Harry Potter's final dilemma (speculation/spoiler)

Cafe Society
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As you pointed out, Hermione hugs Harry (like a brother, I’d say) quite a lot, but is very shy when it comes to hugging Ron. Like she sees him as a bit more than a sibling. They seem embarrassed whenever they come close to holding hands or hugging. The movies seems to show a siblinglike love between Harry and Hermione and ‘something more’ between Hermione and Ron.

I’m sure it’ll have some consequences in the last book. Maybe a sacrifice need be made? Or a foolharted chase to rescue the other (probably Ron after Hermione) will result in more trouble?

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As for Snape, I really don’t think that Snape is or was working for Voldemort.

Snape, I think, is working for Snape.

Yes, Dumbledore is a good judge of character. But then, so is Voldemort: They’re stated to be the two most accomplished Legilimens in the world. We’ve known for a while that Snape has been successfully deceiving at least one of them… Why not both? This might also go some way towards explaining why they both trusted him: He could give Dumbledore some absolute proof that he’s not working for Voldemort, and give Voldemort proof that he’s not working for Dumbledore, and they might have been satisfied with those proofs, without looking deeper into the implications.

On the question of the Potter family, I think that it’s already revealed in the first book (around when Hagrid is taking Harry to Gringott’s) that the Potters are one of the old, respectable wizarding families. Also consider that, when they first met, Draco wanted to befriend (or enlist, or whatever you want to call it) Harry, which I can’t imagine a Malfoy would want from anyone less than the “right sort of people”.

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You’re right. It’s in the rumors section of her website:

She debunks Neville/Luna in the same section as well as bunches and bunches of other rumors.

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Chronus, I completely agree. I wanted to Snape to have good motives at heart because I like the idea of redemption, but the more I read, the more I think he’s in it for himself–self preservation, if you will, a key personality trait of the ideal Slytherin.

When I watch the movies, especially, I want Snape to be a good guy, but I think that may have more to do with Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Snape than anything else. Plus also Alan Rickman is purty. But reading Snape–that’s different altogether. He’s just mean-spirited and nasty. I completely believe that he’s an unpleasant person who would hold a grudge against James (and eventually Harry) for that many years. I’m sure the pensieve scene wasn’t an isolated incident. I imagine James was cruel to Snape all seven years at Hogwarts. And since James was quite popular, I bet a lot of other kids followed his lead. Between his unpleasant home life (the pensieve scene where he’s cowering in terror while his parents fight) and his unpleasant school life, the guy had plenty of time to nurse some bitterness.

Okay, I’ll shut up now.

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Great interviews! Thanks so much. I knew from book one that Ron and Hermione were attracted to one another (or at least Hermione was to Ron)–no girl fusses at a boy in that way unless she is interested (if she’s that kind of girl), and I have liked some of the more subtle touchs about their relationship in the films. Like when they witness hippogriff getting killed, for example.

I have never heard of mugglenet or the leaky cauldron-thanks.

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I’ve wondered about this too, from the perspective of either Dumbledore or Voldemort. Each of them supposedly trusts Snape, and is aware that Snape is working as a double agent. But Dumbledore must realize how powerful a Legilimen Voldemort is and vice versa. So they each know that Snape is decieving one of them… it just doesnt sit right. How could either Voldemort or Dumbledore trust Snape?

I suppose theres a slim chance that one of them (more likely Dumbledore) is aware that Snape is playing for the other side, but they have decided to keep him on anyway, in hopes of maniulating him unknowingly.

Also whoever said that Snape may be only looking out for Snape could be right. Snape may be the most powerful legilimen of all, and have no trouble convincing both sides of his alligiance.

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My two or three cents (knuts?):

I think that Hermione was quite attracted to Harry, but for unknown reasons (there don’t need to be any), Harry has demonstrated time and again that he’s just not that into Hermione. She’s finally accepted that, and has elevated Ron instead. Both Ron and Harry have been demonstrably clueless, romance-wise.

For whatever reason, Harry has figured that Ginny is the one - again, who can say why?

As for Snape, I wouldn’t underestimate the power of teenage grudges. Whether he ever had a thing for Lily or not, I think it always was coupled with resentment for her apparent pity.

There is one issue that I think we haven’t heard the end of: Snape very much hates to be called “coward.” At some point, I speculate, Snape was involved in some dilemma where he came out looking like a coward, and Snape’s brand of insecurity is such that he’s not sure whether he is one or not. He hates that. In part, this would explain some need of his to do brave things, to never again be suspected of cowardice.

