I blew the 100-page-a-day limit out of the water and finished Book 6 on Saturday night. Matt claims I have ignored all else for the past two weeks and I have to admit to being fairly engrossed. A friend commented that she’d forgotten how good the books were and I guess since I’ve had a couple of kids since Book 5 came out, I have to admit that I had too.
So, if you haven’t read books 5 & 6 yet, you might not want to read any further because I want to discuss some theories and ideas and they’re likely to be spoilers. The first time I read Book 6, I convinced myself that Albus Dumbledore was not really dead, but upon re-reading, I’d have to say there’s just no way. The only question that remains in my mind is whether he knew that Snape was going to use the killing curse on him, or whether he truly was blind-sided by Snape.
Let’s face it, Snape is duplicitous whether he’s shamming the Dark Lord or the Order of the Phoenix. Either way, he’s using some serious magic to close his mind to very powerful wizards. But I don’t want to believe that JK Rowling would be so trite as to have the child (Harry) be right all along about the teacher he’s hated since day 1 at Hogwarts and have the benevolent guide (Dumbledore) be betrayed.
At one point, when Harry is telling Dumbledore what he overheard between Snape and Draco Malfoy, Dumbledore comments something to the effect that he, Dumbledore, may well understand much more about the situation than Harry. That leads me to believe that Dumbledore was willing to die to preserve Snape’s position as double agent and also makes me think that Snape will end up giving his life to help Harry in the final book, thus finally proving to Harry that he was batting for the good guys all along…
I also had a brief glimmer of hope that Sirius’s brother, Regulus, was the one who had destroyed the Horucrux in the locket and that perhaps he was still alive. Again, upon second reading, the mysterious RAB actually admits in his note that he will soon be dead. I guess I just want Harry to have some bit of family there to help him in his final battle with Lord Voldemort.
Which leads me to my next prediction. There’s a second character who is going to die and I’m feeling more and more that it will have to be a Weasley. Bill & Arthur have both survived some pretty bad injuries in the last two books and Ron was nearly poisoned by mead meant for Dumbledore. So that leaves Ginny, one of the twins, Percy (Matt’s hoping that Rowling offs his pompous @ss), or Molly.
Since I’m putting my money on Harry surviving the final battle with the Dark Lord (and also not counting the Dark Lord as one of the two major characters Rowling has admitted she’s killing off in the final book), I’m really, really, hoping that it’s not Ginny so that the poor boy can have some chance at happiness after the book. If love, after all, is what differentiates him from the Death Eaters and what has protected him so far, it seems only fitting that someone Harry loves should live for a change.
But then, it seems so downright un-Harry-Potter for there to be any sort of a sunshiny ending, so maybe it will be Harry & the Dark Lord who die in the end. There is a fair bit of money changing hands in the run up to the seventh book’s release on the 21st, but although I’m holding to my predictions by logging them here, I’m certainly not betting the farm. I’m sure the final installment will be full of surprises and even if I’ve picked the appropriate victims, their respective demises are bound to be as compelling as the tales in the first six books.
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