Hermione dying???

[jferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 37509

Columbiatexan:"To put it very badly, Harry NEEDS Hermione to do the 
research for him; she's his fountain of information, a human Internet/
portable reference."

Good post. Hermione is, indeed, Harry's coach and trainer, the one 
person who uses intellect to prepare the man of action for his trials. 
She doesn't just research for Harry, she drills him in the skills 
he'll need. Harry is the example of pure talent, a "natural" at magic. 
Hermione has plenty of talent but isn't a natural. She's the exemplar 
of what application can do.

I agree that Hermione will survive, because she's the female hero of 
the tale.

Columbiatexan:"Hermione's safe not b/c Rowling doesn't want to kill 
herself, but because she's Rowling's way of feeding Harry information, 
logic, reason, and even-tempered thinking."

To me that's the argument for Hermione *being* killed. In the end, JKR 
is going to force Harry to face Voldemort again alone. She's already 
given us a taste for that in "Priori Incantatem," the one trial 
Harry couldn't specifically prepare for. He's not going to have 
Dumbledore, or Ron, or even Hagrid; he's going to have to carry on 
when all hope seems gone.

Colubiatexan:"[my best friend] listed a lot of characters whom she 
thought were expendable, but I don't think all the characters who die 
in the next few books will be expendable, at least not if Rowling is 
going to be true to the story.  She has to kill characters we care 
about to get across to the readers how truly evil Voldemort is, the 
kind of anguish the wizarding world is going through at the time."

Right. the notion that fighting evil has a price, that good people and 
close friends die, is a major theme of Rowling's. The deaths are going 
to hurt, and Harry will suffer. A lot.