Will Harry Die?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 89168

 "sawsan_issa" wrote:
> Here's a thought, I read something that is small and could even not be
> anything worth mentioning, but I read a line that seems to make me
> think that Harry might live after all.
> 
> In chapter 16 of PS/SS: the first line reads "In years to come, Harry
> would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams
> when he half expected Voldemort to come..."
>,snip>
> 
> Sawsan

I agree with you that the sentence swerves strangely away from the
usual Harry-at-the-present-moment point of view and it jarred me when
I read it, as if JKR were giving away the ending of the books. I also
agree that "in years to come" doesn't sound like "a few years later
when he was in his seventh year." It sounds more like a mature Harry
of at least forty-something reflecting on his youth. And note "never,"
which suggests an infinite or near-infinite number of years. It
undoubtedly means "never in his lifetime," but paired with "in years
to come" and what appears to be JKR's own omniscient perspective
rather than the juvenile Harry's POV, I'd say that, yes, this is the
best hint we've had that Harry will survive. Either that or we can
regard the narrator as altogether unreliable, which I don't think is
the case. I tend to think that the times when she shifts away from
Harry's present perspective are the times when we can most trust her.
(Even when she reports Mr. Dursley's thoughts in SS/PS chapter 1,
we're not seeing from his perspective.) If I'm right and the narrator
is reliable here, then Harry will survive into the Epilogue.

Carol