Dept of Mysteries Veil Room

[kim reynolds]

No: HPFGUIDX 114303

>Hannah wrote:
>If Sirius turns out to be alive after all, or comes back 
>from the dead, I will be very, very disappointed in JKR.  Not 
>because I don't like Sirius; I think he's a good character and 
>cried when he died, but because it would undermine the power of 
>the books for me.  

>JKR has made much of the fact that she is unafraid to write 
>about death, and hopes to help children confront and deal with 
>death. Many people have said that the stories have helped their 
>children deal with the death of a loved one.  If she then turns 
>round and says 'it's OK, he's not dead after all!' it would be 
>such a let down for all those children whose RL dead relative 
>*isn't* going to suddenly pop back from behind the veil. I 
>don't belive JKR will do that.  I think when we 'see Sirius 
>again' it will be as a memory, either in a retrospective scene 
>not from Harry's pov, or in a pensieve.  As for Harry dying, 
>I'm not sure whether he will or not.  If all his friends are 
>dead, maybe a long life wouldn't be such a great thing in his 
>opinion?  I think it's pretty obvious he will defeat LV, but 
>that doesn't mean he will survive.<


Kim now:

OK, I guess I agree with Hannah that Sirius isn't coming back (though I'm still holding out that due to the nature of his "death" that he may not really be dead -- Angie made some good points on that score).  But I for one won't forgive Rowling if Harry dies... OK, I'll forgive her, but she'll have to do better than having Harry die to save the world from Voldemort.  Too much like so many other hero stories, religious and otherwise.  

Why would killing Harry be wrong and in my opinion a negative lesson for children?  Because Harry is the hero, he's a kid, he's suffered enough, he deserves to live, for crying out loud.  And it's fiction after all.  The young have been giving up their lives for worthy and not so worthy causes too often for too many years in the real world.  High time for older folks to put their lives on the line for the young (and this is me speaking as a semi-older folk).  

IMO that was one positive lesson from the deaths of James and Lily and possibly Sirius (outside of the fact that their deaths, via Harry's reaction to them, are good lessons to children about losing a loved one), that they so loved their son/godson that they died for him.  Now that's a lesson to take into adulthood.  It seems its own kind of lesson too that teenage Harry is brave enough to risk his life, to defeat Voldemort (though I repeat, as earlier posts have said, that Voldemort need not die to be defeated), but survive to tell the tale to his children, grandchildren (or students)...

Kim (who'd be willing to bet money on the outcome of the books, and even lose, but she's not a betting woman :-))