OoP - Harry's Chances of Surviving Book 7

[Robert A. Rosenberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 66708

As most of us here know, during the JKR Webcast one of the questions 
was about JKR writing a book/books about Harry post-graduation to 
which she replied (to the effect) "What makes you think he will 
survive?".

I have not yet read OoP so you must take these observations based on 
my old having read the first 4 books. If anything happens/is-said in 
OoP to invalidate these comments, I apologize.

I do not know what has already been said here about this topic but 
most of the news reports only report the shock from the audience at 
this reply (and do not analyze the reply itself). In my Opinion, a 
BETTER response would have been to ask "What makes you think Harry 
lives though Book 7?".

While at first glance they seem to be different ways of asking the 
same question, they are not. The former starts with the assumption 
that there is no reason to think that Harry is going to die as a 
result of the final battle with LV. The latter starts with the 
assumption that Harry will need to die to neutralize LV.

Given the Series Set-Up and standard Mythos (which the books are a 
retelling of), the latter is the usual result. To combat an "Ultimate 
Evil" you need an "Ultimate Good" and one will rise to meet this need 
(the Cosmic Balance "Rule"). The "Final Battle" in this type of 
Mythos requires one of the following outcomes: 1)The two adversaries 
Kill/Neutralize each other in the Battle [Thus Preserving the 
Balance]; 2) That the Good Warrior dies as the result of the Battle 
(ie: From wounds, loss of Life Energy, etc.); or 3) That since there 
is no more need for the Ultimate Good, S/He must be removed to keep 
the Cosmic Balance and prevent the rise of a newer "Ultimate Evil" 
triggered by the continued existence of the "Ultimate Good" (the "My 
Job Here is Done - Good-Bye" Scenario/Rule).

I know I might be being too simplistic in this analysis but the above 
tends to be the way the plotlines are written. What do others think?