J. K. Rowling has said that Albus Dumbledore was gay and that he was in love with Gellert Grindelwald before seeing the light and defeating him and his fascist movement.
She made her revelation to a packed house in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour.
She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found "true love".
"Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.
The audience gasped, then applauded. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy," she said.
"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she added, saying Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down" and his love for Grindelwald was his "great tragedy".
I'm not sure it would have added anything to the story if that had been revealed in the books, though it's kind of a surprise that in the wizarding world they apparently haven't got gay marriage yet. I'd wondered why the teachers at Hogwarts were all unmarried but figured it was just a carry through of English boarding school custom.
Will the revelation make her books less popular in the future? I tend to doubt it. Dumbledore's wardrobe choices were sort of a dead giveaway from the very beginning. Rowling, as perspicacious as ever, also said
"Oh, my god," Rowling, 42, concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction".