The death of the late "Harry Potter" actor Alan Rickman, as previously reported by BBC, broke the hearts of many fans. With fans being anxious to know about Rickman's character in the movie series, one recently wrote to J.K. Rowling herself, which urged the author to reveal a secret she told Rickman before, SMH reports.

It was a news that shocked many as BBC reported last Jan. 14 that Rickman, 69, died of pancreatic cancer. After the news broke out, Potterheads reminisced Rickman's character Professor Snape in the film and book series, per SMH.

One fan even asked Rowling herself about the secret she told Rickman before the movie series ended. "@jk_rowling Will you tell us the piece of information that you told Alan Rickman about Severus Snape? Or will that forever be a secret?" a fan wrote on Twitter.

Then, Rowling wrote the user back, writing on Twitter, "I told Alan what lies behind the word 'always.'"

According to Vanity Fair, the word "always" was very significant for Rickman's character since it was when Professor Snape told Dumbledore about his love for Harry Potter's late mother, Lily Potter, as he also explained about his Patronus.


Meanwhile, as the response made so much social media traffic, HitFlix previously reported that Rickman also revealed that he was in fact informed about something deep in his character that made him play the role even more with pride.

When asked when Rowling told Rickman early on that Professor Snape was not actually the bad guy in the film, Rickman answered, "Not true. I don't know who thinks that is true, but it's not true," Rickman said as quoted by the publication.

"She gave me one tiny, little, left of field piece of information that helped me think that he was more complicated and that the story was not going to be as straight down the line as everybody thought. If you remember when I did the first film she'd only written three or four books, so nobody knew where it was really going except her. And its was important for her that I know something, but she only gave me a tiny piece of information which helped me think it was a more ambiguous route," he added.

In a statement last Jan. 14, the actor's family shared that Rickman passed away. "The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends," the statement reads as obtained by BBC.