What if Harry dies?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 85104

Didn't we just touch on this subject in OTC recently?  Oh, well, I'm 
ready to weigh in again!

Melody wrote:
> See, if JKR wants to kill Harry I expect it to be very well done.  
In
> fact, so well done I will be frozen over the book, not breathing,
> barely blinking processing it all.  
> 
> For me, Harry is well primed to die right now.  He has been isolated
> well from the other students and brought into the melancholy
> "save-the-world" hero mode.  Well illustrated when he ignored the
> end-of-year feast.  Harry is not normal anymore.
<snip>
> So, killing Harry seems gracious to me almost.  To me, he will never
> be normal.  

Annemehr:
Well, I agree with everything you said *except* that killing Harry 
would be gracious.

Okay, first and most importantly, I do want JKR to write the story 
she always meant to. But that understood, I don't want Harry to die.  
I don't see that having been set apart and having suffered so much 
already would necessarily make life not worth living.  So what if he 
never quite has a "normal" life; does that necessarily mean he could 
never have a good one?

As we read, we understand more and more that Harry has lived a life 
bounded by and crushed under the evil of Voldemort.  I would really 
like to see him get out from under that and live before he dies.  
He's never had that before, and goodness knows he's earned it.  If 
all his peace and rest are to come after his death, of course that's 
still good, but it would put it beyond where we could follow -- and I 
for one would like to experience some of it with him, in black and 
white, on the page.

Besides, this low point we are left in with Harry now is two books 
from the end (though quite possibly as little as a book and a half 
from Voldemort's end).  There is time for Harry to become more than 
only the "marked man" whose only purpose is to stop the Dark Lord.

So, I do see that it may be true that Harry will have to sacrifice 
himself.  And it will be a very great sacrifice for all concerned (us 
included).  It could be a very profound and glorious ending.  I'll 
trust JKR for it, either way.

I just hope I don't get my heart broken.

Annemehr

"I am /not/ going to be murdered," Harry said out loud.
"That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily.