Dumbledore and Sirius as Ghosts?


There are just a few days before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, and I’ve been thinking… Have we seen the last of Dumbledore and Sirius?

I would say that in Dumbledore’s case, we almost certainly haven’t. He does have a picture in his office after all. We’re sure to hear some advice from that. We might even see more of him in a different context if Alberforth turns out to be as important to the last book as we think.

….You don’t think that Dumbledore and Alberforth switched places at the end….nah…

Anyway, many people think thought Sirius might be back. For a long time I thought that when he “died” it probably didn’t really die. I was sad to see that I was wrong about that, when JK Rowling stated Sirius was indeed dead. I really liked that character.

But does that mean we won’t see Sirius or Dumbledore (outside his frame, I mean) again?

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see one or both of them show up as ghosts in the final book. Whether that will be a ghost ala “Nearly Headless Nick” or a ghost as appeared out of Voldemort’s wand (yes, I know it wasn’t Voldemort that killed him… I meant a ghostly form in that same sense).

Any thoughts on whether we’ll see either of them?

Is Snape on the Good side or the Bad side?


It’s about a week until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, so I thought I should write a bit about what might happen.

Since the end of the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there’s been a debate raging about whether Snape is “good” or “bad”.

The people that think he’s “good” say that he killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore wanted him to, and he’s really still on the good side.

The people that that think he’s “bad” point to all the trouble that he’s given Harry over the years, and that he was playing Dumbledore for a fool the whole time he was at Hogwarts.

I can hear the arguments: “If Snape’s bad, why did he try so hard to teach Harry Occlumency?” and “If Snape is good, why did he kill Dumbledore?”

Believe it or not, I think it was the same reason: To get closer to Voldemort to kill him. If you’re curious why he would want to do that, read what I have to say about Snape being in love with Harry’s mother in a previous post. Snape knows that if Harry dies, there’s no way that he’ll ever get close enough to Voldemort to kill him and his chance will be gone. But what now?

Snape’s Dilemma

What’s Snape’s dilemma? I think Snape is in trouble no matter what he does.

As Book Seven opens, Snape is on the run. Whatever happens from now on, he won’t be safe. He’s a wanted man. The Order of the Phoenix will want him for Dumbledore’s death. The Ministry of Magic Aurors will be after him for killing Dumbledore. I’m sure Harry and Hagrid would want to get him. After going to the “good side”, Snape has got to be on the hit list of the former and present Death Eaters. He couldn’t very well go back to Voldemort and just say “Hey! I was kidding! I’m really on your side!” and have anyone believe him, especially after Dumbledore stood up for him.

The one thing that Snape could have done to get back in with the Death Eaters is exactly what he did… killing Dumbledore. Do I think he really wanted to kill Dumbledore? No. His look of hatred when he killed Dumbledore probably had a lot to do with the fact that Dumbledore DID know Snape’s biggest secret, and he hated Dumbledore for it.

If my revenge theory is correct, at some point Snape is going to try and kill Voldemort. I think he’s likely to fail (and probably die). It might just be enough of a distraction for Harry to finish Voldemort off. If Snape succeeds in harming or killing Voldemort, the Death Eaters will be after him. If he really did turn to be on Voldemort’s side, the Order of the Phoenix (and a lot of other people) will be after him.

He’s in trouble no matter what happens.

So, the bottom line is that at this point I think Snape is just looking out for himself and is really not on either side. He’s looking for a way to exact his revenge on Voldemort. Voldemort will meet his demise, I’m sure… The question is: Will Snape be there to see it happen?

Daniel Radcliffe thinks Harry Potter Dies

TodayShow.com has a brief interview with Daniel Radcliffe.  In that interview, the reporter asks him whether his character, Harry Potter, will survive The Deathly Hallows.   His response:

I think I might die in it, but that’s just my prediction.  I think so, but I’ve no idea at all.  I have no inside hints.

I would be very surprised if that happened.  This is, after all, a children’s book.   It would also be quite a turn-around from how all the other books went.   That’s not to say that I don’t think there will be deaths in the book.  I’ve talked about what I think is going to happen in book 7 already.   I would be very surprised if Harry died at the end.

