Countdown to Harry Potter 7: Who Will Die in Deathly Hallows?
It's been a while since we had a Monday feature here at Think About It Central. With just weeks to go until the release of the final Harry Potter book, I wanted to share this with you guys -- something I've been working on for some time now. Here are my thoughts -- call them predictions, gut feelings, whatever -- on who might live and who might die in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and why. And be warned, spoilers for all six books abound.
Like approximately seven trillion other people who voraciously devoured the first six books in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of the final volume. I recently re-read the previously published books, and as I did so, I kept one question closer to the surface of my mind than any other: who’s going to die? Now obviously, I don’t know. I can’t read J.K.R’s mind, and I wouldn’t if I could. I want to be surprised. But I’ve got my theories, and I wanted to share them. I’m going to discuss specific characters and how likely I think they are to be on the chopping block. I’ll be using clues from the story, knowledge of literary conventions, analogies and allusions drawn from other works of fiction and my own gut feelings as a writer to draw these conclusions, and I make no promises to their validity (so if you’re placing odds in Vegas and lose your shirt, it’s not my fault). Also, let’s not forget that this is the story of a war. In a war, lots of people die. There have been dozens, if not hundreds of characters named in the Harry Potter books, and every one of them could potentially die. If I don’t discuss a character specifically, it’s doesn’t mean I think they’re safe - it means I think they could just be cannon fodder. In other words, their death wouldn’t impact the readers (or Harry) very far beyond just being another life Voldemort will have to answer for in the end, and there are more important characters to speculate about.
So here’s what I think.
HARRY POTTER & VOLDEMORT: Let’s get the big two out of the way right now. According to the prophecy, “neither can live while the other survives.” The obvious interpretation is that either Harry or Voldemort will have to kill the other. Some people have tried to play with it, to argue that both could die, that “the other” may refer to someone else entirely, but I tend to think that in this instance, for once, Rowling is being straightforward. I think one of them will fall at the other’s hand, and I think it will be Voldemort. Forget the prophecy for a moment: Voldemort has proven himself to be too brutal, too bloodthirsty, too dangerous. He can’t be captured, can’t be contained - he can only be destroyed. Were he to still be alive at the end of this book, alive in any form, then the mythos would be open for sequels and fanfic until the end of time, and Rowling has said she wants to end it definitively. I’m not a betting man, but if I were to choose one death in this book as being a sure thing, it’d be the former Tom Riddle. But what about Harry? Rowling has teased and warned readers for years that they have to prepare themselves for the possibility that he may not survive. Is this just bluster, or is she trying to get her young readers ready for the inevitable? This is more of a gut feeling than any other, but I believe Harry will survive. This story has been about the power of love to triumph over evil, and an ending with Harry dead would ring hollow, I think. Does that mean it will be easy? Of course not. In fact, I expect Harry to suffer and struggle more in this book than ever before, and the sacrifices he makes may be even worse than death… but I believe he will live to see the world he has created. But I wouldn’t put money on that one.
SEVERUS SNAPE: Severus Snape, in many respects, is a wild card. Despite the fact that Harry witnessed him murdering Albus Dumbledore, the majority of fans remain uncertain as to whether or not he has thrown his lot in with Voldemort. A great many readers, in fact, remain certain that he is somehow still on the side of good, myself included. Snape’s motivations, his loyalties and his true feelings, even at this late stage, are completely up in the air. The only thing about him that I am certain about is that, come what may, he will not survive the final book. If Snape turns out to be with Voldemort, then Dumbledore’s death was murder, plain and simple. What’s more, everyone knows it was him. There isn’t a good wizard in the world who doesn’t want to see him taken down. His only safe haven is with the Death Eaters, which is hardly safe at all. If, in fact, he was acting on Dumbledore’s orders, all the previous still applies, plus he’ll be in even more danger when his true allegiance becomes known to the Death Eaters. What’s more, no one in the Order will simply take his word for it. Proving his allegiance, especially to Harry, would require an extreme act of redemption… possibly an ultimate act. No matter whose side he turns out to be on in the end, the only character whose demise seems more certain than Snape is Voldemort himself.
