June 29, 2007
24 AND COUNTING...:
Harrry Potter VII: Defenders of secrets, unite! (Motoko Rich, June 29, 2007, International Herald Tribune)
They have waited two long years, and now they have only 24 days to go. As the diehard fans of Harry Potter count the minutes until they can get their hands on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in the monumentally successful series by J. K. Rowling, they are engaging in a frenzy of speculation and rumor-mongering about what will happen to their beloved characters.Predictions are flying across the Web and out of bookstores, where titles like "Mugglenet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7," "The End of Harry Potter?" and "The Great Snape Debate" spew theories about who will die, who will get together with whom, and who is really good or evil.
At the same time, with little more than three weeks to go before "Deathly Hallows" goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. on July 21, some people claiming to have actual knowledge of the book's plot are posting ostensible spoilers online. At one site, for instance, what appears to be a page from a manuscript appears, showing one paragraph outlined in red, suggesting that one of the most morally enigmatic characters in the series dies in the final book, with a few bars from the chorus of "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora playing on an endless loop in the background.
My prediction, which to my knowledge no one else has proposed, is that Harry destroys Voldemort's soul but dies in the attempt. Voldemort survives as a body without a soul, like Stanley Crouch Jr. (who the fourth book describes as "worse than dead," which is telling since Dumbledore tells Voldemort in book five that his failure to understand that there are things worse than death is his greatest weakness). Voldemort lacks wisdom and doesn't understand that he can get the immortality he technically wants and still be defeated. It's a kind of Greek dramatic ending for the classics major J.K. Rowling.
It also makes sense of the mind-bending last line of the prophecy about how neither can live if the other survives. Voldemort "survives" as a husk without powers or even consciousness. Harry lays down his life to defeat him. I have spoken!
Posted by: Matt Murphy at June 30, 2007 12:05 AMKrum dies while trying to save Hermio-ninny and accidentally kills Voldemort (with the help of the house-elves led by Dobby). Ron was goggling some Veela at the time and Harry was busy polishing his broomstick. Snape successfully claims to have killed Voldemort and finally becomes the Dark Arts teacher as his reward. Dumbledore wasn't really dead and returns as headmaster to great cheers from the students of Hogwarts. Karkaroff marries Madame Maxime and Hagrid locks himself into his house with 400 gallons of fire-whiskey until the next series.
Posted by: Randall Voth at June 30, 2007 1:56 AMThe ending unfortunately will probably be fairly predictable (although I can't predict which one). One interesting theory I saw was that Harry is actually the last Horcrux (see book 6) and therefore must be destroyed to destroy Voldemort.
Posted by: AWW at June 30, 2007 10:28 AM