Predictions for the End (what I think, hope and know)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 167237

Quick_Silver wrote:
> I'll play this game too.
> 
> Things that I'm fairly confident about:
> 
> --Voldemort will be defeated utterly and Harry will survive.
> 
> --Snape is DDM. 
> 
> --Hermione and Ron will survive. 

Carol responds:
Agreed on all three.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> Things that I'm semi-confident about:
> 
> --Draco will be a huge asset to the "good" side.
> 
> --Harry is not a horcrux.

Carol:
I agree that Harry is not a Horcrux, but I'm divided on Draco's role
and importance. I think he'll be persuaded by Snape to turn against
Voldemort, but at the last minute. I don't think, for example, that
he'll be involved in any Horcrux hunts. (Zacaharias Smith, OTOH, will
probably help HRH to find, but not destroy, the Hufflepuff Horcrux).

Quick_Silver: 
> --The Dementors will play a rather large role in DH and Snape's 
> method of fighting them is most defiantly wrong or flawed in some way 
> that will cost someone their life (Neville? Luna?). 

Carol:
You mean "definitely," not "defiantly," right? If so, I completely
disagree. Many wizards, including adult wizards, have difficulty
casting a Patronus, and Harry himself points out that casting a
Patronus for fun in the RoR is very different from casting one when
you're facing a Dementor, which even he finds difficult. (TT!Harry was
in no danger from the Dementors that were attacking his other self and
Sirius; casting a Patronus on Magnolia Crescent facing only two
Dementors was much more difficult.) He wishes that they had a Boggart
to practice on (the problem is, it would have been confused by all the
people or turned into the Boggart of the person facing it instead of
his own). So I think that Hermione (who pays attention in Snape's
classes) will use Snape's alternate method of fighting a Boggart,
which will prove very effective indeed, and cause HRH to start
wondering why the "evil" Snape would have taught them such an
effective piece of defensive magic. They may start wondering about,
and testing, other things he taught, find them effective, and decide
to go back to Hogwarts for the HBP's book and/or start wondering about
Snape himself and the events on the tower. I agree, however, that the
reference to Snape's alternate method of fighting Dementors was not
just tossed in lightly. It will prove to be very important. But I
doubt very much that it will be ineffective given Snape's knowledge of
both the Dark Arts and Healing.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --The Weasley wedding will be disrupted in some manner...either by
Death Eaters or an emergency of some sort. 

Carol:
I have mixed feelings on this one. I think that if they keep it small
and semi-private, it will go off smoothly. (Maybe it will be a double
wedding with Tonks and Lupin as the other couple!) But I certainly
hope that Madame Maxime doesn't bring her giant carriage and Abraxan
horses to the Burrow. They'll be a bit hard to hide.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --Snape will survive. 

Carol:
I'm not wuite as confident as you seem to be, but I hope you're right.
Either JKR planned him to live all along or she gave him a reprieve.
He's just too fascinating, too conflicted, too talented, to kill off.
Let him live a useful life doing research for St. Mungo's or write
textbooks or even teach DADA if the curse is lifted. (He's an expert
potion-maker, but I don't think he likes *teaching* Potions because
the kids don't appreciate the subject.)
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --The Prank was an attempt to kill Snape plain and simple. 

Carol:
I don't think it's quite that simple. Sirius certainly wanted to
terrify Severus and put him in terrible danger, but thinking before he
acts isn't his strong point. I think that Snape is right about James
being involved from the beginning and getting cold feet. At any rate,
I think that the Prank prompted him to invent Sectumsempra as an act
of revenge. I doubt that it affected his studies--he would still want
to excel in his NEWTs, but maybe it affected his ambitions, pushing
him toward the Death Eaters out of revenge as well as a desire for
recognition. (I don't know, but we'll find out!)
> 
Quick_Silver:
> Things that I'd love to see (but probably won't happen):
> 
> --Harry kills Voldemort with an AK however because Harry was
infected by a sliver of Voldemort's soul the soul splitting effects of
AK cut the Voldemort out of Harry. 

