Albus Dumbledore took quite a few secrets with him to the grave. And it's possible that even he didn't know about this one.
After helping Dumbledore's favorite pupil uncover a treasure trove of information about the Hogwarts headmaster in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment of her billion-dollar fantasy series, J.K. Rowling has pulled something new out of the pensieve:
Dumbledore was gay.
(What you just heard was the sound of conservative religious groups scribbling down one more reason to loathe the Harry Potter franchise.)
"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling explained Friday in front of a packed house at New York's Carnegie Hall, where she capped off her first U.S. book tour since 2000.
Which explains why the brilliant wizard was briefly blinded as a young man by the charm and skill of Gellert Grindelwald, his companion turned archnemesis who turned out to be more interested in the Dark Arts than a three-bedroom craftsman in Hogsmeade.
After Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down," Rowling explained, he went on to destroy Grindelwald in what is considered in the wizarding world to have been the ultimate wand-toting battle between good and evil.
That love, she said to raucous applause, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy."
"If I had know this would have made you so happy, I would have told you years ago," Rowling said.
If this revelation seems almost too whimsical, consider this: Rowling, who penned much of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a café while living out of her car, can certainly be a bit cheeky, but it seems highly unlikely that she would try to put one over on a Manhattan landmark full of kids and other readers who have made her one of the richest people in England.
While working on the sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which focuses largely on Dumbledore and Harry's relationship, as well as the elder wizard's interaction with a young Voldemort, Rowling said that she slipped director David Yates an eye-opening note after noticing that there was a reference in the script to a girl in Dumbledore's past.
There's no word yet on if this will affect Michael Gambon's character in the final two Potter movies, which are slated for release in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
In any case, the news was welcomed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
"It's wonderful that J.K. Rowling would help open readers eyes to the life and truth of such a beloved character," says GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. "Rowling's decision to allow readers to see Dumbledore for all of who he is—and her determination to preserve the authenticity of his character in the films—will enrich the power of these stories for generations to come."
Dumbledore's sexuality has apparently been of great interest to bloggers and chat room denizens for years, with his history—and intimate affinities—becoming the subject of much debate and, ahem, original short stories.
"Just imagine the fan fiction now," Rowling joked.
Of course, one could always have shrugged off the lack of romance in his life, what with his hectic work schedule and his penchant for secrecy.
And, as the scarred one learned in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore could be quite temperamental, especially when protecting those he loved.