Book 7 predictions

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 98211

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:

Del: 
> And I'm not even mentioning the sheer *pain* Harry would have to 
> live with, if he were to lose Ron. I don't like Harry that much, 
but 
> I can't wish *that* on him.
> I remember reading a series of books about 2 teenage friends when I 
> was young. In the last book, they get involved in World War 2, one 
> of them dies and the other is sent prisoner into German camps. I 
> could never decide, and still can't, which one got the worst deal. 
> Eric, the dead one, dies young and still full of innocence, he will 
> never learn about the horrors of WW2, he will never have to deal 
> with the torture and death of loved ones, and so on. But he will 
> never love and be married, he will never have kids, he will never 
> experience the joy of his country being liberated. Christian, on 
the 
> other hand, will have to survive the camps, and if he does he will 
> have to live through the tough demands of reconstructing a wrecked 
> country. But maybe, if he gets through, he will know love and 
> happiness again. But then again maybe he won't, maybe he will be 
too 
> hurt and destroyed to ever enjoy happiness again. So who's to say 
> which of the boys got the worst deal ?
> So I'm not sure which would be worse, whether Harry dies or lives.

Geoff:
An interesting real-life parallel to the story you mention is that of 
Tolkien who had formed a very close friendship with three other 
students at Oxford just prior to the First World War. During that 
war, two of them were killed in action and Tolkien's sometimes 
pessimistic outlook heightened but their loss was one factor which 
propelled him into starting "The Book of Lost Tales" which eventually 
evolved into "The Silmarillion". But his letters and comments reveal 
the pain he felt over the loss of loved ones and the futility of war -
 something Harry is beginning to realise also.