Dumbledore asleep in the picture in the headmaster’s office. Pretty darned convenient, I think; I think that at the very least, Dumbledore’s essence didn’t much care for granting interviews just then.

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Snape certainly taunts Sirius enough about Black’s supposed cowardice for that to ring true.

I guess I just want Snape to be a good guy, deep down. Probably ain’t gonna happen, though.

I don’t think Hermione had a thing for Harry–if anything, she didn’t seem all that impressed by him at first (and being Muggleborn, she didn’t grow up with his legend like Ron did). I don’t see her as settling for Ron, either—Hermione and Ron compliment one another very well. He softens her more abrasive side and she keeps him up to the mark (or will, if he ever grabs a clue).

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I always wondered about that. I mean we know that Lucius Malfoy is a DE and thus Potter’s presence destroyed the Dark Lord, who the Malfoys followed. Or did Lucius just never tell Draco too much about that around 11ish and Draco knew of Harry and the Potters and thought he was one of their people? I’d imagine Lucius’s hate of Harry would have bled through to Draco. Maybe Draco though he could curry favor by leading Harry to the dark side?

:shrug: Who knows… probably will be unanswered.

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OK then;

Dumbledore is dead. Dead is dead according to JKR in several interviews after she killed off Sirus. If and when our beloved headmaster reappears it will be in a maddening non-answer/conversation with his picture somewhere.

The reoccuring theme of socks is puzzling. Either a funny ha ha goof inside joke (hi Opal like thing) on her part or a minor plot point that will have some bearing.

Why does everybody say Harry has Lily’s eyes?

Will a beloved character live or die? Anything is possible, but I can’t see any of the big three crumping in a kid’s book.

Aunt Petunia and the communication with her and Dumbledore has to be explained. She knows a lot more about the wizard world than Vernon knows. She knew about Azkaban and the howler hinted at something. We know she is not a squib. (JKR said so)

Ollivander is missing. Was he comissioned to make a new wand for Voldy to avoid a repeat of what happened in the graveyard?

Will the first chapter fast forward over a chunk of the summer with Harry and the gang already figured out the locket was found by Sirus’s brother and they already dealt with it? It will save time and pages.

I like the idea that I read somewhere on Mugglenet or the Leaky Cauldron editorials that Snape while interviewing at Hogwarts 17 (or so years ago) at the same time as Trelawney heard the entire prophecy and only told Voldy half of it. That’s why Dumbledore trusts him. Also it allows for the Snape looking out for Snaple angle.

Voldy doesn’t know love. Some how and some way, Harry will demonstrate that to him in the final showdown at Hogwarts. (I like the idea of the final battle being there because it’s a central place for all the stories.) Lily’s love for him, Harry for his friends and the Weasley family and who the hell knows Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and the pig tailed brat all might come into play.

An elegant solution would be him being stripped of all magic in the fight and fitting into what she said that the last word of the last book is scar.

“Harry awoke from his dream and not needing glasses with his perfect eyesight looked into the mirror and saw his short neat hair and no sign on his forehead of a lightningbolt shaped scar.”

:stuck_out_tongue:

Ok that last made up quote is a goof on my part. A dream would cause rioting, but it wouls be OK to me if he became a squib to save the world.

A nice ending to a kids book that the hero gave up everything he held near and dear to his heart as a sacrifice to the greater good of the world. The last chapter as a coda would have him riding off into the sunset. Not happy or sad but knowing he did the right thing and living as a muggle.

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… well, living as a muggle IN the magical world. I think that after all of that, the Ministry would give him a nice salary and take care of the boy. Or at the very least, some wizards would.

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I had speculated several months ago about Voldemort’s final trip to Godric’s Hollow. Dumbledore mentioned that he thought Voldemort was planning Harry’s murder to be his sixth horcrux. I wondered if Harry, when visiting the scene of the crime, might run across the object that Voldemort had planned to place his soul fragment into.

Reading “The White Tomb” yesterday, I was struck by a new thought: what if Voldemort had planned on creating three horcruxes that night; and what if he successfully created two of them? Harry might just come across a couple of horcruxes in the ruins of the old home place. Something like this could shave five hundred pages of investigation and sleuthing off the seventh book, y’know. :wink:

The major problem with this is the details of why Voldemort’s wand was able to be recovered, but Voldemort hasn’t gone back to pick up the horcruxes? Doesn’t strike me as too likely. Of course, it could be that Peter Pettigrew was with Voldemort on the evening in question, panicked when the curse backfired, and fled with Voldemort’s wand. Sirius Black meets Hagrid in the ruins, loans him his motorcycle, and rummages around and picks up a couple of knick-knacks that he doesn’t remember seeing on Lily and James’s mantle. Those could be in Grimmauld Place even now.

