Seattle Post Intelligencer: June 27, 2006 in the A&E section

Harry, others may die in the end, J.K. Rowling says
Author J.K. Rowling said two characters will die in the last installment of her boy wizard series, and hinted Harry Potter may not survive, either.
"I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish seven books," Rowling said Monday on London TV. "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, 'Well, I'm gonna 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.' "
Rowling declined to commit herself about Harry, saying she doesn't want to receive hate mail.
"The last book is not finished. But I'm well into it now. I wrote the final chapter in something like 1990, so I've known exactly how the series is going to end," she said.