JKR borrows from heroic literature/ who dies?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154535

Carol earlier:
> > I do agree that she'll have no qualms about killing off a kid
> > character, but I don't think it will be Neville. <snip> If the 
> birthdays on JKR's site (and the six drops of red, three drops of 
> green potion) are any clue, it will be Luna. 
> 
> Tonks:
> 
> Bit dense. Don't follow this..  how does it follow that it is Luna?  
> She is a Ravenclaw.

Carol again:
Exactly. There's no single drop of blue for Ravenclaw, just six drops
for Gryffindor and three for Slytherin. And as numerous posters have
pointed out, JKR hasn't wished her a happy birthday on her site even
though she's played a more important role in the books so far than,
say, Professor Sprout, who *is* among the birthday people. (Not that I
want Luna to die, but the clues seem to point in that direction.)
> 
Tonks:
> Are we counting deaths to Gryffindor? Lily, James, Sirius, DD maybe, 
> and ??? <snip>
> 
> And Slytherin - Regulus, and ??
> 
> Is that what you meant by six drops of red and 3 of green? I know 
> that is what it took to revive the plant on JKR's website. But I 
> don't get the Luna connection.

Carol responds:
I was reading the drops as indicating who'd be most involved in the
battle against LV at the end of the last book, or most involved in the
Horcrux hunt--the saviors of the WW, so to speak. It's anybody's
guess, but I'd say the six Gryffindor drops are for Harry, Hermione,
Ron, Ginny, Neville, and one adult, perhaps Lupin, and the three
Slytherin drops are Snape, Draco, and maybe Slughorn. Just guessing,
naturally. (I'm not counting Regulus because he's canonically dead.)
> 
>  
> >Carol said: 
> > I also think that more than two mainish characters will die (the
two she didn't originally plan on plus those she did). I'm guessing
Hagrid, Lupin, and at least one Weasley (probably Percy and either
Bill or Charlie, or possibly the twins--*a* twin would be worse,
leaving Fred or George without his other half).
> > 
> 
> Tonks:
> Oh.. how heartless and cruel. Kill off one twin?  Carol!! How could 
> you! No, no, I simply will not tolerate this!! ;-)

Carol again:
I agree that killing one twin would be heartless and I hope she
doesn't do it. BTW, since posting the message you're responding to,
I've read the remark about JKR's husband reacting to *one* of the
originally planned deaths. I don't think he would react to George but
not Fred, or vice versa, so unless the twins were intended to die all
along, I don't think the two deaths refer to them.

But JKR *is* rather heartless in her treatment of her characters,
don't you think? Setting aside injuries in the classroom and on the
Quidditch pitch and all of Harry's ordeals, look what Neville has
suffered, look at the fate of his parents, look at Lupin (forced to
live as an impoverished outcast) and Sirius Black (forced to live off
rats and hide in a cave) and Snape (forced by circumstances or that
accursed vow to kill his own mentor) and poor Cedric (dead at
seventeen for no cause except being a "spare").

Carol, noting that all the people I listed are on the birthday list,
so maybe they're all safe (as is Dobby, today's birthday boy,
unfortunately!)