Deathly Hallows predictions

[chanaleh]

I gave up halfway through rereading Book 5 and skipped ahead to Book 6, which I have a hope of finishing by tomorrow night.

Plans for Friday: Shul at 6:30pm, then meander down to the Harvard Square PotterFest for a couple hours, then backtrack to pandemonium_bks in order to pick up my prepaid copy at midnight.

Predictions for Book 7:
Interesting:
* The reason Neville is such a gimp is that he had a heavy-duty Memory Charm placed on him -- probably orchestrated by his grandmother -- sealing off some kind of knowledge about his parents, in order to protect him.
* Fred and George have developed some kind of secret time travel application, which is how they won their Quidditch World Cup bet with Bagman.
* Dolores Umbridge is secretly a half-breed (of some unsavory sort) and that's why she "loathes part-humans".
* Dumbledore’s "defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945" (noted on the Chocolate Frog Cards as his most famous accomplishment, of which we have never heard one further word) will be explicitly related somehow to Nazi Germany and World War II. (The original opening of the Chamber of Secrets, and the flashback of Dumbledore we see in Riddle’s diary, would have taken place in 1942.)
* The Evanses were secretly a wizarding family (although with Muggle blood); Petunia is a Squib.
* We will learn something about "the caved-in passage behind the fourth-floor mirror" (which Fred and George first mention in PoA, when they give Harry the Marauder’s Map).
* The Chamber of Secrets will be important again, revealing some new and even more crucial secrets, possibly to do with the other Founders. We will learn more about the history or origins of Hogwarts Castle (a "stronghold of ancient magic"), and maybe even why Hogwarts and Hogsmeade were so named.
* The new wand Neville got at the beginning of Book 6 -- after his dad's old wand was broken at the Ministry, Ollivander sold Neville a new one and then "disappeared the next day" -- is Rowena Ravenclaw's wand, the fourth of the Founders' Relics.
* Someone will appear to die (or did appear to die) in order to be hidden from Voldemort. (Dumbledore to Malfoy on the tower, end of HBP: "He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine.") However, it's not anyone that Voldemort personally kills (i.e., the Potters), or Dumbledore himself (mostly because of the new portrait), but must be some offscreen death. Broderick Bode?

Boring:
* None of the Horcruxes will be living creatures or people.
* The potion in the cave was itself the Horcrux. When Dumbledore drank the potion, the agony he experienced was actually reliving some experience/consciousness of Tom Riddle’s. Then he had to die in order to release/nullify the bit of soul, which is why he needed Snape to kill him.
* SNAPE IS NOT EVIL. He didn’t want to kill Dumbledore, but Dumbledore had asked/bound him to do so. This is why he could make the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa.
* Dumbledore’s portrait will become a major ally and friend to Harry.
* We will meet the Four Founders, possibly in the Pensieve.
* Godric Gryffindor has red hair.
* Albus Dumbledore is related to or descended from Godric Gryffindor.
* The Weasleys are related to or descended from Godric Gryffindor.
* Lily Evans was related to or descended from Godric Gryffindor.
* Fawkes once belonged to Godric Gryffindor. (We already knew the Sorting Hat was originally his, along with the Sword.)
* We will learn more about the uses of some of the silver instruments in Dumbledore’s office.
* We will learn more about the other Mysteries (love, memory/consciousness, time, death) in the Department of Mysteries.
* Sirius’s falling through the veil was not the same as dying per se. (Remember, Bellatrix hit him with a red Stunner, not the green Avada Kedavra as shown in the MOVIE of OotP!)
* Mimbulus mimbletonia (or Stinksap) will turn out to have some plot significance or special powers.
* Another Metamorphmagus besides Tonks will be revealed, with important plot consequences.
* Stubby Boardman (who bears a resemblance to Sirius) was really Regulus Black, who supposedly died around the time Boardman retired from public life, 15-16 years ago.
* Cats have some kind of sentience or psychic powers we have not yet seen fully explained.
* Harry and Ginny will end up reunited and eventually marry.
* Ron and Hermione will get engaged and/or married.
* Ron will be both Head Boy and Quidditch Captain -- just as he saw himself in the Mirror of Erised back in Book 1.

