Harry's "leaving" (was: Re: Self-contained worlds)

[annemehr]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Dan Feeney" <dark30 at v...> 
wrote:
<snip>
> 
> Oh, I almost dread to say anything more. Some thoughts running 
round 
> my head. Margaret Atwood: "there are worse things yet than 
survival". 
> AD: "there are worse things than death"  HP: "there are things 
more 
> important that surviving"
> I don't want HP to survive just cause people would be sad, or, to 
put 
> it another way, I don't want a shallow compromise. If it's to be 
> surival, it'll have to drop the bottom out of the world. 
<snip> 
> And the same regarding death. If it happens, it has to knock the 
> bottom off of the world.
<snip>

Ah, go on and say it, already!  I still don't really *want* him to 
die!

Just to get completely personal, a few posts back I said that 
Hogwarts felt like my way out, too (you know, in response to one of 
your posts).  Well, I am quite willingly reading these books to the 
very end, and in fact feel as though I'm actually participating in 
them in some way.  I have decided that I want to read all of this 
story, *whatever it turns out to be*.  This is going to mean, 
though, that whatever sacrifices Harry makes are also going to mean 
some sort of sacrifice on my own part.

Back to the story itself, though: Voldemort has caused misery for 
Harry pretty much continuously for almost all of his life.  I had 
always felt that it would be too much of a victory for V if at the 
end of all that he actually accomplished what he'd been trying to do 
all along, and finally killed Harry.  I was always hoping that Harry 
would live and have a chance to be "just Harry" for a while (say, 60 
or 100 years or so).  Then he could die.

I know.  There are things worse than death and better than living.  
But still, life is a good thing, and I hope Harry gets to live some.

Annemehr
who would like to be able to keep the mental image of a 28 year old 
Harry roughhousing on the lawn with several of his children...