Re: Harry’s fate according to the bookies ("Moby Dick" spoiler and all)

[justcarol67]

Carol earlier:

> <<  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"? >>
> 
Catlady:
> I am very much afraid that *will* happen in book 7, and I strongly
expect Hermione to be the one survivor who writes the story as a
series of novels.

Carol again:
I think your worries are groundless. Yes, a few characters will die,
some of them fan favorites (Hagrid and a Weasley and maybe poor Luna
or Susan Bones), but the whole WW won't be wiped out. Hogwarts witll
still exist, so the WW is not wiped out:

"JKR: <snip> I will tell you that one of the characters - er - one of
- one of Harry's class mates, though it's not Harry himself, does end
up a teacher at Hogwarts, but it is not maybe the one you'd think -
hint, hint, hint! So, yes one of them does end up staying at Hogwarts,
but - erm ... 
<snip>
Kathleen: Do you like to have a guess at who it is?
Class: Ron.
<snip>
JKR: Noooo - it's not Ron ... because I can't see Ron as a teacher, no
way.
 http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-connectiontransc2.htm#p24

Notice that she doesn't imply that Ron won't survive, only that he
won't be a teacher. (He's expressed a desire to become an Auror, and I
think he'll get his wish. Otherwise, why have both boys take Potions
in HBP?) "Maybe not the one you'd think" seems to rule out Hermione as
the teacher, so I think it must be Neville as Herbology teacher. But
*someone* of Harry's age survives to teach there, so many others of
around the same age must survive to produce the next generaltion of
students.

Also, of course, the genre conventions I've mentioned suggest that the
protagonist and his two best friends and, alas, even Ginny, will
survive and that only a few important characters will be killed.
(Pathos loses its effect when the deaths become too numerous. The HP
books aren't a video game in which life and death are meaningless.)

At any rate, there would be no point in writing an epilogue about the
survivors if there were no survivors, no favorite characters whose
fates we care about to summarize. Here's what JKR actually said about it:

"JKR: This is the thing that I was very dubious about showing you, and
I don't really know why because what does this give away? [It's a big
folder] But this is the Final Chapter of book seven. Um ... [laughs]
which I'm still dubious about showing you, I don't know what I feel
like, the camera's gonna be able to see through the folder. So this is
it, and I'm not opening it for obvious reasons. This is really where I
wrap everything up, it's the Epilogue, and I basically say what
happens to everyone after they leave school -- those who survive,
because there are deaths, more deaths, coming. It was a way of saying
to myself, Well, "you will get here, you will get to book seven, one
day. And ... then you'll need this!" 

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1201-bbc-hpandme.htm

So "more deaths" are coming, including, evidently, those of some
Hogwarts students, but the longish chapter (it's a big folder) relates
what happens to "*everyone* [who survives] after they leave school." I
hope "everyone" includes teachers and families as well as kids. I
desperately want to know what happens to Snape (assuming he doesn't
pull a Boromir and die nobly repentant).

So my feeling is, no lone survivor telling the tale. (How could
Hermione go back and write the story from Harry's pov? She'd use her
own.) Lots of survivors, including both Hogwarts students and
teachers, along with Hogwarts itself, which is almost a character in
the books (and all its ghosts)--enough to fill a satisfyingly long
epilogue.

Carol, not at all afraid that JKR will kill "all but one" and
suspecting that more than four deaths of characters we care about
would cause most readers to stop reading in anger and disgust