What if Harry dies?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85396

Joj wrote: 
>   We've been discussing whether Harry should die or not, but I think
I have a slightly different reason for wanting Harry to live.
> 
>   First, let's imagine we have just finished reading the 7th book. 
No matter how great or exciting or fulfilling it may be, I ,for one,
will certainly feel depressed.  All questions should be answered (well
major ones anyway).  There will be no more clues to uncover and
dissect and theorize endlessly.  It will be the end of an enjoyable
part of my life.
> 
>   Now, if we get Dead Harry, we won't even get to imagine his
future.  I want to be able to speculate and imagine and fantasize
about Harry's future, based on clues from the epilogue.  Fan-fictions
wont be so fun without Harry, or "let's pretend he didn't die"
theories or ghost Harry stories.  What will all us Harry Potter freaks
do with our free time?
> 
>   It would be so final, so finished, so depressing.
> 
>   I want Harry to live on and on and on.....
> 
>   Joj

I think JKR would feel the same way, which is one reason I'm betting
she won't kill Harry. It will be even harder for her to let go than
for us, and she may find herself writing that eighth book after all. I
hope she writes "A History of Hogwarts," at least. Think of the
material that would provide for speculation, fantasy, and fan fic. I
firmly believe that, whatever her rights as an author to determine her
own protagonist's fate (and please, friends, don't give me that
argument again because I already know what you're going to say), she'd
be doing fandom a great disservice by killing Harry. Speaking solely
for myself and not to argue with anyone, I don't want him to be
killed.

I don't want an LOTR-style, ending, either. Imagine having him sail
off into the Uttermost West or some WW equivalent and having "Harry
Lives!" posters in the London Underground and the New York City
subways. And I don't want him to walk through the veil to some
mysterious death that is "better" than life. No. Please. Just make him
an auror, along with his best friends, and give him a reasonably
normal but not a boring future, with a chance to accomplish something
worthwhile. (I don't want him to be like Frodo, saving the Shire/WW
for others but unable to find happiness there himself.)

How about making him Minister of Magic, a reformer who brings justice
to the WW legal system, which is badly in need of reform? No more
corruption in the MoM, no more bribes from Lucius Malfoy and his ilk,
no more expulsion for underage magic, no more imprisonment without
trial, no more prisons where the prisoners go mad, no more
estrangement from muggles. Well, I'm dreaming on that last one. But a
happy ending that's both imaginative and unsentimental *is* possible,
and would be a more significant literary accomplishment than yet
another work in which the hero dies. Whatever the ending, it had
better be satisfying to all of us because as Joj indicates, it's all
we're going to get, alas!

Carol, who is glad we have the HP films, uncanonical though they are,
because otherwise it would be very hard to hold out till books 6 and 7