Time to get past the Internet hype, speculation crapola, and lay your personal predictions on the line for the title of “Hey I’m a Doper; it was obvious. Now listen to me the next time I tell you something.”
Here are mine–and if you join in be brief, do not provide references, and make no wiggle room for yourself. These are spoilers only in the sense that I cannot be wrong; I have no inside information.
No winners unless you have posted only minor errors and get the key points right. Or if you just agree with me that this is the only ending which makes sense.
If you have access to the supposed photographs of the book now being posted on some sites butt out. This is an honest contest.
1: Harry, Ron and Hermione all survive but all lose their wizadry powers.
2: Snapes and Hagrid die. Snapes is instrumental in offing Valdemort.
3: Valdemort dies. Draco Malfoy does not die.
4: Dumbledore makes an appearance in an Obi Wan Kenobe sort of way but remains in the state Potter 6 left him.
5: The last chapter(s) are devoted to post-wizadry HRH lives.
6: Harry loses his scar.
On your specific predictions:
1: Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all live, but only Harry will lose his powers.
2: Snape is instrumental in offing Voldemort, but is also unambiguously (to everyone but the die-hard Alan Rickman fangirls) shown to be evil.
3: Voldemort dies. Dead, kaput, no ghost, no wraith, nothing.
4: Dumbledore leaves an important message for Harry, but does not appear in any manner more interactive than a portrait.
5 and 6, no comment.
Predictions of my own:
7: Hogwarts remains open, and despite what he said, Harry attends until he graduates.
8: Hagrid is named the new head of Griffindor House.
9: A Weasley dies.
10: Draco helps Harry defeat Voldemort.
Hogwarts will re-open, and Harry and the others will be students there despite their stated intentions at the end of book 6.
Harry will marry Ginny, and she will sacrifice herself to save his life. This will provide Harry with the protection he needs as an adult to be safe from Voldemort - the “power Voldemort knows not”.
Neville’s grandmother will be killed by Death Eaters off-page.
Snape is, ultimately, working against Voldemort.
Luna, fun character though she might be, will be pretty much a non-entity in this final book. She may appear in a scene or two, but will not affect the plot in any real way.
Ron dies while assisting Harry in a fight. Harry is in anguish over the loss of someone so important to him, but Hermione urges him on, telling him otherwise he’d be letting Ron have died in vain.
Neville’s special interest in herbology is ultimately revealed to be a quest to undo the damage inflicted on his parents - he’ll find a plant that will restore them to their senses.
Neville and Luna end up together.
It’s revealed that Dumbledore died because the potion, not the real locket, was the horcrux. Therefore, by goading Snape into killing him, he’s destroyed part of Voldemort. That’s the only way that horcrux could be destroyed.
Crookshanks will be involved with a fight with a death eater, and best him/her.
Dumbledore doesn’t leave Harry any final message. Harry moans about that. Eventually he’ll figure out (maybe Hermione points it out to him) that Dumbledore no longer saw him as a child to be instucted, which is why he brought him along at the end of HBP.
It’s a least hinted, if not out-right stated that Hermione will one day teach at Hogwarts. Harry will be offered a position too, but might not take it. Ron would, but he’s dead (see #1)
The very end of the book will have Harry’s child (either by Ginny or Hermione, I prefer the latter) getting his/her howarts letter.
Charlie Weasley dies, but all other Weasley’s survive. Percy continues to be a weasel (no redemptive acts whatsoever). Mr. Weasley’s actions in the Order insure his steady rise in the Ministry (maybe even so far as Minister of Magic someday). Percy, weasel-ish as always, then seeks to reconcile with his family. His father, surviving brothers and sister have nothing but contempt for him, but tolerate his presence for Mrs. Weasley’s sake.
(This one has been somewhat shot down in other threads, but I like it anyway, and am going to include it) It is revealed that Petunia and Lily were twins and both recieved letters of invitation to Hogworts. Petunia did not answer her summons and has been hiding this fact from Vernon and Dudley – Dumbledore has been holding this secret over her head in order to force her to give Harry a home. Before Harry leaves, Vernon, at least, will put some pressure on him about the gold and property Harry owns (which Dumbledore revelaed at the beginning of OotP). Harry might give them some gold to repay them for housing him, but other than that, there will no rapprochement between Harry and the Dursleys – there is just too much bitterness on both sides. Harry leaves Privit Drive on his 17th birthday and never sees any of them again.
Everyone (in the book, but this will/would apply to readers too) will be shocked to learn that the prediction, all this time, was really supposed to be about Neville and not Harry and in the end, Neville saves them all by killing Voldemort himself.
The Weasley twins will end up saving the day at some point in heroic, timely, and stylish fashion.
