Book Cover

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
By J.K. Rowling
Scholastic / Arthur A. Levine Books
$34.99, 784 pages
ISBN 9780545010221

What will happen to Harry?

Predictions, forecasts and guesses on what the future holds for the boy wizard

BY HOWARD SHIRLEY

At long last, Harry Potter is set to take his final bow. If you're a fan, you already know the title and the publication date: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will apparate onto bookstore shelves on July 21. (Those predicting the release date would be 7/7/07, for various literary and magical reasons, can at least take solace that 7/21/07 contains a multiple of seven).

Of course, the impending release of the seventh and final book in the series has only served to spur curiosity about the outcome of the book and the fate of J.K. Rowling's magical hero. And the biggest question is: Will Harry survive his final battle with Lord Voldemort?

A perusal of the online discussion boards on The Leaky Cauldron, a favorite "all things Harry" website, reveals a fairly even split on whether Harry dies or not, though the "Harry dies!" voices are the loudest. Personally, I think they're wrong, based both on the tone of the novels, some statements Rowling has made, and the audience for the books.

In any case, the fan positions seem to be divided into these three camps:

  • Harry dies, Voldemort lives, but in torment and out of power.
  • Harry and Voldemort both die.
  • Harry lives, Voldemort dies (or worse, whatever that means, based on a statement by Dumbledore in Book 5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that "there are worse ways to destroy a man than death.").

    The remaining speculation revolves around Rowling's statement that two characters died that she did not intend, and one got a reprieve that she did not intend. The leading guesses for these demises so far are:

  • Ron & Hermione die.
  • Ron & Ginny die, but not Hermione.
  • Ron & Hagrid die.
  • Ron & Snape die.
  • Ron & McGonagall die. (People seem to have it in for poor Ron, at least in a literary sense: "Kill the best friend!" is argued to be a classic theme in epic literature. Ron as Enkidu, anyone?*)
  • Draco gets the reprieve or Snape gets the reprieve.
  • Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Percy Weasley, one of the twins, or one of the two older Weasley brothers die. (As one fan put it, "It's a war, and they're a big family.")
  • Neville Longbottom dies fighting Bellatrix Black (who tortured his parents into insanity).
  • Neville dies saving Harry from Voldemort.
  • Peter Pettigrew, the animagus rat who is a Death Eater and Voldemort's right-hand man (give or take a hand), dies sacrificing himself for Harry, in an act of remorse. (I don't buy this one.)

    Of course, Rowling has never said that there would only be two deaths . . .

    Other speculation revolves around the clues from previous books:

    1.) Who is R.A.B.? (The person who took the locket horcrux before Dumbledore and Harry.) The consensus is that this is Regulus Black, Sirius' younger brother, who was a Death Eater until he betrayed Voldemort and was killed by Voldemort's followers.
    2.) Did R.A.B. have help getting the horcrux (Dumbledore says the locket could not be retrieved by one wizard acting alone), and if so, who helped him? No one has adequately come up with an answer for this (although I have two possibilities; see below!)
    3.) What are the other horcruxes? Is Harry a horcrux? Lots of guesses, but Rowling has ruled out the Sorting Hat. Known horcruxes are Tom Riddle's diary (destroyed by Harry), Marvolo's ring (destroyed by Dumbledore), Slytherin's locket (possibly stolen by Regulus Black, and probably again by Mundungus Fletcher), and Hufflepuff's cup. The remaining two horcruxes are possibly Nagini the snake, and lastly an unknown object belonging to Ravenclaw, one of Hogwart's four founding wizards.
    4.) Will Harry go back to Hogwarts? Will Hogwarts even be open? (I rather think he will and it will.)
    5.) Who is the non-magical character that "develops magical ability late in life," according to Rowling? Aunt Petunia and Dudley have been ruled out by Rowling. Other non-magical characters are Uncle Vernon, the Dursley's neighbor Arabella Figg (revealed as a "squib," a wizard's descendant without magical talent, in Book 5), and Argus Filch, the Hogwarts custodian/rule enforcer who is also a squib. Some have speculated on Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus' mildly notorious brother and the bartender at a seedy tavern in Hogsmeade, though it's not clear whether he is a full-fledged wizard or not. (In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hogwart's Headmaster recalls that his brother was prosecuted for "practicing inappropriate charms on a goat," so perhaps he is.)
    6.) Is Dumbledore really dead, or will he come back? Again, fairly split, but with the consensus leaning towards the belief that he's fully croaked.
    7.) Is Snape really evil? Mixed attitudes on this-most think so, though some think he's been shamming even to the last. I fall in the latter category-Snape ends Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by continuing to give Harry true and sound advice, even as they duel, and preventing Harry from being harmed in the fight. (Snape even stops Harry from committing an Unforgivable Curse, saving Harry from both legal and moral jeopardy.)

