Ending the series

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 130358


Tonks, with snips, said:
<I agree. I have said this before and I am going to say it again, but 
<somewhat disguised to make it more palatable to all. I think this is 
<how the series will end and most readers here will probably be OK 
<with this ending.

<DD teaches Harry about the secret of the Phoenix. Harry understands
that he must sacrifice his life <to save the world or worlds (WW/MW).
Harry is prepared to do that and will give himself 
<freely. He will have a chance to save himself or have someone else 
<save him, but he will not take that way out, he will accept the fact 
<that he must die. Then some sort of exciting story unfolds which 
<leads up to his death. Upon his death, the power of the *Dark Lord* 
<is broken. Harry may go somewhere else while 
<he is beyond the veil and there may be some meeting there with I am 
<not sure who. (Sort of like going into the depth of Hell.)

<Now everyone (us the readers) will cry and scream and carry on like 
<some of us did when we thought that JKR had killed off Arthur. Then 
<before the last pages Harry will use the secret of the Phoenix that 
<DD taught him and he will come back either to live as a wizard with 
<a normal life span, or he will come back only briefly to tell his 
<friends and others the secret of the Phoenix and that they too can 
<have eternal life. And then he will get on his broomstick and fly 
<back through the veil. Some of the ghost may choice to go with him. 
<He will be happy and so will his friends because they know that he 
<is alive in another place and that some day they will join him 
<there. Also he will tell them, like DD, that whenever someone needs 
<help all they have to do is call for his help and Harry in the form 
<of Faulks will come to their aid.

And Deborah:

This sums up what I really, really hope will never happen. Not because
it's trite and sentimental and reads like a nineteenth-century Sunday
School prize - though it does look that way to me - but because there
has been nothing in the series that suggests that death is so bad that
it must be dodged and avoided at all costs. The graveyard scene is
creepy, certainly, but the murdered emanations from LV's wand aren't
in despair! They are getting on with Death as they got on with Life.
And the ones who opted for eternal "life" - the ghosts - aren't what
I'd call role models. It doesn't seem to be advisable, in the
Potterverse, to fall between two stools.

As for calling for help from Behind The Veil and getting it - oh, come
on! That book's been written . It's called the New Testament, and in
it Fawkes has a starring role as a dove. Why accept substitutes if you
can go straight to the original? And if you enjoy thinking about
heavenly helpers in a sort of cosmic slot machine - insert prayer
here, pull out the drawer and take your answer - go for it, but to me
it lacks dignity. 

Ursula Le Guin sent Ged down into the world of the dead, where he
found that the dead had been cheated into believing that life was what
they wanted, so they got it - a life of shadows and dust. They welcome
the calm finality of the real death. (And Ged loses his powers, by the
way, uses them all up, and lives happily ever after!) Phillip Pullman
does something similar, showing death as liberation from "eternal"
life and also showing morally ambiguous characters (Lyra's parents)
transcending their own limitations and sacrificing themselves for the
common good; the ideas are more Buddhist than Western, but when
fantasy authors of their stature both write great series in which that
view works better, it is interesting. The point is that neither of
them was writing a tract. They seem to feel that we are familiar with
the stories of our culture, and they trust us to have enough security
and intelligence to examine less familiar concepts, to experience them
imaginatively, and to take whatever we need from them and move on.
(And, of all the children I've ever taught, the ones who lack that
kind of flexibility - the my-beliefs-right-or-wrong children - have
also been the unhappy ones.) Our heads can accommodate variety! And I
trust JKR to go on providing it, and surprising us all.

Deborah, trenchant but optimistic