Must Harry Die?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 121218


A-Mac wrote:
> 
> I am tired of people saying that Harry must die for LV to die so I 
> figured we could disect the prophecy. If that has already been 
done 
> then slap me in the face.
> 
> "'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord 
approaches...Born 
> to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month 
> dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will 
> have power the Dark Lord knows not...'"
> 
> This is the plain and simple part. No arguements hopefully.
> 

Hannah:  Well, I think there are quite a few eg. 'what constitutes 
defied?' 'what is the power the DL knows not?' 'what does it mean by 
marking him as his equal?' etc.  But they're not relevant for the 
purposes of this discussion, i.e. if Harry has to die or not


> "'...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can 
> live while the other survives...the One with the power to vanquish 
> the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...'"
> 
> This is the part that seesm to cause trouble.
> 
> Let us take this apart...
> 
> "'either must die at the hand of the other'"
> either means =  Harry OR Lord Voldemort
> neither means = Not Harry AND Not Lord Voldemort
> 
> Harry OR Lord Voldemort must die becuase Not Harry and Not Lord 
> Voldemort can live.
> 
> Plain and simple. The prophecy states nothing about them both 
having 
> to die. Will they? I do not know. It does not say that neither can 
> die, but Harry does not have to die.

Hannah:  I agree with you, I've never read it as meaning both have 
to die, and neither do Harry and DD - they seem to think it's an 
either/or situation.  Both could die, but the prophecy doesn't 
appear to require it.

I have never believed JKR will kill Harry.  I just don't think 
she'll do it.  No real logic behind it, just a gut feeling.  I even 
have doubts if she'll kill one of the trio, though that she may do 
as the climax to book 7.  

JKR has as good as said there is some trickery going on with the 
phrasing of the prophecy (she claims to have worded it 'very 
carefully').  My favourite candidates for areas where she's pulling 
the wool over out eyes are the 'at the hand of the other' and 'while 
the other still survives.'  There are a lot of possiblities thrown 
up by those vague little phrases.

In fact I'm still not convinced it even refers to Harry.  It's just 
too easy to be led to believe that, and it's never a good idea to 
take a thing like that for granted in Potterverse. The more we think 
it means Harry has to sacrifice himself to rid the world of LV, the 
more likely it is that something completely different is going to 
happen in the end.

Hannah