Plus the ones everyone already seems to basically agree on:
* Harry will visit Godric (Gryffindor)’s Hollow, where he was born.
* Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth is the barman at the Hog’s Head.
* “RAB” of the Horcrux is Regulus Black.
* The real Horcrux locket was the "heavy locket none of them could open" in 12 Grimmauld Place.
* Snape was in love with Lily; when his betrayal led to her death, he regretted it so deeply that he quit the Voldemort side forever. (He still loathes Harry because Harry resembles James, who was his antagonist as well as his rival.)
* Harry's/Lily's green eyes have some plot significance or special powers.
* The four relics of the Founders will parallel the four Tarot suits and the four Grail Hallows (hence the book title): sword, spear/wand, chalice/cup, and dish/coin/locket.

Saturday night, tremontstshul is having a Hogwarts Havdalah Harry Potter Reading Party, 9pm-midnight. Come drink Butterbeer (two kinds: for grown-ups and for house-elves), finish reading in the Spoiler-Free space, and spill all your reactions in the Chamber of Secrets! BONUS: With your event RSVP (before sundown on Friday), email me your predictions about Book 7, and we'll give a prize to the person who submitted the most correct predictions!

Comments

Mine, since you asked, ho ho

[prog.livejournal.com]

Just one, really, and lifted from film critic Roger Ebert: Harry will, by accident, design, or just the nature of the final battle, ultimately soften or even break the divide between the wizarding and muggle worlds. (Ebert then foresaw his induction into MI5, but I'll leave it at that.)

Re: Mine, since you asked, ho ho

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting thought, I hadn't heard it. I wonder how that would play out? With the need for secrecy removed, the whole planet once again becomes an arena for the exercise of wizard power?

Re: Mine, since you asked, ho ho

[prog.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. At a purely literary level it would be a fine stopping point to the series, without need for explicit resolution. The books' whole world ends up changed forever for good or ill - just like the characters - and so it's up to the reader to dream about what happens after. (And a million eighth-grade English compositions suddenly have the same topic...)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

*happy sigh*

Nice, well-thought out spoilers by someone who actually enjoys storytelling. Thank you so much for sharing. If I see one more "AHAHAHA FAKE SPOILERZ HEER I R SO CLEVR!!11!!!!", I'm going to throw something.

my usual prediction...

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

everybody dies, the world ends...

not helpful, am I?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I just have a couple of ideas

- There's lots of references to "there's only one that can kill voldemort". However, I don't think it's Harry. I think it's Neville. He was born at the right time. He's the last person V would suspect, because of his clumbsiness and not-so-good magic powers (which will come back in a vengence once his parents get their noodles back)

- the explanation why Harry was saved from the curse as a baby will be explained. It might have already been explained in prior books (the mother's love thing)

- the reason Harry is at the center of everything is because Harry did get some of the Big V's powers/etc. But he's not "the one". The reason the globe of fortunetelling (in the recent movie) "told" harry the prediction was because Harry has so much of V in him the globe gave him V's prediction.

- at the end of the movie Luna(?) says "my grandmother told me that everything lost comes back to you, in the end". Interesting phrase, since "the end" is upcoming in this book. What returns? Here's a BIG conjecture: Since Neville's the one, somehow in this book Neville's parents get their minds' back (perhaps if Neville dies, his parents "return to him at the end") and his parents are key in getting rid of V (the other one to die).

- I do think Aunt Petunia has powers she denies.

- who's the new headmaster at Hogwarts? Obvious choice: Prof. McGonnell Non obvious: hagrid. Snape. someone else? - minister of magic? Does it matter? Harry quit school, along with several cohorts. Will Hogwarts be just a minor location in the book?

- Ginny has some danged strong magic. But will Harry fall for anyone after Cho?

[melissaagray.livejournal.com]

Interesting & great thought all around, but just a quick note...

* Sirius’s falling through the veil was not the same as dying per se. (Remember, Bellatrix hit him with a red Stunner, not the green Avada Kedavra as shown in the MOVIE of OotP!)

