15 Things That Almost Completely Changed The End Of Harry Potter

6. Ginny Became A Bloody Bird

What Happened

Ginny did not become a bird. Or any sort of animal. She just got a bit older, had kids and lived happily ever after (we all assumed).

What Could Have Been

Palast's increasingly bonkers alternate ending - which he insists JK Rowling told him, remember - features the stunning revelation that Ginny somehow turned into a bird of paradise. To be clear, Harry doesn't just have a bird he names after his wife, the bird IS his wife.

And she talked.

"The old wizard could hear below the school abuzz with preparations for his 150th birthday. He shifted Ginny, a bird of paradise, to a perch nearer his desk. His wife, rather than grow old, had turned herself into this beautiful bird, but still insisted on giving un-birdlike advice. “Harry, dearest, you can’t miss your own birthday party. And it’s so lovely outside.”"

It's lunacy, but at least it would have featured the immortal line "“I will go,” he told his feathered wife." Just imagine!