Harry will die

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 104315

Alla wrote:
 
> I disagree. More and more with every statement of Rowling lately, 
I 
> think that Harry is going to live at the end. (Well, I really want 
it 
> to be true, but this is irrelevant, of course)
> 
> Her recent statement on the website about "wording a prophecy very 
> carefully", etc. tells me that she is planning to spare harry at 
the 
> end.
will.

I agree with what you've said, Alla. I think Rowling is setting us 
up to believe that Harry will die, because at some point in the 
series Harry will believe that he has to die. That way, if Harry 
spends many long nights contemplating his own "essential" death we 
can't say 'But he's the main character, he *can't* die.' We will 
say 'JKR hinted this might happen.' If death is a real possibilty, 
then real suspense is created. (One of the reasons, when reading CoS 
for the first time, I was thinking 'Harry can't die! There's 20 
pages to go! And isn't there another book after this one?)

The question on her website states:
"Q: The prophecy Harry hears in Dumbledore's office suggests to me 
that both he and Voldemort will have to die, is that true?
A: Both Madam Trelawney and I worded the prophecy extremely 
carefully and that is all I have to say on the subject!"

The very fact that she posted this question on her website confirms, 
for me, that it *won't* happen. Why would she post the secret to the 
whole series on her website? She could have very easily chosen to 
answer a question about the prophecy with far more ambiguous wording 
such as- 'Can you explain the prophecy to me?' in which the 
reply 'Both Madam Trelawney... etc' would have been equally 
applicable. She purposely rasied the concept of both Harry and 
Voldemort dying for a reason.

However, in OotP Harry is yet to reach that conclusion. He still 
believes it has to be one or the other who will die. Why does she 
raise a possible explaination tot he prophecy when the main 
character is yet to reach it?

I believe at some time during the course of the series, Harry will 
reach the same conclusion that some fans have- that both he and 
Voldemort will need to die. He will then have to come to grips will 
his own death, and will *willingly sacrifice* his own life to stop 
Voldemort. I think it will be much more powerful for Harry to stop 
Voldemort when he believes that he himself will also lose his own 
life. If, for instance, he reaches the conclusion that he will 
definitely not die in his battle against Voldemort, then it is 
robbed of danger and suspense. So, I think in order for the final 
battle between Harry and Voldemort to have as much impact as 
possible, we need Harry to walk into it believe this is the last 
hour of his life (A bit like him standing up from behind the grave 
at the end of GoF- he believes that he will die, so is prepared to 
to it fighting). Of course, I don't believe that he will actually 
lose it. I even think Dumbledore doesn't understand that Harry 
doesn't need to die, yet.

This is the same reason why Rowling always slyly answers questions 
about whether she will write any books about Harry's children with 
the answer- 'But how do you know he will survive to have children?' 
I think we are meant to believe that Harry will die, because Harry 
will believe he has to die. He will believe that the only way he can 
end a meglomaniac's reign of terror is by sacrificing his own life, 
and true to his Gryffindor courage, he will eventually be prepared 
to meet that demand. Only, something about the wording of the 
prophecy will save him.

So, I believe some time soon Harry will rethink his idea that 'his 
life must end in either death of murder' to something along the 
lines of 'he has to die, or else Voldemort will reign forever.' And 
then he will symbolically die, the main characters will believe him 
to be dead, we readers will also believe him to be dead (we have 
been prepared fro the possibilty by Rowling's 'hints') only for 
Harry to survive (Surprise!), all because there is Something About 
the Prophecy.

~<(Laurasia)>~