HP character costumes, end of the HP series

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 32532

Elizabeth
>(who has been asked to appear as Trelawney at her young nephew's Harry Potter
themed birthday party-- but only accepted because the part of McGonnagal was
already spoken for)<

I personally think that Trelawney would be **much** more fun than McGonagall... McGonagall has her moments, but she's altogether too prim and stern and conservative to be a good character for a party costume.  Trelawney, on the other hand, is a wonderful caricature: hours of fun draping gauzy scarves and jingling jewellery and sequins around one's body, not to mention putting on that gloriously silly spooky voice and predicting tragic fates for everyone at the party... yeahhh, that's the stuff!  I could even be persuaded to do a Lockhart impression in drag if I was feeling silly enough, and could find an appropriately awful coiffed blond wig (though I still think Trelawney would be more entertaining).  I am a firm believer in getting into the spirit of things when it comes to dress-up parties.  People who turn up in normal clothes... pah!

What are people's thoughts?  Which HP character would you dress as for a party, and why?  (Tabouli peeks nervously over her shoulder at the Mods, wondering if this is canonical enough for the main list)

As for how the series will end (adjusts the focus of her Inner Eye), I think my current best guess is the ol' Lord of the Rings trick... Voldemort is defeated, Harry survives but at terrible cost.  All indications so far suggest that at the very least this cost will include the deaths of several people he cares for, leaving him empty and grief-stricken.  Perhaps also something worse.

To counterbalance the tragic damaged Harry limping into a grim future, JKR will probably need to give him a lot of consolatory small blessings.  Pick your favorite ship, perhaps... I suspect a survivor-Harry will be in need of a strong supportive woman to soothe his nightmares and weep on the shoulder of (if he can bring himself to cry by then... perhaps this would be a poignant note to sound near the end of the series... Harry finally develops the strength to show weakness).  So far, risks Tabouli, I think the best candidate for the job would have to be Hermione (which rather shifts the Grim onto Ron): Ginny would need to grow a *lot* more oomph to take this job on.

I also strongly suspect that Harry will finally put the Dursleys in their place, not angrily and resentfully, as he is doing in his early teens (age-appropriately enough), but coolly and calmly, having diminished them at last to the pitiable creatures they are, in the face of far darker and more powerful foes.  Given JKR's hint that Dudley might undergo a radical change, by then Dudley might have matured and gained enough perspective to respect and understand Harry's actions... who knows?

Now.  Why do I suspect a LOTR-style win-but-at-terrible-cost?

Mostly writerly instinct, I must admit.  The overall style of the series to date would not, IMO, allow for Harry to lose.  It just would not work.  (for a start, Voldemort hardly seems up to much as a foe in encounters to date, on-stage he's a comic book villain, another marker which says "children's series" to me).  It might allow for him to die, but only if he wins in the process and the death occurs right near the end of the series (my odds on Harry surviving Book 7 are higher then Elizabeth's... 70% or so).  On the other hand, the tone of the four existing books is definitely darkening.  For JKR to suddenly swing the series around and have a triumphantly happy glorious ending with all ends neatly tied off and everyone running into the sunset with their beloved would be jarring and implausible (besides which, she's already directly said she'll be darkening further and killing off some important characters).  That's fairy tale land, not coming-of-age series.

Which leaves us with the default option... somewhere between catastrophic loss and glorious victory.  There needs to be a balance of loss and gain: maturity and self-knowledge comes at a cost.  Like Cindy, I have a bloodthirsty streak... the complete destruction of the secret Wizarding World and the compulsory repatriation of all wizards into Muggledom... yeah!  Now *that* would be fascinating, though quite a feat for JKR to accomplish in one book (though she did say that Book 7 will be the longest of all...).  You'd probably have to balance it with all of the Trio surviving, and the tables being turned on Ron: Hermione and Harry lead him into the Muggle world to help him forge a new life in the world he has always despised.  OK, so long odds, but it would certainly make for an epic conclusion!

Conversely, if Harry were to die, the victory has to be more complete to justify the sacrifice (e.g. thanks to Harry, the Death-Eaters are disbanded, the Dursleys are reformed, the Dementors are slain, the House-Elves are liberated, the Wizarding World is saved, Hermione and Ron stumble sadly into the sunset together, and Hogwarts names their new wing after him and replaces the Fat Lady with a portrait of Harry, etc.etc.), unless JKR is really going for the jugular in the death and devastation stakes.  Possible, but I'll wait to see the tone of Book 5 the Eternally Delayed before making any commitments to odds.

Thoughts?

Tabouli.


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