So, I'm left to my theory/fear of what's going to happen while you folks get to read the real thing and I spend my time blurring my vision while reading my Friends page so that I don't trip across any uncut spoilers. As to my theory/fear...:
I"m afraid that in my re-read of the series in order to prepare for this last part, I'm still suspecting that something from the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is going to be critical:
'He said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's,' Harry told Dumbledore. 'He said the protection my – my mother left in me – he'd have it, too. And he was right – he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face.'So I figured that Dumbledore, knowing more about the nature of Love than Voldemort, saw that Voldemort had made a potentially fatal mistake. My fear, though, is that it could be fatal for Harry, too, in order to be fatal for Voldemort. Are Harry and Voldemort now linked by the blood with the magic of the self-sacrifice of Lily Potter in it? Voldemort used it as part of the basis of the restoration of his body. Were Harry to die, would that component of Voldemort's return – of blood, bone and flesh – be suddenly removed from him as well, like a tripod suddenly having only two legs being sure to topple? In particular, would this be the case if Harry sacrificed himself for those he loved? So my fear is that the destruction of Voldemort's evil will require Voldemort to become the victim of the Love he unwittingly let become part of himself:
For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes. But next second, Harry was sure he had imagined it, for when Dumbledore had returned to his seat behind the desk, he looked as old and weary as Harry had ever seen him.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.That wouldn't be the kind of happy ending I'd hope for, despite a great evil removed from the world, but it would be awfully "real" of Rowling to end her story in such a way....
Hurry up, Canada.
