We Sirius-ly want your opinion ...
and then we'll stop with the Sirius puns
and then we'll stop with the Sirius puns
Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, is definitely dead, but we haven't seen the last of him. Harry holds a secret that's right under his nose that may be the key to contacting him ... even in the GREAT BEYOND. It's the two-way mirror Sirius gives him as a present. Harry finds the mirror after the damage has already been done and Sirius is dead. But Harry, too distraught to think of using it, throws it in the heat of guilt and grief, and breaks it. Will it still work? Will it act as a portal to the "other side?" I think it will.
I hate to say this out loud for fear of being stoned for heresy, but Sirius was never one of my favorite characters. When he died, I was sad for Harry, but Sirius was far too reckless a character for my taste. Because he was forced to be cooped up in 12 Grimmauld Place, his family's depressing and oppressive ancestral home, he began vicariously living through Harry. He encouraged him to go on with the clandestine Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons even though he must have known it would be strictly against Dumbledore's wishes to keep him AND Harry safe at all costs. He was, in many ways, reliving his glorious Marauder years, so much so, that at one point he calls Harry by his father's name, James. Oooooh, not good.
But Sirius has much to tell Harry about his past, information I believe only Sirius can deliver. Why was Sirius at Godrick's Hollow that night when he met up with Hagrid and gave him his motorbike? Why would people believe HE was the spy who ratted out the Potters and not Pettigrew? What did he know and when did he know it? Sirius also knows more about Lily than he's letting on and I think he needs to get this information from him to be able to move along on his journey. Of course, Lupin's still alive and I suppose he could get the same info from him, but it would hardly be as satisfying or dramatic, would it?
JKR won't bring Sirius back just so Harry can have a father figure. Harry has many and I think the point of the story is that Harry will become whole in the knowledge that he's reaped the benefits of everyone he's met along his journey.
I've seen it in print. Sirius Black gets killed and falls behind the veil.
I've seen it on screen. Bellatrix Lestrange uses the Avada Kedevra curse to kill Sirius and he falls behind the veil.
She runs from scene, chanting "I killed Sirius Black" and escapes through the floo network.
And still I am not convinced Sirius is dead.
Part of me doesn't want to believe JK Rowling would kill of all of Harry Potter's father figures. First she kills off his real father, James Potter, quite famously and violently.
Then she kills of Sirius Black, best friend of James and godfather to Harry.
She kills Professor Dumbledore next.
It makes me think Arhur Weasley has little chance of surviving "The Deathly Hallows" if Rowling continues her pattern.
It also makes me wish Snape would become Harry's surrogate father just so he can be in line to die in a violent and painful manner.
The deaths of Harry's father figures is way too formulaic. For that reason I can't believe all of them are dead. I don't want to believe James is really dead. A part of me wants him to be an animagus, perhaps Crookshanks in disguise all this time.
That theory is unlikely. James is by all accounts dead. Sirius, he didn't exactly die convincingly. Something about slipping behind the veill makes his death a little suspect. It's almost like he was put in safekeeping, perhaps for his own good, by one of the aurors or even Dumbledore himself.
If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Sirius making a comeback in "The Deathly Hallows." Then again, it's a longshot and not a very smart bet.
I am of two schools of thought on the Dumbledore: Dead or Alive issue.
On the one hand, I think he's probably completely dead, dead in the way most people would be after taking a swan dive off an astronomy tower after having a magic killing curse leveled at them. JKR is also fond of repeating the fact that once a wizard is dead, you can't bring him back. And if she repeats something, she means it. So, James ... he's dead. But it's that swan dive part that always makes me wonder if our beloved headmaster is just slightly less than dead, while not quite fully alive.
We have seen several instances of how the Avada Kedavra curse works in addition to it being explained in detail. Frank Bryce, Cedric Diggory, the Riddle Family and a rather unlucky spider in Professor Moody's DADA class were all victims of it: A wand was pointed at them, the words are spoken, a shot of green light comes out of someone's wand and they keeled over. Goodnight Irene. No balletic falls. No heart clutching. No death rigors and sputtering farewell speeches. They just died on the spot. Two other characters in the books have been victims of this curse, too, but whose response to it makes some readers (myself included) question just how dead they are and if they'll either come back or be heard from again. One is Sirius Black, who was struck by the curse and then fell back gracefully (practically floating) thru the mysterious veil, and Dumbledore who also did not just keel over, but tumbled -- also gracefully -- off the astronomy tower.
Dumbledore could come back as a ghost, but Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost had this to say about becoming a ghost:
"Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod ... I was afraid of death. I chose to remain behind. I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't have ... Well, that is neither here nor there ... In fact, I am neither here nor there..
That doesn't sound like Dumbledore. He's not afraid of death and would never make such a choice. ("There are far worse things than death, Tom.")
I certainly don't believe we've seen the last of him. Will Harry think to consult Dumbledore's portrait? Did Sirius have his half of the magic two-way mirror on him the night he passed thru the veil? Will Batman and Robin escape the Riddler's trap? Oh, wait ... wrong series.
Tune in to the next episode, "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" on July 21 to find out what happens.
