I would just like to send props out to Fred and George by saying that they’ve always had their act together. Ron has said that they get great marks in school, they’re sports heroes for the Gryffindors, and they’re wildly popular with their schoolmates. In addition, they have success with the ladies (“Oi! Angelina! Want to go to the ball?” “Sure.”)
Those are two star kids.
And don’t touch anything they serve you.
I predict without fear of contradiction that at the release of each Potter novel, at least four threads will be started with the theme of “Worst. Potter. Ever.”
One will be called “I waited three years for THIS???”
Rowling has said that one of the first deaths will be a “fan” of Harry. That could mean just about anyone who’s a friend, but if we limit it to people that are devoted syncophants, we basically have Ginny, Collin, and Dobby. Collin has already had near death experience, and hasn’t really been major character as of yet in terms of endearing them to the audience with lots of deeds and pages. If he died, it would be mostly like Cedric dying: a minor character. So that’s probably not it. Ginny has been more of a character, and her death would certainly be devastating to the Weasleys. However, like Collin, she’s already had a near death brush: killing her might be something of a retread (unless its because Riddle still has some power over her, and she gets killed by being manipulated somehow).
She’s also mentioned A death that will be “horrible to write.” I’m not sure killing off Dobby would be too horrible (I find him pretty annoying) but Rowling might think so, and of the three, he’s been in the books the most, the longest. He’d also probably scream and carry on something awful if someone hurt or was killing him, which would be pretty horrible.
Dumbledore could probably be described as a fan of Harry, though that isn’t the first connection you’d think of, and as I’ve said, his death would be pretty horrible, as well as darkening the series considerably. I agree with the Book 5 prediction: that would be the right time for it. We’ve had plenty of years overseen by Dumbledore’s protection and guidance: time to shake things up, right when the action is heating up.
Actually, it is Ms. Rowling who dies, and Francis Ford Coppolla will take over writing the screenplay for…
“Harry Potter Part III”
NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I am resurrecting this because I’ve a few thoughts I want to air out. I haven’t reviewed the books since fall, so forgive me if I am rusty.
Couldn’t Voldemort be Harry’s Grandfather? If Voldemort was at Hogwarts when Hagrid was a student, that would make him about 50-55. According to the time line, it was about forty years ago. James Potter was - guessing here -about 28-30ish when he died.
There is a blood connection between Harry and Voldemort. I can smell it. Maybe a half brother or Wicked Uncle theme. You know how dysfunctional families can be.
Why was Voldemort after James and Lilly Potter? Why were they whomevers ( forget) Secret Keeper? What secret did they have on Voldemort that would make him want to kill him? ( besides the fact that he is a power hungry sociopath.)
I also think that the connection between Petunia Dursley and Lilly Potter ( They are sisters. One Muggle. One Witch) will end up being more defined in this book, I hope. What if, God this is a stretch, Petunia Dursley met Severus Snape when he was a student visiting Lilly…no no no…that is wrong, wrong, wrong.
What if - and I am going out on a limb here - Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, were actually an animagi in hiding? Spying on the goings on at the castle for the Malfoys and death eaters. Who names their cat Mrs. Norris? ( I hope for more excellent lines from Filch in #5. " I remember when we use to torture students. God, I miss those days.")
I am guessing that the death in #5 will be a student. Likeable and harmless, so as to enrage Harry to do justice and break every rule in the school, again. Yet not to popular as the Weasley brothers, to cause emotional problems for everyone. Collin Creevy is my first choice. Hagrid would be a close second, but he is too likeable a character. It won’t be Draco, Crabbe or Goyle. Bad guys never get it until the end.
I can’t see killing of Dumbledore. They’ve had such rotten luck with the Defense against the Dark Arts teachers that think how hard it would be to have fill Dumbledore’s shoes. Unless you brought in Lucius Malfoy, which would really darken up the entire book. Christ, bring in Darth Vader while you are at it.
Dumbledore represents to the reader the Ultimate Father Figure. Killing him off would tramatize alot of kids. Including me.
Well, I’m off the start the whole series over. I’m sure I’ll come up with a whole bunch of other convoluted possibilites to scar your imagination with.
