[HPforGrownups] OotP, Harry Dying

[shall at sfiweb.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 25031

>Harry may temporarily die and will need to harrow hell (as many 
>heroes do, Hercules, for example). 

I don't think the idea of temporary death fits in with JKR's philosophy.   Furthermore, in the Christian tradition there is only one harrowing of hell, which is carried out by Christ in the three days between Good Friday and Easter Monday, and consists of bringing out the good who died before Christ's birth, and who would otherwise miss out on the chance of redemption.  Suggesting that Harry can harrow hell, alliterative as it sounds, will I am afraid cause theological mayhem.  Herakles and co do not in fact die, temporarily or otherwise, when they descend to the Underworld in Greek mythology, although the shades they meet there are not dissimilar to what appears out of the end of Voldemort's wand during the Priori Incantatem sequence - we are definitely told that whatever these things are, they are neither ghosts nor souls.

Susan