    Our best guesses

    So what are my predictions? Well, at the risk of pulling a Trelawney and being completely wrong in my fortunetelling:

  • Harry lives. Voldemort is defeated-possibly killed, or cursed to exist as a powerless ghost that can never regain life.
  • Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny all survive. I'll allow that Ron might die, but I'm thinking he won't. Literary precedent or not, it's somewhat predictable.
  • One of the Weasleys does die-possibly a twin, or Molly.
  • Snape dies, but his character is redeemed and his actions in Book 6 are fully explained.
  • Draco survives, becoming much like Snape in character.

    Secrets that I believe will be revealed:

  • Snape was in love with Lily Potter, Harry's mother. He turned from Voldemort when the Dark Lord broke a promise to spare her when he attacked James and Harry. He is torn between thinking that Harry should have died in her place and that Harry is his only link to her.
  • Narcissa Malfoy is notably not a Death Eater, even though her husband is; I suspect she wants Voldemort gone as much as Harry does, in order to save her son Draco from him. This may prove significant.
  • Someone helped Regulus Black retrieve the locket. I suspect that "someone" was either a young Narcissa or the insane Black house-elf, Kreacher.

    A side note: A recent journal entry by Rowling on her own site describes a dream in which she (as Harry) is searching for a horcrux in Hogwarts' Great Hall, and that she "knows it is hidden in a nook in the fireplace." Now, is that just a dream, or is it a clue for Book 7?

    Whatever the outcome for Harry and his friends, one prediction is certain-on July 21 a legion of fans will be reading into the wee hours to find out the final fate of their hero. And I'll be one of them.

    * Enkidu is the friend of the ancient Sumerian hero Gilgamesh, whose death sparks the hero's quest for immortality.

    Howard Shirley is a writer in Franklin, Tennessee, with a fascination for Harry Potter and the wizarding world.


    Comments/Feedback

    Join the discussion by giving us your opinions on how the Harry Potter series might end. If you're an avid reader of all things Potter, we suspect you have an inkling (or two, or three) on where Harry's final journey might lead.

    Beth Williams said:

    No way will Rowling kill off Harry in Deathly Hallows. That would be such a disappointment to all her fans, including me!

    12:31 p.m., April 2, 2007

    Crystal Hoover said:

    I just wanted to make some corrections to your page on Deathly Hallows. I've been reading the series since first grade - seven years ago - and I've reread them dozens of times. So I consider myself an expert on such matters.

    "What are the other horcruxes? Is Harry a horcrux?"

    Harry is not a Horcrux. Jo squashed that rumor on her site. The question is whether his scar is a Horcrux. (Which I don't think is a plausible, but it's still out there.)

    "Is Dumbledore really dead, or will he come back? Again, fairly split, but with the consensus leaning towards the belief that he's fully croaked."

    Actually, we know that Dumbledore is dead. Jo confirmed this on August 2, 2006 in NYC at A Night With Harry, Carrie, and Garp. She said, "You shouldn't expect Dumbledore to do a Gandalf." And later, "But I see that I need to be a little more explicit and say that Dumbledore is definitely ... dead." "But I think I need - you need - all of you need to move through the five stages of grief, and I'm just helping you get past denial." So those who think Dumbledore is alive are completely delusional - like Harry/Hermione shippers. It's just not going to happen.

    "Snape even stops Harry from committing an Unforgivable Curse, saving Harry from both legal and moral jeopardy."

