All of these are good emotional reasons, but I think Rowling has an actual plot reason in mind: some reason she needs Sirius dead for some other part of the plot to work. More than just upping the emotional ante.
Harry, I am your father.
Some of my theories which may or may not make any sense:
- Since this IS a series for kids, Dumbledore won’t die but will retire to a tropical island (didn’t he vacation at one in Book 2?) and McGonagall becomes headmaster since she’s filled in for him before.
- Snape DOES get the Defense Against the Dark Arts gig, but Dumbledore is waiting for him to do something that’ll really redeem him after having been a Death Eater. That’ll happen sometime in Book 7.
- Snape was hot for Lily when they were at Hogwarts together because she was just about the only person who treated him well, which should be a big deal considering the abusive home he came from (note one of his Pensive memories). This would help explain his intense dislike of James Potter.
- Snape will have a grudging respect for Harry as he realizes Harry’s family was also abusive.
- Bear in mind that what we see in each Pensive is from the point of view of whoever “owns” the memory, so take anything about James Potter coming from Snape with a grain of salt.
- Poor, goofy Neville, who is being verbally castrated by his grandmother, does something uber-cool in Book 7. He’ll either take out Bellatrix LeStrange and/or come up with a cure for Lupin’s monthly disorder. Bear in mind, Neville kicks as at Herbology and he does well with positions when Snape isn’t breathing down his neck. Maybe he ends up being a doctor and curing his parents?
- I don’t have the prophecy quote in front of me, but wasn’t there something about “at the other’s hand?” Doesn’t Wormtail get a new hand from Voldemort after he’s been resurrected with some of Harry’s blood? And doesn’t Dumbledore say in Book 3 that Wormtail owes Harry BIG time for sparing his life? Maybe Wormtail redeems himself by bringing down Voldemort?
- I have a feeling Voldemort’s end would be very much like Darth Vader’s – he’ll get redemption of some sort in the end.
- Which Weasley will die? I’ve a funny feeling IT WOULD BE Percy, who will either redeem himself before a heroic end OR will come close to dying and in the process realize what an idiot he’s been.
- Since Rowling wrote in an on-line interview that Harry is an “action” person, his future job will either be as an Auror OR he’ll play Quditch for a few years first before gong into training (the poor kid needs a serious break from the Dark Side, yes?).
- Draco won’t be Harry’s pal, but he’ll slowly realize that his dad’s hero is full of crap. Maybe we find out that Draco is a mudblood on his mother’s side? Wouldn’t THAT mess with his head!
- Harry hooks up with Ginny, Ron and Hermione will be a couple and Neville and Luna will become an item.
- Dunno what to make of Sirius’ “death,” but I doubt he’ll be walking among the living within the last few books.
- Don’t ask my why, but I have a strange feeling that Harry’s scar will disappear after Voldemort is defeated.
- The Muggles will notice some weird stuff happening as the new war amps up. If the non-magical world fully finds out what’s been going on with Voldemort et al, then Harry will be a hero in two worlds and his relatives will now claim him like a trophy since he’s now cool in their eyes. At which point I would hope Harry tells them to go suck his wand.
Patty
From OotP,
Draco’s mom is one of Sirius’ cousins. She’s a pureblood Black.
Thoughts about Sirius Black:
He gave Harry a magic mirror so they could communicate, but he died before they used it. I predict that in the next book Harry will start receiving messages from Sirius in his mirror.
I just finished reading OotP didnt
Harry smash the mirror when he couldnt see Sirius after he died?
Well, remember, Harry DID smash it when he realized it wasn’t working. Perhaps he will be able to repair it, but I don’t really anticipate any Mirror-calls from the other side of the curtain.
I’m still gut-certain that the Marauders were all Gryffindors. I’d love to get a straight answer out of Rowling.
Harry’s father is James, end of story. Rowling has confirmed that personally and over and over, and never meant for there to be any confusion about it. Harry looks exactly like James, with his mother’s eyes (which is important for some reason we don’t yet know).