They have said on several occasions that JKR observes and critiques the scripts of each film to make sure they are not leaving out or misrepresenting any crucial plot pieces that fit into her future books. If having Sirius killed vs. stunned really mattered, she would have nixed it, as that is a BIG oops if he's supposed to come back in 7.

I agree with most of your ideas, especially around Neville. I am also guessing that Ron will have to pull something pretty clever off (ever under-dog sidekick has their moment of usefulness in the end...think Zander). Hermione will have to manage some really impressive piece of magic, not just clever, but like bad-ass don't piss off the smart one impressive.

I'm not sure I buy the poisoned potion as Horcrux idea, hiding a horcrux in a horcrux seems like quite a risky 2 for 1 deal....besides, RAB would have had to drunk the potion last time to get the original locket and switch it out, so my guess is it is just a constantly refilling hexed basin.

Dumbledore will be "reborn" in some fashion....having a phoenix as a totem animal and a billow of phoenix shaped smoke rise from your grave has got to mean something.

[missaligator.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. In the new book we will have to learn more about Harry's past, how his parents met, and more of Snape's story.

>Dumbledore’s "defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945" will be
>explicitly related somehow to Nazi Germany and World War II.
I haven't read anything about the political significance of Harry Potter, although there must be books on the topic. Still, I couldn't help but see the parallels between Voldemort's goal of getting rid of the mudbloods and "ethnic cleansing"

I'm not letting myself read the last book until August and I can’t wait!! However, I am getting the book strait from England, so that is some consolation.

[cycon.livejournal.com]

I'm still having trouble with the "Dumbledore is dead" thing. ("He cannot kill you if you are already dead. ...[W]e can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine.") A normal killing curse would not have thrown him off the tower, Harry never sees him actually land, his corpse is never viewed at the funeral, and he's got a very close connection to Fawkes. I'm still thinking Dragonslayer on this one.

[jessruth.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention this when we spoke: I mentioned that Y. and I went to Friday night services last week - but I forgot to mention that the drash was all about How Harry Potter is really Jewish!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Wahaha! I've heard some explanations like that, although I feel it's a stretch at best. :-) I liked this one though:
http://www.ou.org/ncsy/projects/5764/oct31-64/harry_potter_is_jewish.htm

And have you seen this: Harry Potter and the Dark Lord Waldemart?
http://walmartwatch.com/potter/
Someone just sent it to me, and although I'd heard of it before and hadn't bothered watching, I did this time and it is BRILLIANT.

[tpau]

i am betting on Petunia being a squib and desperatly wantingto gte into hogwarts. otherwise there is nto explanation for her knowing all that stuff about the magic world.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Well, it's often occurred to me: All these wizard kids from Muggle families? Overall, their parents must acquire A LOT of knowledge about the wizarding world, how it works, what goes on there, etc. Okay, not every one of them knows a lot, but surely the majority of them are more like Hermione's parents than the Dursleys, and are eager to understand (or aren't going to let Dumbledore swoop in and take their kid somewhere they *don't* have a clear understanding about!). And Petunia does say that her parents thought it was absolutely super that they had this FREAK wizard kid... so I won't be too surprised if Petunia's actual revelation is simply that she heard and retained a lot more than she's ever admitted to since she escaped into Vernon's world. :-P

I definitely want to know what terrifying-yet-compelling arguments "REMEMBER MY LAST" referred to, though...

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Did you finish DH? Well, even if you did, this may not be a good place to leave spoilers.

But as for your comment that Bellatrix's curse that killed (?) Sirius ... I'm pretty sure Rowling deliberately avoids mentioning what color it is. (Why? I don't know.)

A quick Google search indicates the quotation may be something like this: "The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest." -OotP, 805. Yes, I suppose that KINDA implies that the "second jet" is the same color (red?) as the previous jet. But not necessarily. All this is happening very quickly, and it's told more or less through Harry's eyes, and Harry may not have had time to notice that the color of the jets had changed.

I mean, in real life, if there's some kind of horrible accident or crime, and you ask ten witnesses what happened, you'll get ten different stories; the more chaotic the action, and the faster, the more varied their stories will be.

*shrug* Maybe at some point Rowling will say *exactly* what happened to Sirius. If she's even made up her OWN mind.