The editor was sobbing

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166982

Carol earlier <snipped>:
> > He said he was "sobbing" because "it's a very emotional
book"--carefully evading the question, "that means somebody we like
dies, doesn't it?"
> > 
> > We already *know* that "somebody we like" is going to die, not
including those two previously unplanned deaths (the Weasley Twins)?
Personally, I think the "somebody we like" is someone JKR likes,
probably Hagrid. 
> 
Bart responded:
> My prediction (and it's not a longshot piece of silliness, like the
 Deathly Hallows being cries from behind the Veil): the end of the
novel  portends the end of the Wizarding World.

Carol again:
As you know if you've read my recent posts, I'm basing my own
predictions on genre conventions and JKR's known attitude toward
Harry, as well as Harry's expression and Voldemort's posture in the
Scholastic cover art. 

I can't find the quotation I'm looking for regarding JKR's attitude
toward Harry's suffering (something about what she intends to do to
him in the upcoming book), but regarding the death of Sirius Black,
the first of the "meaningful" deaths, she says, "[Y]ou need to be very
unpleasant and vicious to your characters [meaning the protagonists,
I'm sure] to write heart-warming children's books." That sounds to me
as if she intends to have Harry and his friends suffer but survive,
with their magical world intact (however much it's in need of reform).
Otherwise, I don't see how it could be "heart-warming."

At any rate, I'm interested in knowing the basis for your prediction.
I trust it isn't the tongue-in-cheek April Fool's Day post at Leaky
about the signifcance of the curtains: 

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#article:9667

"Curtains seem to be closing over the whole saga, the way they opened
on the first cover. Dawn seems to be breaking on the wizarding world,
Harry is kicking Voldy's overgrown butt, and a peaceful sense of
ending, of wholeness, of finality, falls over the whole scene." The
editors are joking about closing down the site because it's all over,
folks, but even their faux announcement assumes victory and survival
for Harry and peace for the WW. (And that's how I read the scene as well.)

Carol, encouraging Bart to expand on his ideas