You know, I’d be pretty peeved if she killed Harry off at the end. For several reasons. Number one, the damn kid’s suffered a lot, and I want him to end up living a decent happy life, and getting old and dying. And number two, I just don’t think that’s a good ending for a story. I actually hate it when protagonists die in the moment of victory in epics. I think it’s done for a single reason, and that’s because epics are built around rising action most of the time, and the author just simply doesn’t know what to do with the main character now that their entire life has changed. So they take the easy way out, kill 'em, it adds some emotional poignancy (manipulative though it is) and all the readers are all amazed by it. Frankly, I’m tired of it.
And the Sorting Hat has been less than straight-forward here. First we here that Slytherins are cunning, and the pure-blood thing almost seems like an afterthought. But in OotP, I think, the hat declares that Slytherins are pretty much strictly chosen on the basis of being pure-blooded. Even though some of the Slytherins we’ve seen aren’t. Nevertheless, Sirius Black has never been pure sweetness and light, and I suspect he probably was a Slytherin. It was probably what made him realize what total losers the rest of his family were.
And I can buy Pettigrew as a Hufflepuff. Sure, they talk about loyalty, and Pettigrew was anything but, but the hat pointed out in OotP that Ol’ Hufflepuff just wanted to make a home for the kids who weren’t particularly cunning, brilliant, or brave. You know, it’s kind like a good personality. “So, what’re the Hufflepuffs like?” “Uh, well, they’re loyal. Um, and hard-working. Yeah. Most of them seem nice.” Better than saying, “They’re pretty mediocre, but one of the wizards who started the school had a soft spot for the kids who just couldn’t quite make it anywhere else.”
James, Remus, Sirius, and Pettigrew were all Gryffindors. I even have a link to prove it. I suspect Hagrid was just exaggerating when he made his famous “not a witch or wizard ever went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin” remark. I really hope we get to see a good Slytherin later, although you can argue that Snape is good, he’s just not very nice. I also want to see what Snape did that made Dumbledore trust him so much (perhaps he let Dumbledore know about the impending attack on the Potters), and to see him realize that Harry is NOT James, despite looking like him, and treat him with at least grudging respect and courtesy. And I really want to know how and why Harry’s having Lily’s eyes are important and what the big secret about Lily is. I think there is more to Harry’s survival of Voldemort’s attack than just the power of Lily’s sacrifice, although I have no idea what it might be. I am sure Dumbledore’s still keeping secrets from Harry (and thusly, from us, too) and I want to know what they are before he inevitably croaks, dammit.
And I think/hope McGonagall will play a more important role in the upcoming war. And that Lupin doesn’t die, because he’s my favorite HP character. I don’t care about Wormtail’s silver hand, lalalala puts hands over ears Besides, Wormtail totally has it coming to him, and at least one of the Marauders has to survive/[/spoiler]
JK has recently updated her site, and if you look around, there are a bunch of hidden facts, although nothing major to the ongoing plot, of course. For example, Ginny stands for Ginevra, and Molly’s maiden name was Prewett (as in those Order of the Phoenix members who were killed in Moody’s photo). There’s also some back story on Dean Thomas.
I would love to know exactly what Snape is doing for the Order. It sounds like he’s a double agent, what with the occlumency and all, but how could that be? He’s obviously more loyal to Dumbledore than to Voldemort - he didn’t seem to be among the Death Eaters in Book 4, and he acted against Sirius who, to the best of his knowledge, was loyal to Voldemort.
He’s actually more of a triple agent. Voldemort believes him to be a double agent, just playing the part of loyalty to Dumbledore while he reports back to Voldemort. But of course, he’s just playing that part, too… Of course, by the time you get to this level, everyone has a very hard time trusting you, and your life is very dangerous.
Snape not showing up at the graveyard would be suspiscious in Voldemort’s eyes, but he does have a good alibi. You can’t Disapparate from Hogwarts, remember? So he would have had to make his way off the grounds by conventional means before zapping over to the graveyard. Add to that, if he’s going to keep up his multiple-agent act, he has to do so discreetly, as well.
