[HPforGrownups] Re: Ending the series (was Dept. of Mysteries, "Love" room.)

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 130457

alishak at spu.edu said:

>If JKR is to make this story believable and real,
>then Harry will never be the same again.  We won't ever see that
>happy, healthy boy we met on the train to Hogwart's.  To bring in a
>similar story, he'd have to be like Frodo, broken by his
>experience.

I definitely do not agree.  We will never see the same person we met on the 
train to Hogwarts because that boy was an eleven-year-old orphan from a, to 
put it mildly, unsupportive family who'd just discovered his real background 
and potential.  What we will see, I believe, is a grownup Harry Potter, 
wizard and hero.  This in no way invalidates the possibility of that grownup 
living the life of a wizard (not an ordinary wizard, but Dumbledore, Krum, 
and others in the Wizarding World manage to be out of the ordinary and still 
have lives.  Not to mention Fudge, Bagman, and Lockhart, each in their way 
...).

And can someone please explain to me why people claim it would be *better* 
literature, writing, or moral example if Harry died?  I can see, although 
disagree with, the argument that it would be *just as good (assuming 
Voldemort was defeated by means of Harry's death),* but not that an unhappy  
  ending with everyone miserable at the hero's funeral is somehow *superior* 
to a happy ending as a just reward for a hard-fought battle between good and 
evil.


Janet Anderson