JK Rowling
JK Rowling is known to apologise for characters' deaths on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images

JK Rowling has apologised to Harry Potter fans for the death of Remus Lupin on the 18th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.

The date of 2 May marks the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts in the chronology of the Harry Potter series. It saw the final battle between Voldemort and on this date each year Rowling tends to bring up a death on Twitter. Last year, she apologised for the death of Fred Weasley, who was also killed during the climactic battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Rowling has previously explained her decision to kill off the characters of Lupin and his wife Nymphadora Tonks, saying she wanted to kill off parents to "echo" what happened to Harry.

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"I wanted to kill parents," she told Today in 2007, adding that it sounded "terrible" to say. "I wanted there to be an echo of what happened to Harry just to show the absolute evil of what Voldemort's doing."

She continued: "The theme resonates throughout the books with the deaths of Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore, Harry's flawed father figures. And that's why, in the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus Lupin, Harry's only remaining father figure, and Nymphadora Tonks die, in the process creating another orphan in their son, Teddy.

"I think one of the most devastating things about war is the children left behind. As happened in the first war when Harry's left behind, I wanted us to see another child left behind. And it made it very poignant that it was their newborn son."

Lupin, a teacher who was cursed into becoming a werewolf while still a child, was portrayed in the films by David Thewlis. He was killed by one of the major villains, the Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, during the battle. Tonks was killed by her evil relative Bellatrix Lestrange, in a double death which left many Potter fans particularly sad.