RON WEASLEY & HERMIONE GRANGER: I’m taking the last two members of the trio together because, at this point, their importance and chances are virtually identical. From the beginning, Ron and Hermione have been Harry’s grounding force - his best friends, his confidants, the two people he has been able to count on through it all, and just like his father figures, he will have to learn to stand without them in the end. They will be with him until the last possible second… and in that last second, one of them may very well fall. From a storytelling standpoint, it doesn’t really matter which one - both of them would devastate Harry (and the reader) equally. It is possible, during the course of Deathly Hallows, that something may happen to give the death of one or the other more weight, but as it stands now, their chances are equal. I do not, however, believe that both of them will die. One would hurt Harry severely. Both would leave him utterly destroyed.
NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM: Ah, Neville, the boy who could have been the Boy Who Lived. Although he was shown from the beginning of the series to be rather clumsy and self-conscious, at the end of Sorcerer’s Stone we see a glimpse of the courage that marked him as a Griffindor. In Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, we learn more clearly the source of his courage - his parents. Frank and Alice Longbottom, members of the Order of the Phoenix, were tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange. Their fate clearly scarred Neville as surely as Voldemort scarred Harry, but the D.A. began to teach him to bring forth the courage he always possessed. He fought valiantly at the Ministry, and was one of only two people who responded to Hermione’s call for help in Half Blood Prince. To borrow a pertinent saying from another fantasy epic, Neville remembers the face of his father. However, while Neville is unquestionably brave and has shown drastic improvement in Defense Against the Dark Arts, he is still a novice, and not a match for a fully trained and equipped Death Eater. There is a very good chance that Neville’s bravery and loyalty to Harry will cause him to fall. But if he does, you can be certain he’ll go down fighting.
GINNY WEASLEY: Ginny, we saw in Half Blood Prince, is truly Harry’s heart. Their love is more mature than can usually be expected of children their age, and although Harry wanted to distance himself to protect her, their fates are inexorably linked. Ginny’s death would spur Harry on with an anger and ferocity only Dumbledore’s death could matched. But can he win a battle with Voldemort driven by rage? I think not. In J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5, at one point John Sheridan lies at the brink of death, willing to sacrifice his life to save the universe from a murderous alien race called the Shadows. The ancient creature called Galen asks John a question we may well ask of Harry. It is easy to find something worth dying for. Galen asks, “Do you have anything worth living for?” For Sheridan, it was the love of the Minbari Ambassador Delenn. For Harry, it will be Ginny. For all Voldemort has done, all the people he has murdered, all the misery he has caused, there can be little doubt Harry would be willing to die to stop him. Ginny can ground him, give him a reason to keep going after Voldemort is vanquished. Dead, Ginny could only drive him through pain and grief. Alive, she inspires him with love. And what is it, again, that everyone from Dumbledore to J.K.R. herself has said will be Harry’s greatest weapon?
PERCY WEASLEY: Percy spent the first four volumes in this series being something of a stick-in-the-mud, but otherwise inoffensive. In Order of the Phoenix, though, that changed. He turned his back on his family, threw his lot in with Cornelius Fudge and even tried to lure Ron away from Harry. I don’t think at this point that there are very many readers who would mourn if Percy died. However, his parents (especially Molly) most certainly would. Harry’s fathers have been taken from him one by one - James, Sirius, Dumbledore. Through all this, he has had only one real mother figure in his life - Molly Weasley. The death of one of her children, even Percy (perhaps especially Percy) would be devastating to her. At a point when Harry is surrounded by death, seeing his mother-surrogate so completely destroyed emotionally may even be worse than if she were killed herself. Make no mistake - Percy Weasley is a marked man.
HAGRID: Like many people, I think Hagrid is in particular danger in the final book. While he was never exactly a father figure to Harry like Sirius and Dumbledore were, Hagrid was Harry’s first friend in the wizarding world, his entryway, if you will. He’s also a gentle creature - a truly innocent soul… and in danger from both sides. Wizards don’t trust him because he’s half-giant, giants don’t trust him because he’s half-human. Although there isn’t much of it left in Harry’s world at this point, Hagrid’s death could very well be symbolic of the destruction of the last of Harry’s innocence. And short of Ron, Hermione and Ginny, there are few characters remaining whose death would haunt Harry as much as Hagrid. Things don’t look good for our gentle giant.
