CHAPDISC: DH1, The Dark Lord Ascending

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 176245

Geoff:
> 
> Why did JKR create Charity Burbage, Professor of Muggle Studies,
>  just to be killed by Voldemort in Chapter 1?

Ceridwen:
I think Rowling didn't want to have an emotionally charged death so 
early in the book.  She may have thought that readers thinking the body 
dangling above the table possibly being someone we know was enough for 
an opening gambit.  Bait and switch, sudden relief when she was someone 
we had never met.  We also get the previously dead Bathilda Bagshot, 
whose name we've heard before but who we have never met, around halfway 
through.  The really emotional deaths all happen toward the end, at the 
Battle of Hogwarts.  I think that was to give the ending more of a 
punch.

I wish I'd thought of this question, Geoff!  I'd love to see what 
others think.

Ceridwen.