You heard it here first. Along the way somebody really important has to die. My guess, in #7, will be Dumbledore. Harry will learn to stand on his own feet and all that. McGonnagle will become Headmistress. Hagrid will get the Wizard equivalent of a GED and be allowed to practice magic unsupervised. That last could come before #7.
Hermione, upon leaving school, will be offered a teaching position but will turn it down for the time being, finally realizing she will never learn everything. But she will come back some day to teach. If Rowling ever would do another series, with the characters older, Hermione will be teaching and well on the way to being Headmistress.
Ron may be the important person to die, but I rather think Rowling will let him live and come to terms with his position as a younger brother.
Draco will live to become the continuing enemy of Harry, or somehow they will form a close bond. No middle ground at all.
I don’t think he was after Lily and James, but Harry. Why? Perhaps the relative thing…I haven’t come up with a theory as to why. Perhaps it has to do with the Divination teacher’s first prediction? At the end of book 3, Harry told Dumbledore about the prediction Madame Trelawny made during his exam and he said that that took the number of her real predictions to 2.
**
I think Mrs. Norris is Filch’s mother or sister under a curse. I vaguely remember some comment about them resembling each other. And then when Filch was taking the mail-order course because he’s a Squib (is that the right word?)…I just get the idea that he’s trying to fix something with the cat.
**
Maybe a student…but I get the idea that it may be one of the professors, or someone from the Ministry. Actually, I wonder about her killing off Percy. Something’s going to happen with him - he’s such a stickler for the rules, and I get the feeling that that will get him into some trouble. Either he’ll end up helping Voldemort by following the rules so closely or he’ll end up dead. Fred and George, annoying as they can be, have graduated now, and I think their role is going to be fairly minor from here on out.
I don’t get to re-read them just now, as I’m in the middle of my “Resources for Young Adults” class and have to spend large amounts of time reading other books for teen readers.
I’m still sticking with Dumbledore dying in Book 5. I’ll be surprised if he lives to see Book 6. Altho I’m sure that we’ll see him again as a ghost.
I’ve got to agree about Filch and Mrs. Norris. His link to that cat goes beyond a simple master/pet relationship.
My personal thought for the character dying in this book is Mrs. Weasley. She definately a Potter fan, and Harry sees her as a mother figure.
I think Fred and George are still in their last year at Hogwarts. I could be wrong though. They had their OWL’s at 16, before last year, so they are only 17 now.
From the very first book, I’ve had the horrible feeling that Harry and Voldemort are the same person. That’s why, when Voldemort tried to kill baby Harry, he all but killed himself, only kept in a semi-existence by his remaining magic.
A few things make me think this isn’t true, particularly the thought that if Harry were Voldemort/Tom Riddle, it would mean that Harry’s parents never really were his parents at all, and the Dursleys aren’t related to him either. However, there’s obviously some sort of connection between them - both speaking Parseltongue, both choosing a wand made from the same feather, even their colouring. One thing I’m pretty certain of is that Voldemort is not Harry’s father.
I agree about Dumbledore dying. This would probably send Harry over to the dark side for a while (especially if he felt partially responsible) but he finds a way back, and understands dark magic even better. I also agree with whoever suggested that one of the Weasleys will probably die.
Ron and Hermione might end up together. This isn’t Dawson’s Creek though - these teenagers have bigger things to worry about than dating, so I really hope it doesn’t happen too much within the books.
Harry will wind up the series as the new Headmaster at Hogwarts, after defeating Voldemort. During that conflict, Dumbledore will sacrifice himself.
At some point (probably book 6), Harry and Draco will find themselves forced to work together, fighting on the good side. (cf. of Top Gun and a bunch of other Tom Cruise movies)
Ron & Hermione, definitely.
Harry & Ginny, probably.
Harry will find out more about his parents.
There will be another Professor of the Dark Arts. 
Hogwarts will briefly be taken over by Voldemort & his evil followers, temporarily halting classes.
Voldemort will come very close to carrying out his sinister plan & then…be stopped by Harry, with the aid of a phoenix (again).
Harry will be in serious peril, but will be helped/saved/resurrected by his friends: Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Sirius, & the ghost of Dumbledore. One of his friends will sacrifice their lives for Harry.
Harry, Ron, & Hermione will learn how to shapeshift into animals.
