Greater and More Terrible Than ever before

[greg_a126]

No: HPFGUIDX 40829

Ok, this whole post is based on Professor Trelawney's prediction in 
PoA that Volemort is going to rise, greater and more terrible than 
ever before.  

As I see it, there are four possible outcomes to the 7th Harry 
Potter book, they are:
1. Harry, Dumbledore, Sirius, the Weasley's and everyone else 
important except for Voldemort is dead, Voldemort's won the war & 
acheived immortality.  Wow, what a bad ending this would be.  I just 
don't see it happening.
2. The outcome of the war is inconclusive.  Harry & Voldemort are 
both still alive, both still battling it out.  Again, how awful 
would this be?  Not gonna happen.
3. Harry & Voldemort are both dead, but the "good guys" have won the 
war.  J.K.R. hasn't ruled out a dead Harry at the end of book 7, but 
I for one, would think this ending to be relatively awful, but 
that's a different post for a different day.
4.  Harry wins by the end of his seventh year of school, Voldemort's 
dead, the Death Eaters all go to prison.  Of the four, I think this 
is the most likely, just because we happen to know that there's only 
going to be seven books, something the characters can't "know".

So in other words, Voldemort's going to be coming back, and he's 
going to be "greater and more terrible than ever before", but he's 
only got 3 years to do it.  During his first rise to power, he had 
11 years, and in that time he became so powerful and so terrible 
that people nearly 15 years after his defeat are still afraid to say 
his name.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, a great big part of the 
word "terrible" is the word "terror".  People can't be terrified of 
someone they don't know exists.  So as far as I'm concerned, Fudge 
is playing into Voldemort's hands.  The first time people hear of 
Voldemort's rebirth is going to be something like Voldemort 
attacking and taking over the MoM.  People who have thought he's 
still dead are going to wake up one morning and realize that he's in 
charge of the Ministry.

Secondly, by the time the first war was nearing its end (unbeknownst 
to those actually fighting in it) there were only two things that 
gave people hope, Hogwarts was still open, and Dumbledore, the only 
wizard Voldemort feared, was still alive and kicking.  Now, fourteen 
years later, there are two other things, that are as powerful, if 
not even more so than Hogwarts + Dumbledore.  1. Harry Potter, the 
Boy-Who-Lived.  and the one that I think is the most important, 2. 
The knowledge that Voldemort can be defeated.  

Hope during a war is an extremely powerful thing.  Fifteen years 
ago, wizards and witches lived in fear of Voldemort, and they had no 
idea what-so-ever whether or not he could ever be defeated.  Now, 
they know that if he can't be permanently defeated, at least he can 
be banished for a great period of time.  Mothers have some hope that 
they might be able to save their children should Voldemort come to 
their house.  

IMO, in order for Voldemort to become "more terrible than ever 
before" he's going to have to eliminate these 4 things giving 
witches & wizards hope.  

First, DUMBLEDORE HAS TO DIE.  Hagrid can't be the only person to 
have the sentiment that Dumbledore's a great man and as long as we 
have him we'll be ok.  The elimination of Dumbledore will be a blow 
to the wizarding world unlike anything else I can imagine.

J.K.R. has said that Harry's going to finish all 7 years at 
Hogwarts, and that means that Voldemort can't take the school over.  
In, addition, the knowledge that Voldemort was once defeated can be 
defeated can't just be eliminated from people's memory.  Entirely 
too many memory charms, even for Voldemort.

And so the fourth thing is Harry Potter.  I decided at the top that 
I don't think Harry can die.  I think it would just completely 
defeat the purpose of the whole series, which I think is good vs. 
evil.  If Harry dies, even if his death defeats Voldemort what 
message does that send?  Harry's had to make sacrifices his whole 
life because of evil.  Live with his horrible relatives, be 
completely cut off from the magic world until his 11th birthday, and 
if he had to sacrifice growing old, falling in love, and finally one 
day have a family of his own just because of Voldemort, what kind of 
message would that be?  So he can't die.  But what can happen to 
him?  

First, I think the work Rita Skeeter started isn't going to stop w/ 
her.  Fudge knows that in his 3rd year Harry thought that Sirius 
Black was innocent, that he can speak to snakes, & so when people 
start disappearing rather than admit it's b/c Voldemort is back, I 
think he's going to try & tie it to Sirius Black & by extension 
Harry.  If the wizarding world believes that the reason Voldemort 
came to Godric's Hollow was b/c he thought Harry would one day grow 
to become a powerful Dark Wizard, that virtually eliminates any hope 
they'd be receiving when they find out the truth.  And let's face 
it, based on the reaction of their children in CoS I think a similar 
response from mom & dad is equally likely.  These kids had to learn 
*somewhere* that people who spoke to snakes were evil.  Tom Riddle 
said that he & Harry were likely the only 2 Parselmouths to attend 
the school since Slytherin himself.  Since it doesn't come around 
all that often, yet almost everyone seemed to be aware of the evil 
Parselmouths, it must be something that their parents had taught 
them.  

Secondly, I think someone running around in Polyjuice as Harry, 
doing some pretty awful things would help as well.  Even if he had 
an airtight alibi, I think the wizarding world is the type that 
says, "Never mind the facts, I know the truth."  

But I've had this stuff on my mind for a while, glad to get some of 
it down.  Looking forward to feed back.  :)

Greg