Your greatest fear . . .

[xcpublishing]

No: HPFGUIDX 121236


>Matt writes:

>My biggest fear has always been that in order to stop Voldemort, 
Harry will need to make a choice to sacrifice himself....(or) that 
Harry will somehow be unable to use magic in the end due to a last 
fight with Voldemort.
>


My biggest fear is that JKR will screw it up.  It's extremely 
difficult juggling all the characters in a single book, let alone 
seven.  Will she manage a satisfying ending?  Will she be able to 
wrap up all the loose ends?  Book one was barely mediocre.  Sheer 
curiosity made me read Book two.  But somewhere between books three 
and four she learned how to write and OoP was riveting.  However, she 
seems to be getting things too complex - time travel, prophecies, 
things that can confuse and annoy readers.  I'm hoping she won't do 
the same with the ending and make it so farfetched that her readers 
shriek with fury.  The problem with fantasy is that nearly every 
possible ending has been done:  the happy ending; the "it was all a 
dream" ending; the end of the world ending; the unhappy ending that 
is realistic (like life) but terribly unsatisfying; and the shocker 
ending (such as the series where the main character turns into a swan 
and flies away to live a birdy life forever - I think they heard the 
gnashing of my teeth on Alpha Centauri over that one).

Personally, I think she'll go for the unhappy ending.  She's tried to 
remain pretty close to real life through the whole series - Harry's 
home life sucks; for every good thing that happens to him three bad 
things happen; he goes from popular celebrity to pariah at the drop 
of a hat.  I think she'll destroy Voldemort permanently, but at a 
massive cost and the world will be a safer place but Harry and 
whatever remaining friends he has will be much the worse for it.  But 
if she does it right, it can still be a satisfying ending.  Killing 
Harry, leaving him powerless, or exterminating magic entirely would 
NOT be satisfying endings.

Nicky Joe