JK Rowling reveals the Harry Potter character she regrets killing off in new Pottermore post

Writer says the wizard she ended is ‘the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault’

JK Rowling has revealed the one wizard she regrets having killed off by Voldemort in her best-selling Harry Potter series.

While many will hope the writer now feels remorse at her killing off the well-loved Dumbledore, or that she has twinges of regret when thinking of the death of loyal house elf Dobby, they will be disappointed.

For it is the death of Florean Fortesque, owner of Diagon Alley’s ice-cream parlour who crops up briefly in The Prisoner of Azkaban, who Rowling most regrets writing off with an untimely end.

“I seem to have him kidnapped and killed for no good reason,” she writes on Pottermore, the Harry Potter publishing site.

It is not until the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix, that Fortesque is described as having been “dragged off” by Voldemort’s Death Eaters.

Rowling writes that she had originally intended for Fortesque to help Potter in his journey to destroy Voldemort in her final book, but that the ice cream seller became less relevant as other characters’ roles became more prominent in aiding the young wizard.

“He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault,” Rowling writes.

Rowling’s admission comes alongside another new piece of writing on Pottermore, which details a history of the Leaky Cauldron pub, and is part of the platform’s #PottermoreChristmas, in which a new “surprise” is released each day for fans from 12 December.