    While I agree that Snape is working for the Order, I don't think that is good evidence. He was blocking all of Harry's curses, whether or not they were Unforgivable. After all, he didn't want to be Crucio-ed, did he? And Harry has already used an Unforgivable. He Crucio-ed Bellatrix Lestrange in OotP after Sirius' fall; yet, he wasn't punished. He was fighting Death Eaters and would therefore probably be excused. We know that the Aurors were granted permission by Barty Crouch Sr. to use Unforgivables on DEs. While Harry is not an Auror, he is the Chosen One and Scrimgeour cares to much about what the public thinks to press charges against Harry.

    "The remaining two horcruxes are possibly Nagini the snake, and lastly an unknown object belonging to Ravenclaw, one of Hogwart's four founding wizards."

    The mystery Horcrux could also be something of Gryffindor's. Or Harry's scar. Although Dumbledore says he thinks that all Gryffindor's remaining items are safe, he can't be sure. And we know that Harry still considers Gryffindor's items a possibility because at the end of HBP, he kept repeating, "the locket, the cup, the snake, something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's" to himself like a mantra.

    While Ron dying is a popular theory, Jo said she wouldn't kill him in an interview with Time Magazine in October of 2000. "It's great to hear feedback from the kids. Mostly they are really worried about Ron. As if I'm going to kill Harry's best friend."

    And I think some of the following theories should be included:

    - Neville kills Bella. I don't like it because killing rips the soul apart, and I don't think Jo would do that to Neville; but it is an extremely popular theory.

    - What is the significance of Harry having Lily's eyes? Jo has reinforced it numerous times both in the books and in interviews that it's going to be monumental to DH.

    - What exactly the veil does/what part will the Department of Mysteries play in DH?

    - Where the final battle takes place

    - What are the Deathly Hallows?

    - What part will various characters (Hagrid, Lupin, McGonagall, Slughorn, etc.) play in DH?

    - Who will be the next head of the Order be?

    - What role will the Ford Anglia/the two-way mirrors play in DH? Jo confirmed that the Ford Anglia will come back and it's obvious from interviews that it will play a part. when asked if the two-way mirrors would come back, Jo replied, "Ooooo good question. There's your answer."

    And if you mentioned The Leaky Cauldron, MuggleNet certainly deserves a mention. Both Emerson and Melissa (the founders of MuggleNet and Leaky, respectively) got to interview Jo when HBP came out.

    2:56 p.m., April 2, 2007

    Haley said:

    This is just my personal opinion but I think Neville Longbottom is a horcrux and it is not Harry. Why would Voldemort try to kill one of his own horcruxes? He wouldn't. Neville's memory is horrible. Almost like a Memory Charm has been placed on him. What would a baby need to forget, hmmm?

    I think Snape will die protecting Harry from Voldemort and I think it's a good possibility that he will deliver the fatal blow to Voldemort.

    So, if Neville is a horcrux...poor Neville. He will have to die if Voldemort is to be killed.

    I don't think Snape was in love with Lily. I think he was in love with Narcissa. Unless of course that was Dumbledore impersonating Snape when he made the Unbreakable Vow. That would explain the black hand. Or not.

    This is hurting my head.

    9:15 a.m., April 3, 2007

    Shellie said:

    I loved the review. It gave a lot of info in a short space. But I have to disagree on a few points.

    1. Dumbledore isn't dead. He had drunk the draught of living death. Whenever Rowling mentions something three times, it is always important in an upcoming scene or novel. She has mentioned the draught in three books. Also the only people that saw Dumbledore "die" are Harry, Snape and Hagrid. Harry believes he is dead. But Snape and Hagrid are the only ones that know for sure. In every single book, Dumbledore asserts that he can trust Snape, and says that he would "trust Hagrid with my life." Plus, it was Snape himself that says Adava Kedavra only works if the wizard has the intention to kill and the evil to back it up.

    2. Neville's going to die. He has been set up as the tragic underdog since book 1.

    3. Draco will be redeemed. That is, of course, why Dumbledore told Snape to "do it." Forget wizard, what kind of a human being would Dumbledore be if he worked to save Harry, but allowed Draco to be swallowed by darkness. Snape has always been there to ameliorate the evil in Draco's own family. He finally fakes Dumbledore's death to spare Draco from being killed himself.

    Anyway, that's the way I see it. I guess we'll all find out July 21st.

    1:16 p.m., April 3, 2007

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