Has it changed the relationship you have with him?

DR: I think so; I think we've got a lot closer. I didn't really know him very well before. And I wouldn't say I know him well now, but I certainly know him a lot better and I think I now understand the way he works more. I certainly think we've become much closer through it.

What was your reaction to hearing that Dumbledore had been outed?

DR: I thought it was hilarious, but what was even funnier about it was the reaction from people who were up in arms about it. I don't think it really matters. He's [J.K. Rowling's] character and she can do what she likes with him.

I think Michael thought it was really funny. He was really camping it up around set for a couple of weeks after that! I thought it was great.

How would you compare the romantic scenes you have with Ginny to shooting the stuff with Cho on the last movie?

DR: The thing is that when Katie [Leung, who plays Cho] came into the cast we knew she was playing the love interest whereas with Bonnie [Wright, who plays Ginny] was just brought in to play Ginny. It's very odd because I've known Bonnie since she was about nine. It's quite strange, really.

Did it take you by surprise that they'd hook up when you read Half-Blood Prince?

DR: No, I thought it was quite fitting, really. I was quite glad of it, I suppose. It seems right.

Ginny and Harry kiss.

Had you been privy to information from J.K. Rowling about the course the series would take?

DR: Not that much. Only to the extent that I had dinner with her one night almost a year ago and I said to her that I'd love to know what happens to Harry. Or, at least, what he state he ended up in. I think my exact words were probably as tactless and unsubtle as, "Do I die?" She said, "You have a death scene." So it was very obvious that it didn't mean, "Yes, you die."

And you had to keep that to yourself?

DR: Yes I did.

Was that difficult?

DR: No, it was really great fun! I'd say, "I know something," and everyone would go, "What, what?!" I'd just go, "I'm not going to tell you!" I quite enjoyed that to be honest. For months and months in interviews before - because we did the press junket for the fifth film just before the seventh book came out - to endless television journalists I was just lying and saying, "No, no, I know nothing..." [laughs] Then when I did the interviews for My Boy Jack, which I did after the book came out, they were saying, "So, did you know anything?" I could say, "Yes, I knew all along, HA HA HA!" I enjoyed that, definitely, but it wasn't as hard to keep it quiet as people might think.

Did your theory change before that? For the longest time you'd said you thought he was going to die and then you changed your mind and said you thought he wasn't...

DR: It was partly because suddenly it seemed too obvious that he was going to die. That came before I spoke to her because I was having a conversation with David Heyman [one of the film's producers] and I was saying I thought he'd die. David actually talked me around and said he thought that it'd be too obvious for Harry to get killed. That's when I came to the conclusion that I could speculate as much as I liked but in the end she was going to come up with something much cleverer than I could even dream of.