I know it, I agree with you that writers get to know their characters and have a lot of info stored away, but readers get to know these characters, too. I'm not in the least dismayed by D's preferences, but this fact is not a character fact in the book. If JKR wanted this and other facts to be a part of the character, she should have written them. Readers are instrumental in creating the world they are reading. We include all the facts the writer gives us and then we run with it. If she doesn't include it, it isn't a fact of the fictional world. Even if some speculate on it. There were a lot of stories about several of the characters that she only released in interviews. Not part of the end work. Was she or was she not ready to publish this book?

D, excellent observations. However, do you think that it becomes a fact of the fictional world if you consider Dumbledore's behavior towards Grindelwald?

Jo can say whatever she wants about the fantasy world she has going on in her head, but I agree that if this is not revealed in the fiction then it isn't part of the story. If it was important to the story to know this, then it should have been in the books. The proof is in the pudding as they say. I think it's time for her to leave Potterland and move on to her next project. I hope she will be able to do it, because I'm looking forward to seeing what she produces next.

Anyone who has ever written something with characters they cared about know that there is always more going on with your characters than you tell the readers. Things that aren’t really relevant to the story, or that just don’t come up. But they are real things, nonetheless, as real as the ones that come out on paper. Jo knew that Dumbledore was gay. It wasn’t really all that relevant (though she does strongly suggest it with the Young Dumbledore and Grindelwald story.) She has always known it, it has always been true. It’s just the way it is.

The real trouble in doing this now is that she wrote up the unnatural relationship Dumbledore had with Potter gleefully as a tactic of Voldemort supporters. Now, if the character is truly "coming out," that relationship has to be questioned. As a parent, I feel she has said, "Thanks for the money, now f--- you." As a writer, I simply feel she has done a poor job of dealing with the issue. A simple "Dumbledore had a traumatic romantic experience, and had no love interests at the end," would have sufficed. Is she hoping the gay community will regenerate sales looking for hidden meanings throughout the series?