Dan's predictions -- followed by pain and grief.

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 99222

Steve wrote:
> 
> >I don't want a 'Harry Dies' ending,but at the same time I could see
> >it happening. What really bothers me,is not so much Harry dying, as
> > the out pouring of grief that would follow. 

Then Jem replied: 
> JKR might want to do this from an artistic POV but it would
probably 
> kill the series as a future classic in the process.  Do you go to a 
> movie knowing ahead of time that the main character dies?  
<snips>
> Some people just don't want things ending that badly and if you
know 
> ahead of time that things don't end well, there are going to be  
> people who won't start the process at all.

Eustace_Scrubb:
I'm sure you're right about some potential future readers not wanting
to start the series if they know that Harry will not survive the last
book.

>From a writing-business point of view, JKR might wish to do away with
Harry.  After all, she has lived with the character for at least 6 or
7 years longer than any of us readers.  Like Conan Doyle, she may wish
to escape her most famous creation once she's written the last word of
the last chapter of book 7.  Unlike Conan Doyle, she's probably well
enough off (he wasn't richer than King Edward VII was he?) to follow
through if that's what she wants to do.  Especially since it could
make perfect sense from a literary standpoint, too.

Jem again:
> Killing Harry off is beyond a betrayal to those who have stuck with
 
> him thru 7 books, it seems to send a rather grim message.  You can  
> work for a good and noble cause and your reward is an early death. 
 
> It's all tooRW if you ask me and no one actually did but still I  
> don't think that's where JKR's taking us.

Eustace_Scrubb:  
Alas, the "real world" and fantasy literature both feature many who
give their lives or at least undergo great suffering for the good and
noble cause.  If Harry's death (and frankly, I don't expect him to
die) comes as a result of the completion of his quest, then I couldn't
complain about JKR's writing it that way.

Although the following comes from Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
rather than Tolkien, I think Sam's speech from the _Two Towers_ movie
defines the potential outcome of Harry's story for me too:

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really
mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you
didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?
How
could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had
happened.  But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines
it will shine out the clearer.  Those were the stories that stayed
with you. That meant something... Folk in those stories had lots of
chances of turning back only they didn't. They kept going. Because
they were holding on to something...there's some good in this
world,
Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Of course, Frodo doesn't die, but he's so scarred by his quest that he
can't stay in Middle-earth.  Again, I don't think Harry will die but
at some point I think he'll decide that he's willing to do so if
that's what it takes to defeat Voldemort for good.  It's all in his 
choices.  If he chooses not to turn back even when he can, even when
he doesn't want to know the end, then the HP story has a chance to be
one of the "great stories...the ones that really mattered."

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb