(Corrects details on Grindelwald in the fourth paragraph of story published Oct. 19.)

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- J.K. Rowling says she's tied the knot with her main character.

``I actually married Harry Potter. My husband's here, and if you have seen a photo of my husband, I think Harry Potter will look like that once he hits a certain age,'' the bestselling author said.

Rowling, 42, sat on a scarlet throne onstage at Carnegie Hall in New York this morning as her young audience whooped enthusiastically. It was her third of four readings in the U.S. since the publication of the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

(At the last evening reading, Rowling casually added a new biographical dimension to Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, when a 19-year-old fan from Colorado asked about the top wizard's love life. Rowling always thought of Dumbledore ``as gay,'' she said. But his love for the wizard Grindelwald didn't work out.

When eight-year-old Emily DiPietro approached the podium to ask the next question, her mother Karen Stromberg said to Rowling: ``Thanks for giving us lots more to talk about from Book Seven.'')

The billionaire author gave a short reading in the morning from ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' for an audience of 1,600 students chosen from 40 New York public elementary, middle and high schools. The students were selected from schools that showed the greatest gains in literacy and English tests. In addition, 12 students were chosen to ask Rowling a question each.

Rowling's marriage bulletin came in response to the question ``If you could marry anyone from the Harry Potter series, who would it be?'' asked by Kristian Cuzco, 18, a 12th-grader at Concord High School on Staten Island.

``I married a really good person. Harry is a really good person. And he's a gutsy person,'' Rowling said. She married Neil Michael Murray in 2001.

140 Million Copies

Scholastic, the publisher, released the ``Deathly Hallows'' in the U.S. on July 21. It broke all publishing-industry records by selling 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale and 11.5 million copies in its first 10 days. There are 140 million copies of the Harry Potter books in print in the U.S. alone.

To encourage young readers, Scholastic is donating 5,000 copies of Rowling's first Potter book, ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' to New York City schoolchildren.

Of Potter's friend Ron Weasley, Rowling said, ``The truth is that in my younger days, I dated Ron more than once. Ron is funny, very funny; he's insensitive. There's a lot of immaturity about Ron, and that's where a lot of the humor comes from. He's not much fun to date, but he's great as a friend.''

Bad Draco

What about the bad boy, the bully Draco Malfoy?

``Draco was an awfully popular character, particularly with girls,'' Rowling said. ``But as I've said before: No! No! Please don't fancy Draco. I've given you an array of pleasant characters.''

After the question-and-answer period, Rowling signed copies of the last Potter for every one of the 1,600 students.

Nine-year-old Matthew Rupolo, a fourth-grader at P.S. 5, the Huguenot School on Staten Island, said he was ``jumping up and down'' when he was chosen to ask a question at the event.

So what's he going to do with his autographed book?

``I'm gonna start reading,'' Rupolo said, ``and when I'm done with this, I might sell it.''

To contact the writer of this story: Yvette Ferreol in New York at yferreol@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 22, 2007 13:03 EDT