Who is the boy?/ Harry's Funeral

[nobodysrib]

No: HPFGUIDX 54092

> Grace said:
> 
> >Has anyone noticed that the quote suggest that Harry, or 
>whomever, 
> >wasn't alone at first, but that he was left alone?  As if >there 
was a 
> >gathering outside and everyone decided to go inside.
> 
> >"The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was >lying 
flat on
> >his back in a flowerbed outside number four." 

How about this:  The book opens with a third person description (no 
mention of Harry) of a group of people (perhaps including Hermione, 
Ron, Dumbledore, Sirius, etc.) standing huddled in a circle on the 
front lawn of the Dursely house.  They are standing tightly together, 
so we can't see what they are standing around.  They look sad, 
Hermione is crying, and they exchange murmured phrases.  One by one 
they disperse... and... "The only person left outside was a teenage 
boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number 
four."   <Gasp!>  Harry's eyes flash open as this image wakes him 
from sleeping, and he tries to shake off the dream/nightmare he's 
been having for the last month; there are different variations of it 
(location, people in it), but it always ends the same way, with his 
funeral.

Considering GoF ended with Harry having his most extreme Voldemort 
encounter and also watching a friend die, I don't think it would be a 
stretch for him to have nightmares about it.  This also sets up Harry 
to be in a situation where he can replay the events (for plot recap, 
and to show us how he's been emotionally dealing with the events), as 
well as showing that Harry's been thinking about death.  (Didn't JKR 
say that Harry was going to be examining death in a new way?  Makes 
sense to me that part of this theme could be established early on.)

Just a thought.

- Nobody's Rib