J.K. Rowling Is Sorry About Killing Snape In Final ‘Harry Potter’ Book

J.K. Rowling has a tradition on May 2. The day marks the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts from “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and there were quite a few killings in the climactic event. Every year, she apologizes for a character’s death.

This year, Rowling said she was sorry about Professor Severus Snape’s demise. Even years after the series ended, the character still has fans divided. She hopes that those opposed to the double agent don’t take too much offense.

“OK, here it is. Please don’t start flame wars over it, but this year I’d like to apologise for killing (whispers)... Snape. *runs for cover*,” she tweeted Tuesday morning.

Apparently, many fans were waiting for Rowling to make her annual announcement. When a follower asked if she had “apologized for another death” yet, the author wanted to clarify that she was being asked about fictional murders.

“In case the police are reading my notifications, there’s a Battle of Hogwarts anniversary tradition going on. I am not on a murder spree,” she added.

Rowling has been apologizing for characters’ deaths every May 2 for several years now. Last year, Remus Lupin was honored on this day. Fred Weasley was remembered in 2015. However, everyone agrees that Lupin and Fred were good guys. Snape is a little more divisive.

Even William Shatner was shocked to see the latest apology. The “Star Trek” alum used emojis to show his reaction.

While he did ultimately help Harry because he loved his mother Lily, Snape also projected his hatred of Harry’s father James onto the young boy as soon as he stepped into Hogwarts. While many take a firm stance on whether Snape is evil or a romantic hero, Rowling has previously clarified that it’s much more complicated than that.

“Snape is all grey,” she tweeted to fans in 2015. “You can’t make him a saint: he was vindictive & bullying. You can’t make him a devil: he died to save the wizarding world.”

Rowling is probably focusing more on other complicated wizards these days. She writes the screenplays for the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” films, which take place in the Wizarding World in the 1920s. The first film revealed that the villain was none other than Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).

Not much is known about the second movie in the series, but Grindelwald is expected to be causing more trouble than Newt’s (Eddie Redmayne) creatures. It seems the evil wizard might be more feared than anyone else in the Wizarding World.

“Grindelwald is much more sophisticated and can seduce anybody with what he wants to do,” director David Yates told USA Today last year. “He’s a compelling speaker and he’s playing a longer, cleverer, more dangerous game than the obvious, and therefore in some ways is perhaps to be more feared than Voldemort.”

“Fantastic Beasts 2” is set to hit theaters in November 2018.