Harry’s parents will make more appearances from the other side to help Harry, perhaps in his darkest hours.
Hello y’all. This is my first post here. Fun stuff.
I’ve read almost all theories about deaths, and I see points from all views. This is truly a cliff-hanger!
One thing though that has kinda taken my interest: The House-elves. There has been a lot of plot development with Dobby and Winky. Winky seems to be a sleeper character. I just don’t have the guts to try to guess on anything very concrete, and I’m talking a little over my head 'cause I haven’t read GoF for at least 6 months, I never finished the very ending for the 2nd time, and I’m dying to run home for lunch now to get it…Anyway.
Winky has a score to settle, knows a lot about the Death-eaters and Other sinister characters and I’d be deeply disappointed if we didn’t get more out of her. Dobby, and I can’t quote anything but can’t help to speculate, seems very powerful. I think there’s some mention about how powerful they, the House Elves, are at some point. But he protects harry from lucious for crying out loud. Something gooooood’s gonna happen there. After all, JKR has spent quite a bit of character time on the House-Elves. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict that the H.E’s have something to do with the Order of the Phoenix…HA! that was fun:)
There’s also a lot of talk about socks. Have you guys noticed that? Alright, I know I sound completely weird now, but socks are a big deal, I think Albus even says something about socks with the Mirror. Anyway, things are not what they seem in this book, so maybe there’s something to socks in the wizarding world. hehe, i can’t believe i just said that.
I wonder if Rowling is stalling and taking her sweet precious time because she is waiting for some of these kids that have gotten into this whole world time to grow up a little. I’ve thought about this since she started talking about the story getting lots darker, and making comments that this is HER book and HER world and she’s not gonna sugar coat it because some daddy and mummy don’t want to freak their little one out. I think she might really be going for the mother-load true tale of love, sacrifice and redemption. I think as a mother of elem kids that we need some good stories about coming of age too…something decent but not too clean about sex and teen-age love. She’s got so many books going now that young kids who get started on the story can be delayed until 11-12. Ok, i admit, this maybe just my wish and not speculation.
So, what do yall think about the House-Elves and Socks?
I’m afraid, that, due to ‘database errors,’ I posted without reading the entire thread, which I never usually do. Still, it’s actually quite handy to make your own predictions before you see what other people have said. So Sampiro, I didn’t mean to copy you! (Us Sams always have the best ideas ;)).
I just re-read the end of GoF, and have a few new sure-fire (hah!) predictions for the next book or two:
Dumbledore’s right, the Dementors will work for Voldemort, and they will constiute a seemingly-unstoppable army (much like the Orcs) that the ordinary wizards have to work out a way to defeat.
One of the ways the Goodies fight this unstoppable army is with their own army of Giants. Perhaps the House Elves will join too - the biggest and the smallest.
The first third of the book will be set in the summer holidays. Mrs Weasley says that hopefully Harry will be able to come to her later in the summer. Something will happen while he’s visiting them, probably involving Fred, George and their new joke shop.
Fred and George will send samples from the joke shop to H, R and H at school now and then, and some of these samples will prove ironically handy for fighting the bad guys.
Dumbledore ‘has his reasons’ for sending Harry back to the Dursleys. I wonder if those reasons will become apparant in this book?
Hagrid says ‘Great man, Dumbledore. S’long as we’ve got him, I’m not too worried.’ Uh-oh. That’s practically a death sentence for Dumbledore. I’m not sure whether he’ll die in this book or the next, though.
Fleur does come to work at Hogwarts, possibly as a Potions teacher while Snape’s away doing ‘what needs to be done.’ Harry asks himself if Snape has gone to make contact with the Death Eaters, pretending that he was really on Voldemort’s side. That sounds a bit too obvious to me, but I can’t work out what else he might be doing.
Draco will turn really bad in book 5. He will redeem himself before the end of the series though, probably after he does something so evil it shocks even him.
I don’t think Rowling would do this, and in any case, like I said before, I hope there’s not too much about teen relationships in the books anyway (if kids want to read that, there are hundreds of other books they can go for) … but, I think Draco has a crush on Harry. He tried to get him on his side from the moment he saw him, and has been acting like a spurned lover since. Most of his bad behaviour, in fact, centres around Harry. Perhaps a safer way of writing this would be to have him secretly want to be friends with Harry and desire his approval, rather than add homosexuality to the list of complaints some fundamentalists have against this book. Either way, Harry doesn’t return the feelings.