THE DURSLEY FAMILY: Let’s recap, quickly, what J.K. Rowling has said about the Dursleys in regards to the final book. She has told us that neither Vernon nor Dudley have any deep secrets they’re hiding - these shallow characters are all they appear to be. She has told us that Petunia Dursley still has a secret, but that she will not turn out to have a hidden magical talent, as some have speculated. I believe that Petunia will reveal something important to Harry - probably something about his mother - but that this will be the extent of their involvement in the final book. I think the Dursleys are safe simply because they’re not important enough to kill.
REMUS LUPIN & NYMPHADORA TONKS: This pair is unique in that their fate is very much tied to that of other characters, not directly, but thematically. Lupin is in grave danger - as a werewolf, he suffers from the same danger from both sides that Hagrid the half-giant does. What’s more, he finds himself particularly at odds with the leader of the werewolves, Fenrir Greyback. Greyback is far more brutal, more bloodthirsty than Lupin himself. Tonks’s chances of death are increased beyond that of any other Order member by virtue of the fact that Rowling has worked quite hard to make us like her. She’s a favorite character, and (as we learned from Sirius), those aren’t safe. However, Lupin and Tonks have a link now, a relationship that - at the end of Half Blood Prince, she was still fighting to make him embrace. Like Harry, Lupin is foolishly pushing away someone who loves him out of a misplaced desire to protect her. The chances of them both surviving, therefore, increases if a member of another “couple” dies. If Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fleur Delacour or Bill Weasley die in the course of the book, the chances that both Lupin and Tonks will survive increases, because even in the hell of war, there has to be some symbol of hope - and in a series like this, that symbol is best embodied in people in love.
LUNA LOVEGOOD: Luna is a wildcard in this battle. Like Tonks, she has become a fan-favorite character in a short period of time, and her death would most certainly impact Harry… but not as much as the other students closer to him, namely Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville. While those four pieces are still on the board, each of them presents a more appealing target than Luna Lovegood, and it may be her peripheral status among the core group that keeps her safe.
ARTHUR, MOLLY AND THE REST OF THE WEASLEYS: In a previous essay, I put forth the theory that Harry has a deep-seated desire to be part of the Weasley family. In Sorcerer’s Stone, when he gazed into the Mirror of Erised, he saw his parents. His deepest desire was to have his family back. But Harry is mature enough, even at that young age, to recognize that his parents cannot return from the dead. That’s why, when he first stays at the Burrow the following summer, he almost immediately is embraced as a member of the Weasley family. In Goblet of Fire, it is Molly who sits in the place of his family at the Triwizard Tournament and Molly who cradles him, “like a mother,” after his ordeal with Voldemort. In Order of the Phoenix, Molly announces that Harry is as good as her son, and in case there is anyone who doubts the sincerity of that statement, when the Boggart later shows her the bodies of her family (her worst fear), Harry is among them. She is the only mother Harry has ever known… and I think she is relatively safe. Harry’s real mother, Lilly, died giving him a power and a protection that is unparalleled in this series, a sacrifice Molly could not hope to equal. Although James fought for his son, should Arthur (Harry’s last surrogate father) die in this book, his sacrifice would equal James’. Molly’s would fall short of Lilly’s, and for that reason, I don’t believe Rowling would call upon her to make that sacrifice. Furthermore, as I said when I discussed Percy, I believe that her emotional devastation, caused by the death of one of her family, would be far worse than her actual death. For that reason, I think that Molly is safe, but the rest of her family - Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George and (by marriage) Fleur - are all potential targets. They may not be at the top of the kill list, but they’re definitely on it.
MAD-EYE MOODY AND THE REST OF THE ORDER: The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix are all basically in the same boat. In the war against Voldemort, they will be the front line, and on the front line, people die. It is hard to say which members are most vulnerable - is Moody in greater danger than Kingsley Shacklebolt or any of the others? I think they’re all in danger… relatively equal danger at that.
MINERVA MCGONAGALL AND THE HOGWARTS FACULTY: Most of us are assuming at this point that, should Hogwarts reopen (I personally believe that it will), McGonagall will replace the fallen Dumbledore as headmaster, and therefore she will stand in for the faculty as a whole in this analysis. With the exception of those faculty members we have already discussed (i.e. Snape and Hagrid), the majority of the faculty is relatively minor. Harry wouldn’t necessarily feel the death of Slughorn, Flitwick, Hooch, or Grubbly-Plank as more than just another notch on Voldemort’s staff. The question of their safety is reliant mostly on the plot. Should the battle spill over into Hogwarts (which I also believe will happen), then each of them becomes more likely to fall… with the exception of McGonagall. She is the remaining staff member (aside from the parade of DADA teachers) who has truly become a fixture in Harry’s life. Her death would impact him more… but not as much as Dumbledore’s already has. Like Molly, her sacrifice could not equal that of her predecessor, and for that reason, I believe she is relatively safe.
