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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be released next week
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I am on the list to have the book delivered by Amazon on
Saturday morning. For the Half Blood Prince, I purchased the book from the
stack at Wal-Mart early in the morning. I think in terms of price that it will
be a wash. But I will have to see how the delivery time works out. I plan to
spend most of Saturday evening reading the book. Perhaps the most important part of having the book delivered is that I will not be the victim of a drive by spoiler shouting "Harry dies!" or some other nonsense. I am sure that at midnight, many of the bookstore midnight madness participants will immediately open to the back pages and shout out the ending.
At the end of the Half Blood Prince, my wife reported that the R.A.B. will turn out to be Regulus Black. J.K. Rowling pretty much suggested that Regulus Black is a good guess for R.A.B., and it will likely be Regulus Arcturus Black. Hallows appears to be another name for the items that Voldemort has turned into Horcruxes. And there is probably a danger associated with destroying each one. Harry was nearly possessed and Ginny Weasley certainly was by the first revealed horcrux, the diary of Tom Riddle. Albus Dumbledore apparently had his hand blackened and burnt when he destroyed the second horcrux, the ring of Marvalo Gaunt.
We might guess that there was a plan for seven horcruxes. However, we actually know of only two. Harry Potter also has a scar with strange properties, which I have implied means that Harry himself is a horcrux. See my earlier article titled, Harry Potter is the sixth horcrux, RAB is Regulus Black.
Will Harry live? I believe that the prophecy rings true and that neither can live while other survives. Two characters will go into the book, and only one will emerge and that will be Harry. The rumors persist that Harry will not make it to the end, including that in the UK, no wagers are being accepted due to the fact that it was overwhelmingly odds against survival for Harry. Also, J.K. Rowling is reported to have howled as she wrote those final chapters. She has a lot invested in them, and we do too. Hagrid, Lupin, Tonks, and McGonagall are all disposable. None of the Weasleys really are disposable, due to the nature of their characters. They are all quite sympathetic, and they are all the type we would like to see the world populated with when the battle is over. Harry is destined to move on to greater things, and it is his book, so even if his body dies, we may follow his soul into the afterlife for a happy ending. Hermione could go either way, by making it to the end, or going out in a blaze of glory. My precognition is that she lives.
Snape. Whoo boy. Snape follows the dark lord, only because he wants to live forever. He is entranced by the dark arts, merely because he is curious. His quote in the first book is a giveaway where he says that potions can “put a stopper in” the end of life, and in the movie Alan Rickman looks as if he has achieved the rapture when he says the line. He follows Voldemort because they have the same ultimate goals, but Snape is his own agent. In the end he will turn on Voldemort having been revealed to be a double agent, but will see the error of his ways. Although, he could create a horcrux now that he has snuffed Dumbledore. It seems obvious that Snape had a crush on Lily Evans, and perhaps they were good friends in potions class. It would seem that both were extremely talented in that area. Harry has his eyes from Lily, which may be the final thing that saves Harry, and it will be Severus Snape on whom they have an effect.
Looking back on the theme of the book, it seems to be all about fear of the end of life. The antagonists are all about avoiding the end of life. The term “Death eater”, while sounding fearsome, implies that the followers of Voldemort want to live forever. But they fear the end (Vol de mort). Dumbledore, the spiritual guide of the protagonists, says that it is only the beginning and there are worse things than just snuffing it. While that in itself is not inherently evil, the things that one must do to create horcruxes and split the soul are evil. This requires the use of dark magic, and is a selfish aspiration. It is not necessarily the evil or dark magic that goes with the house of Slytherin. But the self-preservation and selfishness that send characters to that house. Horace Slughorn, one of my favorite characters in the series is a Slytherin, but has no interest in dark magic.
I am also looking forward to seeing the newly released movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (See the Group29 Expectation review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).
See also, the Group29 Movie review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 @ 13:02:23 UTC by BB
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