Re: Harry’s fate according to the bookies ("Moby Dick" spoilers)

[justcarol67]

"Moby Dick" spoilers ahead. Don't read this post if you don't want to
know what happens to the captain and crew of the Pequod.



*********************
Carol earlier:
> 
> > the HP series isn't "Moby Dick"
> 
Eggplant:
> We don't really know that yet. I think of the entire Harry Potter
saga as just one very long novel, and we haven't read the final all
important concluding pages of that novel yet.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

A
H
O
Y!


Carol again:
Well, considering that there's an Epilogue about the *survivors* of
VW2, I don't think that Voldemort/Moby Dick is going to destroy the
entire WW as Moby Dick destroyed the Pequod and its whaleboats,
leaving only Ishmael clinging to a floating coffin. Or which character
do you think "escapes alone to tell thee"?
> 
Carol earlier:
> > Harry isn't Captain Ahab 
> 
Eggplant:
> Now there's an idea!
> 
> Hermione:  To be enraged with a dumb brute of a dragon that acted
out of blind instinct is blasphemous Harry.
> 
> Harry:  Speak not to me of blasphemy, Hermione; I'd strike the sun
if it insulted me! <snip>

Carol:
LOL! I love it! Only I was thinking of the "dumb brute" antagonist as
Voldemort--not that Voldemort is "dumb" in the sense that Starbuck
intends, the inability to speak--but he's certainly a "brute" in the
sense of having lost whatever humanity he once had. 

Harry: Be he agent or be he principal, I will smite him!

Seriously, though, the tables are turned in HP, where the madman is
the villain, not the protagonist.

Carol earlier: 
> > Snape killing Harry would certainly be a surprise
> 
Eggplant:
> Yes, even I, a charter member of the I hate Snape club would be
surprised by that; but the bookies think that is far more likely than
Harry surviving and bookies are not stupid. In fact nobody is willing
to place a bet that Harry lives, everybody wants to bet that Harry
dies, to the bookies that tells them it's a fixed game and the plot
has leaked and they refuse to take any more bets on the subject.
> 
> Right after I read book 6 I thought Snape was the personification of
evil and anybody who thought Snape was good was crazy. I still think
Snape is a S.O.B, but my views have moderated a little, but just a
little. On Sirius Black's worst most evil day he was a better person
than Severus Snape was on his best; and yet, and yet, there is still
some good in the man. I believe Snape will die nobly and heroically to
compensate for his less than noble life. Even after we've read the
last page of the last book many readers (probably most) will still be
unsure how to feel about Snape, and therein lies Rowling's genius. For
many years I can see a debate on this list along the lines of, Yes
Snape did the right thing in that particular instance but what about
all the other times he
..
> 
> Snape is a character that will stick with you, he belongs to the ages.

Carol:
Well, I certainly agree with you on several counts, that Snape is a
character for the ages and that it's most unlikely he'll kill Harry
(or vice versa, IMO). I also agree that, if he dies (not as inevitable
as some readers think), it will be nobly and heroically. I disagree,
of course, that his life (once he "returned to Dumbledore" has been
"less than noble," and I don't share your preference for Sirius Black,
with whom Snape has quite a bit in common (which could account in part
for the mutual antagonism) and yet I just can't feel the affection for
black that I feel for Snape. (Pity for his wasted life, yes.) It's a
matter of taste, of course, but I want Snape to have a chance to apply
his many talents to benefitting the WW (a chance that Black didn't
have because he chose to chase after Wormtail).

I'll just say that I was trying and still am trying to think of
favorite Sirius Black moments to post to the main list, and the only
one I can think of is him in dog form in GoF wagging his tail and
leading the way to the cave, where he has (quite deliberately, I
think) been living off rats. Let's just say that the rest of the time
I prefer our acerbic but courageous Severus, who shows Fudge his Dark
Mark to persuade him to believe that LV is back and refuses to
cooperate with Umbridge and all that. But absolutely, we'll still be
debating him after DH regardless of the almost-certain revelation that
his loyalties lie with Dumbledore, which I would bet on if I were a
betting person because I think the odds are very high in its favor.

Carol, who thinks that the bookies would do well to read the "bookies"
before taking bets on who will kill Harry rather than whether Harry
will live