DRACO MALFOY: Like Severus Snape, Draco finds himself in a terribly undesirable position. There is no place at Hogwarts or with the forces of good because he tried to kill Dumbledore. The Death Eaters, however, will be out for his head because of his failure to do it. There has been much speculation over the years as to whether Draco was “truly” evil. As of Half Blood Prince, I think the answer is “no.” That does not, however, mean that he will side with Harry in the end. To accomplish an act of great heroism takes a great strength, but so does committing an act of great evil. Granted, the strength an evil act requires is a sort of twisted, diseased strength, but it is a strength nonetheless. Draco did not spare Dumbledore because he realized, morally, that killing him would be wrong, he spared him because he was too weak to follow through with his mission. In the end that sin, weakness, will be considered far worse by the Death Eaters than any atrocity Voldemort has committed. Draco will not likely seek help from the Order, and has nowhere else to go. I believe he still has a part to play, but it may be a final act for him.
LUCIUS AND NARCISSA MALFOY: Draco’s parents’ fate rests largely with their son. At the end of Half Blood Prince, Lucius was still imprisoned in Azkaban. It seems unlikely that he will be forced to sit out the final book as well (or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part), and I do see him entering the battle. His chances of dying in battle are good. Narcissa’s, however, may be better. She has a great fear of the Dark Lord, one that compels her to serve. However, she has one redeeming quality that others in the Malfoy family lack - a mother’s love for her son. While Lucius could conceivably leave his son to hang at Voldemort’s order, it seems that Narcissa would likely find the strength within herself to defy the Dark Lord if her son’s life was in jeopardy. It may be too little, too late, she may die only to be joined by Draco in short order, but should the need arise to give her life for his, I believe she would do it. It would be poetic in this case, an “evil” character making the same sacrifice at the end of the story that the most angelic character (Lily) did at the beginning. I could see Rowling making that happen.
BELLATRIX LESTRANGE: Bellatrix has become the villain we all love to hate. She is Voldemort’s most devoted servant, and a twisted one at that, and would gleefully give her life for him. Furthermore, she is the person responsible for one of the most heinous acts of villainy in the entire series - torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom to the point of insanity. It is Bellatrix who is responsible for Neville growing up with his grandmother, with parents who don’t even recognize him, who clings even to a gum wrapper that his mother gives him out of some vague sense of familiarity. She is the architect of Neville’s tragedy. But as we have said, Neville has grown. He is Frank Longbottom’s son, through and through, and he will not retreat from battle. If Bellatrix Lestrange were to encounter Neville Longbottom, Year Seven, then Bellatrix would have just cause to be afraid.
WORMTAIL: Wormtail is a henchman, at best. His act of treachery against James and Lily was terrible, but there have been a great many terrible acts in this series. Ordinarily, I would say his chances of survival were no better or worse than any random henchman. However, there is one thing that tips the scales toward death. In Prisoner of Azkaban, as Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were ready to execute Wormtail for betraying James, it is young Harry Potter who stands between them, saving Wormtail’s life. As Dumbledore observed, when one Wizard saves another’s life, it creates a debt between them. Now there is some question as to what, exactly, that means. Is it simply a sense of obligation, or is it something more? I tend to believe there’s more to it than simply obligation. If it were that simple, than the debt would be dependent on the sense of honor of the wizard who incurs it. Dumbledore said there may come a time that Harry was glad he spared Wormtail’s life - but as Dumbledore well knew, Wormtail was no man of honor. His blackened, cowardly soul could easily have dismissed a sense of obligation. I believe a Wizard’s Debt must have more to it than that. I believe that, should the opportunity for a Wizard to pay back that debt arise, he will somehow be compelled to do so, whether he wants to or not. In short, I believe at some point Wormtail will have no choice but to place himself between Harry and certain death - and very likely will suffer that death in the process, paying his debt to Harry in full.