And also from Voldemort’s eyes:
Snape: Darn, my Dark Mark beckons me. Hmmmmmmm. Dumbledore, old chum, have to pop away for a bit.
Dumbledore: Oh what for?
Snape: Just have to see Voldemort…D’oh :smack:
Getting back to the original concept of doing a Dallas, while it would make a crap ending it might be a good part of the storyline. Harry wakes up with his mum and dad alive, everythings hunky-dory. But he realises that it is a lie. Does he continue living this perfect fake life or return to the real world? Hmmmm. 
OR maybe it’s done because the author doesn’t feel that the main protagonist should be completely safe from death. Maybe it gets really boring to continually read and write stories where our invincible hero rises to the occasion, beats the odds, and then single handedly saves the world with no consequence or harm brought to himself. They may be the main character, but they are human (usually) nonetheless. And it’s a war going on. Death happens.
I have to agree with this. They try to make Hufflepuff look good, but when you get right down to it, it’s just the miscellaneous category, and the students in it are the Average Joes and Plain Janes of the wizarding world.
I just don’t think Voldemort is fooled. At the end of the fourth book, he says flat-out, “One, who I believe has left me forever… He will be killed, of course.” And there’s all that setup about Voldemort’s skill at Legilimancy. Voldemort doesn’t really act at all in the fifth book - he’s trying to rebuild his strength unnoticed - but at some point, he’s either going to find a use for Snape, or kill him. I’m thinking he’s going to use the Imperius Curse, myself. Maybe force Snape to take out (or at least try to take out) someone really important.
I don’t think so. Voldemort and at least some Death Eaters know that Snape was a traitor in the first war, and it is likely that Snape is the one who “will be killed.”
Think about it. Harry saw Dumbledore declare in open court that Snape has been working for Dumbledore. Snape has obviously given extensive testimony. It would defy reason if none of the loyal Death Eaters who got exonerated, particularly Malfoy, who is such good friends with Fudge, wouldn’t have found that out. Kharkarof knows, and Rookwood might as well, before he got thrown in the slammer.
And yet, that almost certainly must be the case, and that’s always been one of my biggest points of confusion. As I said, it would seem almost impossible that Malfoy wouldn’t know that Snape is a double agent. Yet he has obviously schooled his boy to trust Snape, and various other people say that Malfoy spoke highly of him. Why would Malfoy do this if he knows that Snape was a traitor?
Does Malfoy even know that Snape was a Death Eater? We know that not all Death Eaters necessarily knew each others identities, only the few they could figure out. But still, Malfoy must at least think that Snape is some sort of dark wizard or else he wouldn’t recommend him so highly.
So, what’s going on here? Malfoy hates Dumbledore, yet Dumbledore is Snape’s benefactor and protector. Maybe Snape doesn’t get the DA proffesorship because then that would look like favortism and reveal Snape’s ties to Dumbledore?
I got the sense, though I can’t back it up now, that Snape’s job was not so much to infiltrate the Death Eaters as it was to convince fringe wizards not to go over to Voldemort. But maybe it was to infiltrate. Maybe Snape was in tht circle and we’ve got the whole “he who will be killed” thing wrong.
Riddles within riddles…
Hello, invisibility cloak! Put on the cloak, follow someone from each house and lo and behold you find out where all the dormitories are located and probably some other interesting things.
Actually, it’s silly but this occured to me today.
[spoiler]Rowling has said that Riddle is not Harry’s father. That doesn’t discount that he could be related somehow on his mother’s side. Maybe cousins? Riddle’s father and one of Lily’s parents? Possibly (probably) mother if I am right which would account for the different last names.
Is the whole reason Riddle/Voldemort went after the Potters because he thought that he faced the most opposition from someone related to him somehow and NOT someone who hadn’t known him/wasn’t related at all? Not discounting the prophecy of course but he figured the Potters were more likely because his cousin’s son was the most likely to be his ruin.
Blood will tell and all that. Especially as we know there HAS to be something with Lily or Rowling has just been tossing the thing about the eyes at us to put us off the trail.[/spoiler]