Alan Rickman is too good – he’s stolen the show and made people fall in love with a character who’s not supposed to be sympathetic. Rowling spends a good proportion of her media time trying to convince people to be less sympathetic to Snape and Draco.
What I’m worried about now is Ralph Fiennes’ Voldemort in the 4th movie. I really hope they slather him with buckets of makeup, because an attractive, well-acted Voldemort is going to mean he has fans. I predict Voldemort fan clubs, I predict bizarre interpretations of the novel in which Voldemort is the hero and Harry is the villain. I predict the Internet being flooded with Voldemort slash :eek:
Anyway, back to the books. To further develop my prediction – if Harry is a metamorphmagus, he’ll probably need Tonks as a mentor. That’s probably the sort of thing you need to learn how to control.
I don’t see Lupin dying at all. We already had that plot line in OotP, and I think Rowling probably gave Harry’s father two close childhood friends because she intended for them to have different story arcs. Besides, since he represents the sort of people who are excluded and marginalized in the present-day wizarding world, he really needs to be around when they start building a better world after the war. (And I do think the ending has to incorporate Massive Social Change on a grand scale – Rowling has made it pretty clear that the Death Eaters are a product of social ills that were already present in the wizarding world, and if these problems aren’t fixed, there’s just going to be another Dark Lord in the next generation.)
I’m curious to see what she makes of Sirius’ death in the next two books – she’s hinted in interviews that she had a Reason that won’t become apparent until later in the series. My guess is that he’s either going to be the guide for Harry’s archetypical journey to the Underworld; or, more interestingly, since he’s a blood relative of Ron and Ginny’s and arguably died to protect them as well as Harry, Dumbledore will perform the charm that gives them the same sort of blood-protection that Harry gets from Lily. (This is the only way I can see Ron surviving the series, by the way.)
True. One of the clues books I was reading posited that Trelawney does see accurately, but doesn’t interpret accurately. For instance, there was a large black dog dogging Harry in PoA; it just wasn’t the Grim.
I don’t think Harry will live past the end of Book 7. Somehow, defeating Voldy will require Gallant Personal Sacrifice on Harry’s part. But it will be OK because Lily, James & Sirius are waiting for him on the other side of the veil. Harry also can’t find True Love, since that would leave a main character in mourning at the end of the story.
As for Book 6, Harry finally learns all about himself, his past, his powers, etc., under the personal tutelage of Dumbledore. Why else that cover? All of the reasons Dumbledore had for withholding information from Harry are now gone; it’s time for him to prepare Harry with all the tools he’ll need for the big confrontation in Book7. I don’t see the need for Dumbledore to die at all, but if he does it can’t be until the last book.
The pensieve will allow Harry to retrieve his subconscious memories of his first year of life. That’s how we’ll get the back story on his parents.
My friend has a theory that the HBP doesn’t refer to a half-blood mage, but rather to . . . . Hagrid! That the trolls will become a major part of the next book and Hagrid is their prince who helps with wizard/troll relations. I haven’t read the book carefully enough to really have anything to say about that, but I thought I’d mention it because it’s interesting.
Something about Sirius’s death just really didn’t sit right with me. It was so quick, the lack of a body, nobody knows what happens in there, etc. Why did he go out like that instead of being taken down by a spell? And why do that to Harry? As soon as he gets a parental figure for the first time, kill him off? So everything just keeps getting worse and worse for him? Now he’s probably going to have guilt over it. I can ramble on about why it just doesn’t sit right. Of course, I don’t really have any theories about where that whole plot’s going to go. I don’t have nearly the knowledge that folks here have, hehe.
This is my favourite part from Winterhawk’s website:
I also noticed that Ginny (“under the malevolent and seductive influence of the anti-Christ figure, Harry Potter”) is matched to Harry, which means she’s a Ginny/Harry shipper! Isn’t that sweet!
Seriously, though, I’ve heard crazier theories on Mugglenet
You know, I could really imagin this in dialog. Wasn’t his mom a troll?
“urrrr, yeah boys, me mum did have some title, now that I think of it. Her da slayed more other members of other tribes than any other in the area. She was called daugher of he-who-we-are-led-by. I suppose that would make her a princess.”
No, wait, I think he’s a quarter giant, not troll. Whoops.
Hagrid’s a half-giant. His father was human and his mother was a full-blooded giant.
(I’ve got to wonder how that relationship came about. Maybe Hagrid’s mom had a midget fetish ) A giant chieftain is apparently just the toughest guy in the tribe, so I really can’t imagine them having any sort of royalty. And Hagrid doesn’t have any social standing among the giants; they barely tolerated him and Madame Maxime.
The Half-Blood Prince is probably the lion-like guy described in that quote that Rowling gave us. I’m guessing that he’ll be a new character, and he’ll probably be the new DADA teacher.
Or the lion-like guy is Hagrid after Madame Maxime gives him a makeover? A stretch, I know but I had hoped he’d be the Half-Blood Prince; I’ve a feeling the giants and, by extension, Hagrid, will play a big part in defeating Voldemort.
I don’t think this is a spoiler for book six, but to be safe:
[spoiler] In his confrontation with Voldemort, doesn’t Dumbledore say there are worse things than dying?
That seemed significant to me, indicating that the punishment for the Death-Eaters and possibly the big V is for them to be stripped of their powers by the end of book 7; that being the one thing I would think was worth than death for them. [/spoiler]
I still think Snape will end up being the half-blood prince. The public revelation that he has half-blood, even if it royal, will be a crushing blow. He still will be the Head of Slytherin House, but will have less respect from the students. The fact has been know to both Dumbledore and Snape but not reveled publicly. This is one of the reasons that Dumbledore trusts Snape so much.
We will learn more about Lilly and James, and find out that both of them were not always nice people. This has something to do with Lilly’s wand being good with charms. She charmed Snape and something when wrong that publicly humiliated Snape. In the end, they both redeemed themselves by saving Snape (or something close to that) at great personal risk. Since he had to be saved that is why Snape hates them so.
One the shipper front I see long term Ron and Hermione, however they will date and break up like many highschoolers. Harry and Ginny, also long term, bring Harry into the family he loves. However, Harry will still be experimenting in the male/female department (sorry I don’t think J.K. is going to do anything more than the werewolf/homosexual connection, so Harry will only go for girls). So, he might even get a girlfriend from Slytherin, which would be nice to show that some Slytherin are really OK people with ambition.
Heh. My own theory for Voldemort’s end is poetic justic – a Dementor’s kiss right after he achieves bodily invulnerability and immortality. He’ll never die – but he’ll be in eternal torment without death for a release.
The thing is, I really like that idea, but Harry would be kind of screwed if he can’t kill Voldemort, wouldn’t he? (Unless we’re going to find out that the prophesy is all a load of hooey, but it sounds like JKR is setting it up to be taken seriously.)
