’s in the kitchen a lot and she’s had to raise, among others, Fred and George, which is likely enough for anyone! The kids learned, when they were camping, that magical cooking is harder than it looks, and actually Molly is very skilled. I wanted her to have her moment, and just because she dedicated herself to her family didn’t mean that she couldn’t do great things…The second reason is that it was a meeting of two kinds of love, if what you call what Bellatrix feels for Voldemort love. I guess we’ll call it love; she has a kind of
