Chances of Being Alive at the End of Book Seven

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 82439

Robert wrote:
> (1) Dumbledore:  He has to be alive at the end of Book 6 to have his 
> annual talk with Harry, but JKR is making him look older and older.  
> Also, Harry cannot have backup of such a powerful wizard in his 
> final battle with LV if he is to be a hero.
> 
urghiggi:
Yep, he's toast. OR -- he's not dead, but he's not there for the big showdown, 
either, for some convoluted reason...... Really, "gone but not forgotten" would 
be preferable, I think, to simply "missing the climax."


> (2) Ron:  The clue is his expertise in Wizards Chess and the 
> sacrifice he made in the chess game at the end of PS/SS.  He will 
> transfer his skills in chess to become a leader in Dumbledore's 
> Army.  And in the final battle, he will sacrifice himself for real 
> so that Harry can get to LV.  (JKR is preparing Molly Weasley for 
> the death of at least one of her children with the Boggart in OOTP.)

urghiggi:
Alas, I too fear that Ron may be doomed. If you subscribe to the seer!Ron 
hypothesis, he is definitely doomed. Remember in OoP where he made a 
joke about seeing the tea leaves in Divination spell out "die, Ron, die?" My 
heart sank when I read that, since he has a pretty danged good track record 
with these joke prophecies. On the other hand, this also means that Arthur is 
destined to be the head of the MoM -- foretold by Ron in the joke prophecy 
where he said Gryffindor had as much chance of winning the Quiddich cup as 
Arthur had of becoming head of the MoM. Gryffindor did ultimately win the 
cup.... you connect the dots.

I keep hoping against hope that "die Ron die" is a red herring, inserted to 
tweak JKR's fans who are "on" to the whole seer!Ron phenomenon. 

BUT I also subscribe to the "Harry lives" theory -- that JKR's long saga of 
character development would be pretty pointless if all that effort and anguish 
just led to Harry's physical death, even if it were a triumphant/sacrificial death. 
OTOH, I think she is very into the message that victory is hard, requiring 
teamwork and sacrifice, and that in the end even victory may be bittersweet 
(the Frodo phenomenon -- "I won, but I can't be happy..."). Ron's death, esp if 
he deliberately sacrifices himself, would be consistent with a "Harry wins but 
the price is huge" scenario. 

This function could also be fulfilled by Neville, which would probably be more 
palatable to most (maybe not all) readers. 

As a Ron-Hermione SHIPper, I'm also left wondering who Hermione would 
end up with if Ron dies. I can't see the Harry-Herm thing; at this point there 
appears to be no spark there whatsoever; they're more like close siblings. 
And none of the other characters fits the bill. Viktor I think was a fling. So ... 
would she end up teaching at Hogwarts, a brilliant mentor but presumably 
permanently unmarried, like McGonagall? (Or maybe she'd marry a yet-
unintroduced muggle or wizard. Or maybe she'd turn to Harry for comfort after 
the death of Ron, and they'd be drawn together by their mutual grief. Or 
maybe, as I've seen proposed on a slash site, she discovers she's gay and 
hooks up with Luna....)

One would hope there would at least be a moment for Ron & Hermione to 
acknowledge their powerful attraction for each other, before Ron shuffles off 
this mortal coil.

urghiggi, Chgo