Hermione will kill someone.
An innocent will die because of Harry’s mistake.
Peter Pettigrew will turn out to be gay, and his attraction to Harry will end up being crucial. Harry will be reluctant but in the end return the affection, and the book’s final sentence will not be about the lightning-shaped scar, but about a scar that Peter inflicts amidst the throes of passion. What?
1 It will be revealed that Snape and more then one of the Mauraders fought over Lily Potter’s affections during their school days, explaining both Dumbledore’s trust in Snape and the antagonism between him and most of the other “good guy” characters.
The three main characters survive.
There’s a cool Werewolf v. Werewolf fight with Lupin vs the evil werewolf wizard whose name I forget.
While Harry tries to keep Ron, Hermione, and Ginny safe, Voldemort or his followers grab them. Harry, Neville, and Luna go after them. Voldemort dies at Harry’s hand with the assistance of Peter Pettigrew who jumps in to save Harry’s life. Wormtail dies in the proces. Harry’s love for his friends is the turning point in the book and Dumpledore’s portrait in the headmaster’s study tells him so.
Neville dies.
Snape dies.
Harry, Hermione and Ron survive.
Draco survives, but his parents and estates do not. At a critical moment, he refuses an order to kill, and goes into hiding. (That may just be wishful thinking, I’m bored of Draco)
Ginny is placed in peril and Harry is given the option of saving either her or the wizarding world.
Harry initially strikes out on his own but realises that he needs Hermione and Ron, and returns to Hogwarts to grow in magical strength.
The Order of the Phoenix (but not the Weasleys) sustains heavy casualties.
Voldemort is defeated by Harry, but not with a Killing Curse.
Hogwarts is open, but almost no Slytherns turn up, and other houses lose about half of their students. Hermione bmakes a concentrated effort to tear down inter-house rivalry.
The DA is reformed, and kicks serious Death Eater butt.
I can’t wait to check back in here in a couple of days. Eee!
There are almost two thousand copies of HP7 sitting in our stockroom. I’ve taken to patting them lovingly. Can’t WAIT 'til Saturday.
Speculation and “prediction” is one thing, fact (and spoilers) something quite else. When you have any actual, factual information from reading the real live book (or from someone who has), please put your comments in this thread (and only there, at least for the first week or so) :Harry Potter #7: (SPOILERS APLENTY): Now that you’ve read it…
For those (many!) posters who want to read the books without having major plot elements spoiled, we want to be as accomodating as we can.
Hagrid will live and get his wizarding status granted for the first time.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny will all live but one or two Weasleys will die.
Harry will not lose all his powers, only those that come from Voldemort (i.e
being a Parselmouth). He’ll be an Auror and get to skip most of the
process since he kicked Voldemort’s butt. He decides he can be a D of Dark
Arts teacher and an Auror during summer breaks and holidays.
Maggie Smith is NOT a spy (I mean McGonagall)… damnit.
Snape is good or at least has a heart buried in there somewhere. He didn’t
“lurve” Lily but through being partners on Potions or something they became
very good friends and she was very kind to him.
One or all of the Malfoys will end up either betraying Voldemort or creating an
opportunity to strike at him. Draco’s parents do love him, and if they feel their
son is in more danger they may waiver in their support. This could be one of
the “love” things that Voldemort won’t see coming.
Dumbledore will appear but will speak in riddles or make jokes about Chocolate
Frogs that no one will get until its almost too late.
Neville will die. He’ll take Bellatrix LeStrange down with him.
Snape will die.
Voldemort will die.
Harry will return to Hogwarts to learn stuff but not as a traditional student. Dumbledore knew he was not long for this world and saved some vials of memories for Harry to view through the pensieve.
Dumbledore is really dead.
So is Sirius.
Harry will find a permanent home at Hogwarts as the DADA teacher, lifting the curse on the job. He’ll live happily ever after.
I’m starting to lean away from the Snape hearted Lily theory, but I’m still willing to commit myself to it. So…Snape hearted Lily.
We’ll find out that Snape (though definitely a wanker in many ways) is on the side of good. He only killed Dumbledore because D was already dying of the injuries from breaking the horcrux, and D told Snape to kill him, to spare Draco and to secure Snape’s position with Voldemort.
My husband’s, which I think is brilliant:
Harry and Voldemort will wind up on the other side of the “veil” in some manner (not necessarily through the archway) during their final battle. There, Harry will see all his dead loved ones, and they’ll be able to help him. Voldemort will have no one, and that’s why he will lose. And Harry will be able to come back to the land of the living.
I really like the idea that Harry will lose his powers in defeating Voldemort, but I didn’t come up with that idea, just read it at the SDMB.