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Remember what Snape tells Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince, when he is trying to convince them that he is not a traitor: some people thought that Harry Potter, having vanquished Voldemort, would become a dark wizard even more powerful than he-who-must-not-be-named.

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Ah, not an intentional horcrux, though, I take it.

Voldemort had just killed Lily, so his soul was all ready for rending. He meant to kill Harry, but it of course destroyed his body. Then Harry ends up being a Parselmouth, and probably more powerful than he would’ve been naturally. It makes sense, then, that some of Voldemort’s soul is in Harry.

It will make quite the dilemma if this is the case.

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Ah, that’s just an urban legend. :D:D:D

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A few notes of my own:

  • R.A.B. is Regulus A. Black, Sirius’s brother. He came to his senses and tried to undermine Voldemort’s plans by taking the horcrux in the cave, even though he new it’d probably cost him his life.
  • I recall Petunia (Evans) Dursley mentioning “that horrid boy” or something like that. It didn’t seem like she was referring to James, as she only mentions him in context as being Lily’s husband. I think that maybe Lily had brought Severus Snape home on a holiday when they were younger. Snape, coming from an abusive, wizarding home was probably very out of place and put Petunia off completely from anything magical.
  • Speaking of Petunia: I think she’s got some level of magical ability in her, which is maybe why she has a level of fearful respect for Dumbledore. And maybe she’ll play a more involved part in the last book; i.e., she’ll be one of those to die.
    IMHO
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I appreciate how Rowling has made the elves feel unworth if they’re not in someone’s service. (Kinda reminds me of the cow at The Restaurant and the End of the Universe, that wanted to be eaten.) Cuz, yeah, slavery in general is a real touchy topic here in the US. Even those of us whose family didn’t move here until the 20[sup]th[/sup] century are involved.

I think the elves as a whole (in the HP universe) are an unstable race, and probably were bound to humans with a sense of purpose so that they wouldn’t destroy the world with their powers, which seem to be greater than human wizards’ powers.
Examples of their unstability and/or power:

  1. in HBP, Dobby still tries to punish himself for speaking ill of Draco, even though he knows he’s not in the Malfoys’ employ anymore.
  2. Kreacher unknowingly voicing his resentments aloud. Also his desire to have his head taxidermied and mounted to the wall at 12 Grimmauld Place.
  3. Winky’s butterbeerism.
  4. Dobby can apparate in and out of Hogwarts (in CoS), even though there are enchantments to prevent this. Also, he did a hover charm without use of a wand.
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elves

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Have you seen that Jason Isaacs is in a new Showtime TV series called “Brotherhood”, about a pair of brothers from Providence, Rhode Island that live on either side of the law. (Isaacs plays the bad brother, BTW.) Just saw some previews, and it looks very good. What’s especially of interest is that Isaacs pulls off a New England urban accent very well.

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People and things I think will turn out to be important in the last book:

– Petunia. She clearly knows a great deal more about her sister and about the wizarding world than she lets on. I think she has probably got information that will help Harry, and they’re going to have to set aside their hostility and talk.

– Aberforth Dumbledore. I’m inclined to think the locket Horcrux is in his hands, since Mundungus was last seen selling off stuff from the Black household in Hogsmeade.

– Harry’s ambition to be an Auror. I’m not sure whether he’ll fulfill it, or whether Scrimgeour or somebody will try to use it as a bargaining chip and he’ll have to reject it, but I don’t think Rowling would have dropped that in if it wasn’t going to play.

– The Pensieve. Harry clearly has got suppressed memories of the night his parents died, and this might be a way for him to view them in full.

– Metamorphmagi. I don’t know whether Tonks is going to impersonate someone, or whether one of her less-likeable relatives will turn out to be another Metamorphmagus, but the power has got to exist for a reason.

– The Room of Requirements, in its incarnation as the Room Containing Everything Everybody at Hogwarts Has Ever Needed to Hide. I would not be surprised if there were a Horcrux lurking among the Fanged Frisbees.

Stuff I don’t think will play:

– Socks. Rowling probably just thinks socks are funny.

– Anybody coming back from the dead. Speaking from beyond the grave, in the form of a portrait or a voice from the veil, OK, but there aren’t going to be any resurrections, and probably no more faked deaths.

– Harry’s plan not to go back to Hogwarts. Well, I think it’ll play in the sense that something will happen to change his mind about it, but I really think he’s bound to come back in the end.