Edward Hollet representing W H Smith - If Voldemort ever encountered a boggart what would he see?

JK Rowling: The thing that Voldemort fears more than anything else is his own death. It its the quest of his life to cheat death, so we would have to see himself lying dead on the floor.

Bethan Roberts reporting for The Times Educational Supplement - In the second book, if you see a basilisk and you are wearing glasses, will they protect you? And if they do, why did Moaning Myrtle die, and if they don't, why not?

JK Rowling: I had to decide the glasses couldn't protect you. I just had to, because obviously there would be quite a few people at Hogwarts who were wearing glasses and I thought that might cause me plot difficulties, so I decided that glasses alone wouldn't protect you.

Cara McKenzie for Radio Forth - Every year since Harry has been to Hogwarts the defence against the dark arts teacher has left Hogwarts or died every year. Does that mean that something will stop Snape from being the defence against the dark arts in book 7?

JK Rowling: Yes. I really can't say more than that. That is because one of those questions that is a very good question and everyone would like to know the answer but it gives a lot away. There must obviously be a new one.

Jasmine Lane for the Sunday Mail from Brisbane - How many pages have you planned for the seventh book and are you thinking of finishing Harry Potter off or leaving the ending open for the future?

JK Rowling: I do not yet know really how long the seventh book will be, although I have a plan, I have not yet plotted it out chapter by chapter, so I cannot really tell you. I do not think it will be as long as Order of the Phoenix, but I am going to reserve the right to make it as long as that if I want to. Am I going to finish Harry off? I cannot possibly tell you that, I'm sorry.

Peter O'Brien for Easons Ireland - Are you going introduce any new characters in the final book?

JK Rowling: There will be some characters who you don't know particularly well, and there may be a couple of new characters, but nobody really major. You know pretty much the cast list by now.

Karis Ronaldson for Historic Scotland Magazine - Do the Harry Potter films meet your expectations?

JK Rowling: Yes, they do. I mean there are obviously things that are not the same as the books but that is because if you did every scene in the book and translated that into films, the films would be about 24 hours each, so they have got to prune and change things slightly. By and large they meet my expectations.

Sorley Richardson for Publishing News - Why did you have to kill Sirius when it was the best thing that happened to Harry for years?

JK Rowling: We are back to me being a murderer, aren't we? People have asked me this a lot. I have been repeatedly told Sirius was my favourite character, why did he have to die? You can imagine how bad that makes me feel and in fact after I killed Sirius I went on the Internet and somehow stumbled across a fansite devoted entirely to Sirius and I killed him in the last 48 hours, so that wasn't good.

I think you will realise why he had to go in terms of plot when you read the seventh book. It wasn't arbitrary although part of the answer is the one I have given before. It is more satisfying I think for the reader if the hero has to go on alone and to give him too much support makes his job too easy, sorry.

Harry Malinson for Red House - When you are writing Harry Potter, how often do you find the story taking you somewhere you never expected to go?

Rowling: But in the early days things did wander off and sometimes still characters want to go one way and I want them to go another way and sometimes the best thing to do is write that way out of your system and put it to one side and carry on. Hermione often goes wandering.

Sarah Wallace for the Irish Independent - How did you think of the bond between Harry and Lord Voldemort?

JK Rowling: That is another one of those questions that goes right to the heart of the series. I can't answer. It touches way too closely on book 7. Sorry. Good question.

David Moulds for the News of the World - How does Aunt Petunia know about dementors and all the other magical facts she knows?

JK Rowling: Another very good question. She overheard a conversation, that is all I am going to say. She overheard conversation. The answer is in the beginning of Phoenix, she said she overheard Lily being told about them basically.

Is that true?

JK Rowling: Yes. The reason I am hesitant is because there is more to it than that. As I think you suspect. Correctly, but I don't want to say what else there is because it relates to book 7.

I was wondering, I heard you cried when you killed off Sirius, did you cry at the end of this book.

JK Rowling: I was a bit teary with Sirius, but I was seriously upset at the end of this book.

Peter Humphreys for BBC Newsround. - Who did Fawkes previously belong to and will he play a vital role in the next book?

JK Rowling: I am not going to answer about the role in the next books, which probably gives you a big clue, and he has never been owned by anyone but Dumbledore. You will notice that when Harry goes back in the Pensieve in this book, Fawkes is never there, and ** no, I am sorry, not in this book, I take that back. When Harry has previously seen the study with a different headmaster he saw it with Dippet and Fawkes was not there then. Fawkes is Dumbledore's possession, not a Hogwarts possession.

Scott Ballard for The Bookseller - Will Lord Voldemort ever found out what the prophecy fully said?

JK Rowling: That is one of those very good questions that I don't think I can answer. I am sorry, that is always very frustrating, but the most penetrating questions generally I cannot answer because they could give a lot away, so I would ** I am not going to answer that. Sorry.

Richard Wheatley for the RNIB - Blind children everywhere are delighted that they can read this book at the same time as sighted people, would you ever include a blind character in one of your Harry Potter books?

JK Rowling: Funny you should say that because at one point there was a blind character who went by the name of Mopsus, and I will let you look him up because there is a mythological connection there, but he sort of ** that was a very early character and he had the power of second sight, in other words he was a bit like Professor Trelawney, he was a very, very early character, this was when I was drafting Philosopher's Stone, the reason I cut him was he was too good. As the story evolved, if there was somebody who really could do divination at the time that Harry was alive, it greatly diminished the drama of the story because someone out there knew what was going to happen.

Clare Fordyce for the Scottish Book Trust - What character would you hate most to be stuck on a desert island with?

JK Rowling: Oh my word. That is a good one.

Lockhart would get a little tedious after 30 seconds. Umbridge, Umbridge wouldn't be good. I mean Voldemort would not be good in the sense that he would kill me, but I would rather die than be stuck on an island with Umbridge or Lockhart.

Who else? Vernon Dursley, oh no, in fact I have been places with people like Vernon Dursley, that is uncomfortable.

Samatha Scattergood for Waterstones - Which is your favourite member of the Order of the Phoenix?

JK Rowling: I keep killing all my favourite members of the Order of the Phoenix, but there is one member of the Order of the Phoenix that you have not yet met properly and you will ** well, you know that they are a member, but you haven't really met them properly yet and you will meet them in seven, so I am looking forward to that.

Michael Farr for Indigo books and music - When is the seventh book going to finally come out because it took two years for this one to come out?

JK Rowling: I am going to say now I think it will be at least another two year wait (groans). Sorry, I think it probably will be just being realistic. My plan is to start writing seriously at the end of the year because I still have a very young baby, although I am doing some work on it at the moment.