It's clear that Snape murdered Dumbledore with the Avada Kedavra curse.
But does that mean Dumbledore is actually dead?
Death is a dicey subject in Harry Potter. Ghosts play integral roles through the stories. Horcruxes can bring Lord Voldemort back to life. Theoretically, if Dumbledore is truly dead, someone could go back in time and change his fate.
If Hermione can use time travel to attend more than her fair share of classes, surely it can be used to bring back to life the greatest wizard of our time.
Even if Dumbledore is dead, it doesn't mean he's out of the picture. And it doesn't mean he's left Harry to fend for himself. Dumbledore could come back as a ghost to offer Harry advice and strategies on how to defeat Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore could come back in Harry's dreams with similar messages of wisdom and encouragement. Dumbledore has a number of means to communicate with the living if he is actually dead.
From that perspective, it doesn't matter if he is alive or dead.
What does matter is that Snape murdered Dumbledore. Snape performed the Avada Kedavra curse, mustered up all the hate and rage he had against Dumbledore, and used it to kill him.
The Avada Kedavra curse will not work unless the user has a true loathing and disdain for its intended target.
Snape would not have used the Avada Kedavra curse unless he truly hated Dumbledore. Harry needed to see that hate and Dumbledore sacrificed himself to strengthen Harry.
Dumbledore's death was a tremendous loss for Harry, the Order of the Phoenix, the students and teachers at Hogwarts. But his death was necessary.
It exposed Snape for what he is: an evil, backstabbing, death eater whose loyalty lies with Lord Voldemort.
More importantly, it freed Dumbledore to complete his task of stopping Lord Voldemort from returning to power.
A dead Dumbledore can influence the living -- Harry in particular -- better than a live Dumbledore.
Tim Haddock's trying to get all literary on me.
His claim that Ron Weasley's going to die because "all sidekicks die" is one of the worst arguments for a character dying of all the arguments that could be made, mostly because isn't true.
Sancho Panza. Samwise Gamgee. Dr. Watson. Robin. Han Solo. Barney Rubble -- all sidekicks, all alive at the end of the story or episode. Maybe one or two died of old age in someone's fan fiction, maybe someone wishes they were dead so they could see Princess Leia in a metal bikini, but the idea that ALL sidekicks must die is, well, wrong. Sidekicks are there for support, and to offer faith and encouragement to the hero. Sure, some are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that totally sucks, but they don't ALL DIE.
Tim's other argument, that Ron has to die to move Harry forward on his journey, is also off the mark. Apparently, Dumbledore's death, the death of his parents, the death of his godfather, Sirius, his own near-death experiences, and those of his friends, not to mention all the other icky things other characters have done in the past and present in the name of evil haven't meant anything to this kid. He just wants to kiss girls, play sports and get in trouble.
*sigh*
No. Harry has been aware of his destiny since the very beginning, even if he didn't know what it all meant. Harry is ready now. Dumbledore's death did that in a way nothing else could. However, no one else is ready. Ron, the sidekick, is still aggravatingly self-centered. Everyone else must to step up for the hero to complete his journey.
It won't take another "important death" to light a fire under this kid, but more deaths will occur to get the others prepared for battle. If I were a bettin' woman (and I'm not, ask anyone), I'd put all my money on someone who's beloved in BIG way, as it would rally a school, a community.
I don't know who this Gabriel is, nor do I believe his claims that he knows the identies of the goners in the seventh and final book. So, I say this to my esteemed colleague: IGNORE HIM.
Gabriel the Hacker claims to know who gets killed in the "Deathly Hallows," the final installment of the Harry Potter books.
He's wrong. Or perhaps partially wrong.
One of Harry's friends will die in the "Deathly Hallows." But it won't be the one Gabriel chose.
Ron Weasley has to die in the final chapter. He must die for a number of reasons -- most of which I will go into now.
First, Harry does not have the motivation to kill anybody. Even Lord Voldemort. Harry has exhibited no homicidal tendencies at all through the first six books. Even though he knows Lord Voldemort killed his parents, Harry has few memories of his parents. They were never close to him. It's not that they weren't important to him, but Harry hardly knew them.
Someone close to Harry has to die for Harry to muster the desire to kill. Who better than his best friend, his confidant, his sidekick.
Which brings me to my second point.
Being a sidekick is a mark of death in any story. All sidekicks die. Throughout the history of literature, the sidekick has always died.
But Ron has to die for reasons other than to give Harry the motivation to kill.
He has to die to unite the Weasley family. He has to die for Percy to see the error of his ways and return to his family. He needs to die so that Fred and George will stop fooling around with jokes and pranks and use their powers to fight Lord Voldemort.
But mostly he has to die to release the fire that's burning inside of Hermione. She will play a big part in Lord Voldemort's demise. JK Rowling has big plans for Hermione, and one of them will be to become a heroine in the fight against evil.
Ron's death will bring out the heroes in most of the characters close to him. His brothers, his girlfriend, but mostly his best friend. Harry needs a reason to want to kill Lord Voldemort. He doesn't have it yet, but if Ron dies at the hand of Lord Voldemort, it will be more than enough to push Harry over the edge.
It makes too much sense for Ron to die.
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