JKR's site up-date - Rumours Section

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 127290


Sharon:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "antoshachekhonte" 
> <antoshachekhonte at y...> wrote:
> SNIP
> > No, I'm sticking to my prediction: Dumbledore dies. It's time for 
> Harry to face LV without 
> > "the only wizard he ever feared" as back-up.
> 
> Now let's put the brakes on that thought for a minute please.  Harry
> did face Voldemort without Dumbledore in PS/SS, COS, & GOF, mostly 
> successfully.  
Antosha:

In PS/CS, it is DD who pulls Quirrell off of Harry just as he is about to give in. In CoS, it is 
Fawkes, appearing explicitly because of Harry's faith in DD, who saves Harry's bacon. In 
GoF, Harry escapes Voldemort all on his lonesome, it's true... only to stumble into the 
arms of LV's most faithful servant. Again, Harry is about to die when Dumbledore (and 
McGonagall and Snape) come in and save him.

I think JKR has done a wonderful job of having Harry be both a hero and a child--and DD 
has been the safety net that has allowed that to happen. Now, as you point out later in 
your post, Harry needs to become an adult; as much as I will be sad to see him go, I think 
the most dramatically effective way for Harry to achieve his destiny is without Dumbledore 
there to catch him.

>I can partially agree with your thought.  I don't 
> think Harry needs to face LV without DD.  Harry needs to face life
> & the world itself without DD.  
> In reply to the many other posts regarding a major character death,
> I don't think DD's death would be the primary event that would spur
> Harry on to defeat LV.  I think it would have to be the death of 
> someone intimately close to Harry to motivate him to move.  Yes, 
> Harry is close to DD, but not in the same way as he is close to Ron,
> Hermione, & Hagrid. These are the 3 people in his life to which he is 
> closest.  I think the death of one of these 3 would be
> the motivating factor for Harry to actually to action.  He would be
> so hurt & so angry & so emotionally moved that he would have no 
> choice to do anything else. I think it will take something this
> extreme to get him to move.

<snip>

Harry has a deeper, closer relationship with Hagrid than
> with DD.  Yes, he has a close relationship with DD, but it's more of
> a parental one.  Harry has a more friendship type of relationship
> with Hagrid.  He is more willing to confide in Hagrid with no fear
> of repercussion as with DD.  I think Hagrid's death would deeply 
> deeply impact Harry much more than DDs. 
> Sharon

This is true--has always been true. Harry has always felt a stronger connection to Hagrid 
than to anyone in the magical world other than Ron and Hermione, at least until OotP, at 
which point some of his other peers have begun to become trusted confidants--the twins, 
Ginny, Luna--and Hagrid has faded into the background a bit, Grawp notwithstanding.

I'm going to revert to form here and trot out Joseph Campbell, because his theories seem 
apropos. In the Hero with a Thousand Faces, his seminal work on the archetypal cycle of 
the Hero Journey, Campbell points out a number of crucial figures who must be met along 
the way. The first is the Threshold Guardian, the terrifying creature who both welcomes 
and terrifies, who is the first test of the hero as s/he crosses out of the realm of the 
mundane and into the underworld of adventure. That's Hagrid.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, is the Mentor, the wise helper who points out dangers 
and obstacles along the way, who protects the hero in the early stages of the journey. 
Inevitably, however, this figure must be left behind or transcended, in order for the hero's 
journey to be truly his or her own. So, once again, I see DD dying sooner rather than later.

Too, there's the question of why you put an ancient wizard in a series of stories starring a 
young hero. What else is he going to do but pass away? Fine, you can have him around to 
swoop in after the heroic act is complete, as Gandalf saves Frodo after the Ring has been 
destroyed. But even Gandalf died, if only to be reborn. Same with Obi Wan. Or Merlin. 
Same with thousands of other wise men and women in thousands of myths, folktales and 
novels. None of them are there at the last crisis.

Mind, I'm not sure that both Hagrid and DD don't die. I'd just be surprised if they both 
cash it in at the end of HBP--that's where I expect Dumbledore to take his final bow.

Then again, I could be wrong. :-)

Antosha