Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

With the long-awaited (and long overdue) release of the 7^th and final Harry Potter title emerging last month, eager Wizarding fans are fairly drooling with anticipation over Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Anticipation, as we all know, breeds rumors from the realistic to the fantastic. While many would-be Potter enthusiasts have made predictions with zeal, only true fans can be trusted to make accurate and probable hypotheses as to the outcome of Harry's teenage years.

For those of us who need a refresher course in Potter trivia, let us briefly re-examine the loose ends left to us in the sixth novel. At the close of The Half-Blood Prince, we are left with an imminent battle approaching in which our main character may sacrifice himself to save the rest of wizard-kind, a possibility that the school will close, at least 3 parts of Voldemort's soul to destroy, and, most intriguing to me, a raging debate as to where Snape's true allegiance lies. Of course, there are more trivial aspects of the novels on which we could focus, such as the whisperings of an engagement between Ron and Hermione, but frankly, such rumor-mongering is trite in light of the more pressing matters mentioned above.

While many well-meaning followers have predicted that the grim title may foretell our hero's demise, rest assured that, though J.K. Rowling has been known to kill off our more likeable characters in the past, she has hinted in several interviews (see www.jkrowling.net) that Harry will survive the series at least partially intact. Due to the nature of the books, which emphasize the struggle between good and evil, and to her target audience of teenagers, Rowling may not in good conscience be able to off our dashing young man. This would create juxtaposition between her message and the outcome of the aforementioned struggle.

Like many of you, I was saddened and angered by Rowling's decision to murder our beloved headmaster so close to the end of the adventure. The sentimental side of the reader tends to believe that Dumbledore is not really dead or will find some path to resurrection; the constant connections between Dumbledore and Fawkes, the phoenix, seem to point in that direction, alluding to a "rebirth" of some sort. His demise seems so unnecessary at first glance: a token death meant to provide a sensationalist closure to the end-before-the-end. Look more closely, however; I believe that Rowling shared my opinion that Harry's dependence on Dumbledore's guidance would only hinder him in his final missions, and therefore eliminated a very real stumbling-block to Harry's development as a character. Ergo, I must put all my tearful protests to her treatment of the headmaster aside and agree that logically, Dumbledore stood in the way of Harry's ultimate success and had to be removed from the picture. Because of this tragic death, the question on many Potterheads' minds is: "Will Hogwarts finally close?" Rowling has been toying with this possibility since Chamber of Secrets, and has never followed through with an actual closure. Why should we believe that she will make good on this threat in the sixth? In fairness, we have never been presented with quite so serious a reason as to postpone our magical learning, but to close the school, Rowling would again go against the very nature of her novels and Dumbledore's values by allowing the students to remain at home for a year. This is, in fact, a critical time period for magical learning in that younger students need to learn defensive spells in theory and practice. Their parents were raised in a generation that feared Voldemort and organized the original Order of the Phoenix, a defensive group. Students will need that training for the obstacles to come. I believe that Professor McGonagall will be placed in the Headmistress' position and that the school will remain open; however, watch for a drastic increase in security measures (no dementors, please) and the inevitable shift in faculty members.

The central plot of The Deathly Hallows will involve Harry's search for and destruction of the remaining Horcruxes, seven pieces of soul that Voldemort has hidden in various objects (animals) throughout the Wizarding world. Harry and Dumbledore have undeniably destroyed two of the seven: one being Riddle's diary in The Chamber of Secrets, the other being the Riddle family ring in The Half-Blood Prince. One piece of soul still resides in Voldemort himself; this leaves us with four Horcruxes to seek out. The number four also correlates to the number of Houses at Hogwarts, which was Voldemort's only real home. Objects relating to these houses would have held appeal for the Dark Lord, and two of these objects are named in The Half-Blood Prince. Dumbledore correctly assumed that Slytherin's locket became a Horcrux, but after nearly destroying himself to find it, he instead finds a false locket with a note from R.A.B., a former Death Eater, who claims to have destroyed the Horcrux within (Side note: logic would lead us to believe that this note was left by none other than Regulus Black, Sirius' brother). Dumbledore believes that R.A.B. was unsuccessful in his attempt to obliterate the locket. The other known article was a Hufflepuff cup, which has not been located.

The surety of Hufflepuff's goblet and the Slytherin locket as Horcruxes will ease Harry's path somewhat; however, the locations of these artifacts still remain at large. Harry will have to discover the identity and fate of R.A.B. in order to find the locket, and his knowledge of the cup ends during Hepzibah Smith's memory in the Pensieve. All that remains after that point is sheer speculation. We can assume that an article from Ravenclaw or Gryffindor may house another piece of Voldemort's soul, but Dumbledore states that he is reasonably sure that the only surviving artifact from Gryffindor is the sword residing in his office. This leaves us with the possibility of a Ravenclaw treasure and the snake, Nagini. Without knowledge of what the Ravenclaw artifact will be, Harry will struggle to locate other memories in which the item may be revealed. All of these Horcruxes will be destroyed without much incident; the true struggle begins when Harry must locate and destroy the serpent Nagini, who is never far from Voldemort himself.

Finally, and perhaps most spellbinding of all the loose ends left in the sixth novel, we come to the war over Severus Snape's true allegiance: to the Order, or to the Dark Lord? To some, this has been the most nerve-wracking subplot in the entire series, watching and waiting for the inevitable showdown between the two sides of Snape's tortured existence. I have heard many theories, most of which arrive at the conclusion that Snape's loyalty was to Voldemort the entire time. Dumbledore's trust in him was that of a feeble old man clinging to the ideal that there is some good in everyone, as long as we have the patience to seek it out. As the story in The Half-Blood Prince develops, we find more and more evidence attesting to that fact. His oath to Narcissa Malfoy to protect Draco at the beginning and his murder of Dumbledore at the conclusion bookend a very tidy little saga in which it would seem that Snape has been a Death Eater all along. As much as I loathe the character, I must disagree with the Snape-bashing once and for all. Snape is not a Death Eater...anymore.

"How can he be anything else?" I can hear the indignant cries of Dumbledore's Army echoing in my ears. Listen carefully: Snape murdered Dumbledore at Dumbledore's own request. It's a stretch, but if you examine the scene in which Snape performs the killing curse, there are several inconsistencies with the Death-Eater theory. When Snape enters the room, Draco is having difficulty with the task the Dark Lord entrusted to him. Rowling writes that "Dumbledore was pleading" with Snape (Half-Blood Prince 595). Not pleading for his life to be spared, I argue, but pleading for Snape to relieve Draco of this burden, protecting his students to the bitter end. I believe that Draco's inability to murder Dumbledore will become a huge factor in The Deathly Hallows. We also see that Snape had "revulsion and hatred" on his face at the moment he decided to perform the curse (Half-Blood Prince 595); some believe that this was directed toward the headmaster, but I believe this was an expression of disgust at the act he had been asked to commit. If you are still unconvinced, I merely ask you to keep an open mind; Snape has been such a key figure throughout the novels that I believe he will play a vital role in the seventh as well. Rowling has a habit of developing characters far further than her readers expect, and I believe that Snape will be no exception.

Like many of you, I have grown weary of hypotheses about the tiresome ideas of young love, ultimate sacrifice, and the well-deserved demise of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, because those areas are merely backstory, a means to a more thought-provoking end. I hope that true Harry aficionados will see the careful examination of the previous novels in this prediction. We are unable to see the end because, as always, Rowling is full of surprises, and I daresay she will prove all our predictions wrong once again.