The kids will be in the fifth year, and will have the wizarding equivalent of GCSE’s to take (I forget what they’re called). Even in the middle of a brewing war, I bet they’ll still have to take the exams. Hermione will, of course, get all A*'s, Ron will do pretty well too (considering how good he is at chess, he must be good at the more logic-based subjects), but Harry will only get average grades, not that he cares.
The exams will be the only thing that will be settled by the end of the school year. Everything else will have to wait for the next books. Perhaps even the big battle doesn’t take place till then. Book 5 does seem a bit early to have the climactic battle scenes, but from the way Dumbledore’s talking, it sounds as if they will. There must be something that delays the major battle until at least book 6.
This isn’t a prediction, but does anyone else see the ambiguity in this speech?
‘Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.’
‘What happened’ to him was that he was killed! He did the right thing and died for it! This is actually a pretty good argument for taking the easy path!
So what’s going on with the Quidditch team?
It’s always bugged me that it was such a big deal that Harry was the youngest player in a hundred years, because the rest of the team couldn’t have been much older. The Weasley twins are only two years older than Harry, and it sounds like they were on the team in their second year (they’re already known as great athletes at the start of their third year). Wood (the captian and keeper) graduated at the end of book 3, but what about the chasers? All three chasers have been on the team from the start so none of them could have been past their third year when they joined; I can’t recall if what year they’re in is ever mentioned. Will all three be back in book 5?
Predictions: Ron will be the new keeper (I think it’s already been established he’ll be on the team and that’s the open spot). He has some kind of showdown with Draco during a match (maybe Draco switches to chaser since he sucks at seeker). The twins become co-captains in their final year.
As an unlikely alternate scenario Harry becomes the captain and has a big conflict with Ron, having to bench him for his own protection or something and Ron feeling like it’s Harry once again stealing the spotlight.
I’ve had an uneasy feeling since book 3 that Neville is toast.
Which sucks because Neville is the only one incompetent enough for me to identify with. 
Julie
If Dumbledore dies, who will replace him as headmaster?
Proffesor McGonagal, Fudge or Madeye are all possibilities. Personally I’d like to see Lupin as headmaster.
Ooh, I know what would be really fun: Either Karkarov (sp?) or Lucius generously offer to take Dumbledore’s place as headmaster and Fudge, the edjit, will agree. Hogwarts will become like Durmstrang where the kids are taught the Dark Arts and Harry and Chums are victimized and the Slytherins get special privleges and special cool hats. Sirius returns on Buckbeak and kicks the baddies out and Buckbeak gets made head boy.
Sure they couldn’t have been that much older, but the point was that first years (almost) never make the team. And with good reason – it seems that first years generally have little or no flying experience. Muggle-raised students would obviously have had no chance to learn, but Harry’s first flying lesson included both Muggle and wizard-raised students and it was clear that Madame Hooch was starting them all with the most basic of basics.
At the Cup campground in Goblet of Fire Harry sees children playing with toy broomsticks that barely get their feet off the ground, but it doesn’t seem that wizard children do any real flying until they get to school. (Draco is probably an exception to this, but he’s spoiled and his parents are not the most law-abiding of folks anyway.) Since the Quidditch season begins early in the school year, few first years would ever have the skills needed to make the team.
If Harry becomes an Animagus, he’ll be a lion. Gryffindor lion vs. Slytherin snake.
Hagrid will die in book 5.
Dumbledore will die, but probably not until book 6 at the earliest. Snape will then become Headmaster of Hogwarts. McGonagoll might have to die too, for this to happen.
Neville will come into his own and do something heroic, and survive, and end up becoming the new DADA teacher after his graduation. (Unless Harry gets DADA and Neville gets Herbology.) His parents will stay crazy.
Dudley will be at least partially redeemed.
Ron will be tempted into inadvertantly doing something to betray Harry. He’ll realize his mistake and pay for it at great personal cost, conquering his jealousy. (There’s a slim chance he’ll die paying for it, which is the only way we’d get a Harry/Hermione relationship, but I doubt it.)