Carol:
No, thanks. It's unfortunate that Snape had no good alternative to
using an AK. I don't want Harry to have to use one and suffer the kind
of remorse that Snape is suffering. Harry may have powers that he
doesn't yet know about acquired from Voldemort at GH. I can see him
possessing Voldemort, filling him with unendurable Love, and forcing
him through the Veil that way. Voldie with his fragmented soul would
be unable to leave, but Harry could use Sirius's body, now separated
from his soul, to return to his own body outside the Veil.
Unfortunately for my theory, the U.S. cover seems to suggest some
alternate solution. But the absence of wands suggests that no AK will
be involved, either.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --Harry realizes that Snape is good (on his own...no help from 
anyone) quite early in the book and shamelessly uses it to his 
personal advantage while Snape is totally unaware. 

Carol:
On his own? That strikes me as very unlikely. Not only does Harry hate
Snape and want revenge against him, Harry has very few epiphanies of
that sort. The closest is his recognition that Luna isn't just some kook. 

I think it will be Hermione who figures out that Snape is good (in the
sense of loyal to DD and opposed to Voldemort) and that she'll draw
out details of what really happened on the tower, remind Harry that
Snape spied for DD before Godric's Hollow, and, bit by bit, cause him
to start questioning his own conclusions so that he's ready, when he
finally encounters Snape, to accept what Snape has to say and accept
his help. I don't know what you mean by shamelessly using Snape's
goodness (or loyalty to DD?) on his own without Snape's awareness of
what Harry is doing.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --Snape isn't simply DDM he's....Marauder!Snape (loyal to the cause 
> but independent and with his own code). 

Carol:
Hmm. I think "Marauder" just refers to a certain group of four who
sneaked around the castle under James's Invisibility Cloak looking for
secret passages and whatnot. I agree that Snape has his own
independent moral code, but I'm not sure that we'll discover it. I
think his loyalty to Dumbledore is personal, just as his enmity to
Voldemort is personal (but based on lines that his moral code won't
allow him to cross, such as being partly responsible for the death of
a baby). His opposition to Voldemort trumps other personal enmities,
such as his hatred of James Potter and contempt for Harry, just as his
loyalty to Dumbledore trumps his personal safety and reputation.
> 
Quick_Silver:
> --A quantity of Weasley's, at least one professor, and several 
> students perish.

Carol:
Not a "quantity" of Weasleys, IMO, but probably at least one Weasley.
Maybe Percy will die redeemed and either Bill or Charlie will die.
It's possible that the Twins are the two whose deaths were unplanned.
(Please, JKR, don't kill off a single Twin. That would be too cruel to
the other one.) I think that Molly's Boggart foreshadows at least one
death. I agree that a teacher, probably Hagrid, will die (but not
before he tells Harry why he trusted Snape). As for students, I hope
not. Maybe Luna though I hope not. I like her a lot. Neville will
survive to teach his beloved Herbology (and his Mimbulus Mimbletonia
will come in handy for something).

Quick_Silver: 
> --Snape will be forced to eat a large quantity of crow about either 
> Harry or James or both. In fact I'd settle for any humbling of 
> Snape.  

Carol:
I don't understand this reaction given your belief that the so-called
Prank was a murder plot pure and simple. And James *was* arrogant,
however heroic he later proved himself. Snape will certainly be forced
to accept Harry's abilities, but maybe he saw them all along and only
wanted his Slytherin students and their Death Eater parents, as well
as Voldemort himself, to underestimate him. And I think that he
himself was trying to push Harry, trying to make him see and overcome
his own inadequacies (a method that might have worked for him as a boy
but unfortunately not for Harry).

At any rate, I have no desire to see Snape eat crow. It's much more
important to the themes and plot of the book, and to Harry's
development as a hero, for him to forgive Snape and accept his help.
In my view, of course.

Carol, who also thinks that the secrets that Petunia has been
concealing from both Vernon and Harry for sixteen years will come
bursting out of her just before Harry's seventeenth birthday