TBAY: Stoned Harry & Who Will Definitely Survive?

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 38599

Oh.

Oh dear.  

I'm not sure I have the stomach for this.  I might have to 
reconsider the whole FEATHERBOA thing.  I mean, it was one thing to 
consider the ambush of faceless characters like Rosier and Wilkes.  
Now, you people are trying to *behead* a delightful orphan who just 
happens to be the star of the whole series.  How could you?

Well, let me see if I can be of any assistance.  But if I'm going to 
help behead Harry, I need a better fish than a CARP.  Something 
capable of actually beheading someone:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<")))))><

A swordfish.  Especially for Dicey.

************************  

Eloise (about the means of Harry's Hideous Demise):

> By your reasong above, that would be...erm....crucifixion. Just 
how gruesome 
> can the end of this series be? OTOH, if we're going to keep on 
making 
> Christian parallels, Christ did predict the manner of his own 
death, 
> according to John's gospel (12; 32), so perhaps Dicentra's right 
and 
> decapitation it is. 

Oh, it's worse than that, Eloise.  Far worse.  

What charm did Ron master in GoF?  

"[H]e used a Severing Charm on the ruff and cuffs.  It worked fairly 
well; at least he was now lace-free, although he hadn't done a very 
neat job, and the edges still looked depressingly frayed . . . "

Especially creepy is that Ron used a Severing Charm on the *ruff*.  
Sure, it wasn't perfect, but slicing off someone's head doesn't have 
to be perfect, does it?

<cue the Tabernacle Choir>

Need more evidence that someone is going to lose their head?  What 
happens in PoA, I ask?  How is Buckbeak to be executed?  Of all the 
ways JKR could have chosen to kill Buckbeak, she chose *beheading*.  

<shuts doors to only exit so that weak-kneed list members cannot 
flee>

Still not convinced?  What is the thing Professor Trelawney wants 
Harry to see in the crystal ball during his divination exam?  Yup, 
that's right.  A beheading!  A beheading from which Harry *saves* 
Buckbeak!

<passes the collection plate, glares disapprovingly at tightfisted 
list members>

Eloise:

> Well, I guess we could have some kind of cataclysmic ending, where 
Harry dies 
> not by a direct action of Ron's, but in a way somehow facilitated 
by Ron and 
> which mercifully takes him out at the same time (we wouldn't want 
Ron to 
> survive, knowing he was the agent of Harry's death, would we?). 
> 
> OTOH, carrying on with the parallels, if Ron somehow betrays 
Harry, then 
> perhaps he could equate to Judas, who kills himself on the day of 
the 
> crucifixion, although I'd be much happier (so to speak) to see Ron 
going down 
> *with* Harry. The other is too much. Unless, of course, it is Evil!
Ron. Ooh, 
> er...perhaps that's what I'm arguing for.

Oh, but there is another parallel.  What Biblical figure was 
beheaded?  I think there was only one -- John the Baptist!  So Harry 
is the sacrifical lamb, and Ron is John the Baptist, who, er . . . 
um, . . . 

<consults Cliffnotes Bible>

Uh, a little help here?  I need a Biblical parable where two figures 
are killed while fighting on a swaying catwalk over a river of 
molten lava.

Eloise:
 
> It was Ron's fake wand that decapitated Harry's. Perhaps it will 
be his real 
> wand that kills Harry. Perhaps Voldemort will use Ron's wand (as 
his own, of 
> course, won't work against Harry's) and in the act of killing 
Harry kill 
> himself (or render himself able to be killed) by dint of whatever 
connection 
> there is between them.

Oh.  My.  Goodness!  This is so perfect.  Eloise, we just have to 
figure out how to have Harry and Ron die together -- at the same 
instant, and we'll be right there.

Wow!  Having Ron's spiffy new wand -- the wand Ron received after 
breaking his old wand on an adventure with Harry -- be the 
instrument of Harry's demise would be so darn ironic.

Eloise:

> Ooh........ I think I'm groping towards something here. Is this 
another of 
> these clash of world view things? The desire for eternal 
(physical) life vs. 
> the desire for eternal (spiritual) life. Something in the ' He 
that loveth 
> his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world 
shall keep 
> it unto life eternal.' (John, 12; 25) vein? Is it Voldemort's 
insatiable 
> desire for physical life which will be his undoing, whilst Harry's 
embracing 
> of the 'next great adventure' which will be his salvation? 

Oh, yes.  I am so totally sold.  Harry won't be immortal in the 
physical sense (where's the Bang in that?), but he will be immortal 
in the spiritual sense, where it really counts.  That way, the 
people who don't want Harry to die can watch his spirit live on, 
while my FEATHERBOAS will be satisfied.  A perfect compromise!

Eloise:

> And surely Harry can't just die, however heroically. Even dying to 
rid the WW 
> of Voldemort is anti-climactic in a sense, isn't it? I mean, it's 
heroic, and 
> supremely good and all that, but in a way it's negative, it's a 
ridding of 
> the world of an evil without replacing it by a positive good. 

I don't think I fully understand the idea that a sacrifice has to 
result in something good beyond the immediate benefit of the 
sacrifice.  I mean, Lily sacrificed herself for Harry and rid the 
world of evil by reducing Voldemort to a noxious fume, and I don't 
think there was any positive good that filled the void.  Maybe we 
can think of it as a straight downsizing?  ;-)

BTW, this whole discussion of Harry's beheading has made me wonder 
who, if anyone, we are *absolutely* confident will survive the 
series.  My list of Survivors is actually quite short.  I'm thinking 
that the minor teachers (Flitwick, Sprout) and McGonagall are safe.  
No way will JKR kill McGonagall, I think.  Everyone else probably 
should watch their backs.

Cindy (wondering how to draw some loaves to go with the fishes)