Harry's 21st

[mcandrew at bigpond.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22609

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder (as if you needed it) that Harry's twenty first 
birthday is only a couple of weeks away!  Is anyone planning a 
special event to celebrate the occasion?  (I can't – I'll be
at work as usual)

Do others in the list spend time thinking about what Harry might be 
doing by now?  A couple of my preferred scenarios are either –
that he's spending a year or two in the Far East as a Muggle, as
far away as he can get from all the painful memories associated with 
familiar places... perhaps having suffered temporary loss of magical 
powers as a result of his last deadly combat with Voldemort... (what 
a blow that would be to Harry!  Although I have to admit it's not 
really a likely ending, as I think somebody mentioned JKR saying in 
an interview that Harry would have `some fun with Dudley' at
the end of the story, implying that his magical powers would still be 
intact, if it's the sort of fun I'm thinking of)

Or – (my current favourite) - maybe he has become Snape's
apprentice potion maker, a future professor himself and ultimately
Dumbledore's successor as headmaster of Hogwarts, linchpin and
moral arbiter of the wizarding world?  Maybe a bit far fetched, but 
we know JKR's love of unexpected plot twists - and I'm hoping
that Harry's relationship with Snape will have improved enough,
by the end of the story, to make something like this possible.  I can 
just see them snarling at each other over the cauldron on a Bad 
Potion Day.  I hugely enjoy the hostile interaction between my two 
favourite characters, but hope it will at least take a different 
direction as their relationship continues to develop – especially
in view of the revelations that each of them receives about the other 
in the final chapters of GoF. (When  Snape, on hearing of the
evening's events, for the first time probably sees Harry as
something more than a pesky rulebreaking troublemaking schoolboy who 
he is regularly forced to save from the results of his own foolish 
behaviour; while Harry, on the other hand, might have a much better 
appreciation of Snape's courage - and his perilous situation - as
a reformed Death Eater who is willing to put himself back in danger as
Dumbledore's spy, even though according to Voldemort `he will
be killed, of course'(I think Harry would have sussed out that
Voldemort was referring to Snape with this remark).

Either way – or whatever else Harry may be doing at the moment
– I hope he'll be able to get home for the massive party
which I suspect the Weasleys are planning to throw for his 21st, 
assisted of course by generous Ministry of Magic funding as a mark of 
appreciation for Harry's services to the wizarding community.  
Entertainment and fireworks courtesy of the Weird Sisters and 
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Jokeshop; he'll be able to catch up with
all his friends, and it'll be a good opportunity for him to mix
with some female company (and a certain young lady in particular).  
(Have to make my preference known here...suffice it to say I can see 
grown-up Harry later on with a little tribe of redhaired kids in 
glasses)

cheers,

Lama