If Harry did end up dying in the last book, killing him in the last book would end up sinking the series long term.   Instead of being a classic children’s story, very few people would read all seven books knowing that Harry died at the end.

My Top Five Predictions For “HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS”

The book is coming out soon, so here are my top five predictions about things that happen in “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

#5 – Harry is Not a Horcrux

There are a lot of people that think that Harry himself is a Horcrux, but I just don’t see that happening. Voldemort wouldn’t have accidentally created a Horcrux into someone he was attempting to kill.

#4 – Hermoine and Ron Get Married

This, I think is easy: Hermoine and Ron end up together in the epilogue and get married. I think it’s likely that Hermoine ends up as head of Hogwarts, and Ron becomes a famous Quidditch player.

#3 – Harry Becomes an Auror

I think everything about the way Harry has been acting in all of the books point to this being his eventual destiny. He’s tracked down and exposed the bad guys at every turn, and when the Death Eaters disperse after Voldemort is gone, someone’s going to be tracking them down. Who better than Harry, even if he doesn’t have the high marks for it?

#2 – Hagrid and One of the Wesley Family Both Die

As much as I hate to see more long time characters die, I think that Hagrid won’t survive until the end of the series. I think he’ll end up attempting to protect Harry, and he’ll end up dead because of it.

The Wesley family is pretty big, but one of them dying will have a devastating effect on the family. I think it’ll end up being Molly, or one of the twins.

#1 – Snape Is Seeking Revenge On Voldemort

My prediction here has been one I’ve had for a long time now, namely that Snape has been doing everything he’s been doing in order to exact revenge on Voldemort of killing Lily Potter, whom he was in love with.

What? Where the heck did that come from? Well, there are some twists and turns in this explanation, so follow my logic here.

We know that Lily was one of (and probably the only) person that was nice to Snape while they were at school, and this probably did have an effect on Snape. In the chapter “Snape’s Worst Memory”, the scenes that Harry was were of Snape being humiliated in front of students at the school. This certainly could have been his worst memory, but the thing that stuck out to me in that chapter was the way he lashed out at Lily, someone he secretly was in love with. I think that, and not the humiliation was what made it his worst memory, since he probably felt that whatever chance he might have had with her was completely blown at that point.

Oh, and that “nasty boy” that Aunt Petunia refers to? I think that was Snape too.

When Voldemort went after the Potters, and killed them, I think that’s what set Snape on his path of revenge. A lot of people argue that Snape is “on the good side”, or “on the bad side”. Snape is on SNAPE’S side. Snape going to do whatever he can to get at Voldemort for killing the one person that showed him kindness, and that he was in love with.

Throughout all the books, various characters have mentioned that Harry had “Lily’s eyes”. This was always a reminder to everyone that Harry was Lily’s son, even to Snape. Harry’s existence is a reminder to him that James was the one that ended up with Lily, and it probably bothers him every time he sees Harry.

I think Dumbledore knew Snape was in love with Lily, and was the big secret that he never old anyone. He did allude to it when he told Harry that Voldemort never understood “love”. That’s both because of the protection that Lily gave Harry, and the path of revenge that Snape is now on. That’s going to completely blindside Voldemort. Whether Snape survives that or not is another question. I’m guessing he won’t, but it might be distraction enough to help Harry defeat Voldemort.

Have any predictions of your own? Add them in the comments section!

update: A WordPress bug prevented comments from being added…. it’s fixed now. Thanks to Tropichunt.com Guy for pointing this out!

Welcome to the Problogger.net visitors, and the other Group Writing Project folks who submitted this time around!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Arrives July 21, 2007

Get your pre-orders in, because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be arriving on July 21st, 2007.

Last time Amazon sent Harry Potter books out (and the World of Warcraft upgrade, for that matter), they delivered it the date it was released in stores. So, if you want to be sure you get it on the day it’s released, order it from Amazon now.

Update: Thanks to reader Glen who pointed out that it’s JULY 21st, not June 21st. I updated it in the posting. Thanks Glen!