Rowdy J.K. Rowling reveals ‘graffiti-ing’ of hotel statue after she finished ‘Harry Potter’
J.K. Rowling has admitted that she got a little rowdy in her hotel room after finishing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
It turns out J.K. Rowling has a rowdy side.
On Monday, the author revealed that she vandalized the hotel room where she finished writing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final book in her series about the boy wizard.
“Finished Hallows 9 yrs ago today,” Rowling wrote on Twitter. “Celebrated by graffiti-ing a bust in my hotel room. Never do this. It’s wrong.”
The tweet was accompanied by photographic evidence of her defacement. The graffiti consists of her signature and the words “Finished writing Harry Potter + the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan 2007,” and was written on a bust of the Greek god Hermes.
In a response to a fan who asked if she “went for a munchie box to celebrate,” Rowling wrote, “No, I downed a half bottle of champagne in the room fridge.”
While a muggle might have faced hefty fines and a lifetime ban for the vandalism, Rowling appears to have gotten off scot-free.
The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, responded by renaming the room the “J.K. Rowling Suite” and the marble bust is still there — but it’s now in a glass case. They’ve also honored the mischievous author by installing a new door knocker in the shape of an owl.
“Harry Potter” fans who want to stay in the luxury suite will have to shell out a lot of gold Galleons, though — it costs almost $1,500 to spend the night there.
Rowling explained her love of the Balmoral in a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey that was conducted at the hotel.
“As I was finishing ‘Deathly Hallows,’ there came a day where the window cleaner came, the kids were at home, the dogs were barking, and I could not work, and this light bulb went on over my head and I thought, ‘I can throw money at this problem,’” Rowling told Winfrey. “I came to this hotel because it’s a beautiful hotel ... I think writers can be a little bit superstitious, and the first day of writing went well, so I kept coming back to this hotel, and I ended up finishing the last of the Harry Potter books in this hotel.”
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