The most emotional point of my 2005, bar none, is when I read that Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore died - at the wand-point of Severus Snape, no less! I just sat there sobbing for the remainder of the book - not really absorbing anything more until a re-read began the next day - cried for about an hour afterward, and was completely down for the rest of the day. (I plowed through the book in about 6 hours, not moving from the couch except to go to the bathroom, and yes, I brought the book with me.)
My boyfriend-now-fiancée just looked at me strangely when he walked in the door returning from the gym, and said, "Okay...what happened?"
In a quivery voice, I managed to say, "Dumbledore is dead," and continued sitting there, staring into nothing, tears pouring down my face.
I had also left my mother a tearful message on the family answering machine ("Hi, it's me. Don't read *gasp* the new Harry Potter book. It's so *choked sob* sad. It's horrible. I hate J.K. Rowling." >click<), which she responded to by calling me back and laughing at me for being such a wuss. (Later she stunned me further by saying no, she hadn't cried when she read that fateful chapter, The Astronomy Tower, and it was probably because she was more used to the idea of death than I was.)
Okay, so I have had six months to read, re-read, and re-re-read, etc., Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and have come up with the following Top Ten (and a half) Things that must, or that in all likelihood will (or that I simply hope will), happen in the grand finale, which rumor has it may be out July 7, 2007 - that's 7/7/07 for all you numerologists. For those of you less familiar, the following acronyms may be used:
PS - Philosopher's Stone (book 1)
CoS - Chamber of Secrets (book 2)
PoA - Prisoner of Azkaban (book 3)
GoF - Goblet of Fire (book 4)
OotP - Order of the Phoenix (book 5)
HBP - Half-Blood Prince (book 6)
HP7 - as-yet-unnamed book 7
1. Harry will return to Number 4, Privet Drive, one last time. In order to not upset her husband, Petunia will allow him entry in the dark of night, and perhaps even awkwardly hug him for the first (and probably the last) time ever. For all that she hates the wizarding world, he is still the last link to her sister, and he is still family.
2. Bill and Fleur's wedding should go off with only minor hitches. I dearly hope that Jo won't be so cruel as to have something horrendous occur during the nuptials. Happiness is imperative to appreciate the misery to come. Hermione or Ginny will catch the bouquet.
3. Harry will pass his Apparition test.
4. Harry may inherit Dumbledore's Pensieve to obtain more information; if so, he must learn to use it, for every time he has entered it someone else has let him out. Maybe the mysterious Aberforth?
5. The infamous locket of Salazar Slytherin will be recovered and subsequently destroyed. Rumors abound that "a heavy locket which none of them could open" (chapter 5 of OotP) is The Locket. Will Harry remember this object when he returns to Number 12, Grimmauld Place? Will he put two and two together and realize that R.A.B. is probably Regulus (Arcturus?) Black, who is the #1 suspect for having removed the original locket and left that horrifying note?
6. Harry will not go back to school for the year, but he may return once to get advice from Professor McGonagall. This may be difficult, as she doesn't know about the existence of the Horcruxes, so unless Harry takes her into his confidence her help may be limited.
7a. Snape...where to start. We must find out what he really did to earn Dumbledore's trust, because although he did tell Dumbledore lo, those many years ago, that he was the one to have told the Dark Lord about the prophecy and supposedly redeemed himself by telling Dumbledore after, my gut says there's something else, something that the Dark Lord knows not. Did Snape tell Dumbledore about the Unbreakable Vow he made with Narcissa Malfoy, and then kill him in order to maintain the illusion he was an active Death Eater? Or does he truly hate Dumbledore and killed him in order to further the Dark Lord's plans? This is the subject of heated debate with Potter-philes. Like Dumbledore, I want to believe the best of people, so I'm of the opinion that Snape did this as Dumbledore requested.
7b. On a related note, is Dumbledore really dead? (See www.dumbledoreisnotdead.com for 'proof' of this claim.) I personally think so, much to my regret, but that doesn't mean he's not able to assist in other ways. Think outside the coffin, people!
8. The tale of Dumbledore and Marvolo's ring...Dumbledore said it was a thrilling tale, and dammit, Jo had better tell it in the next book. Perhaps through Dumbledore's portait in the Headmaster's office? It is likely only a relevant part of the story so that Harry can get an idea of what is entailed in removing a curse from an object.
9. Wormtail (a.k.a. Peter Pettigrew, the wizard of whom Sirius Black was accused of killing - a death which was later discovered to have been faked) must repay his debt to Harry. Harry saved his life in PoA, and as such this as created a magical bond between them which cannot be broken. Wormtail will likely die as a result of repaying this debt.
10. Last, and certainly not least, obviously, Lord Voldemort and/or Harry must die. There are some who do not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that they will be horrified that I have done so – either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort could possibly survive, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Harry may not die as a result of Voldemort's awesome powers, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to your intelligence.
Again, this is a heated topic of debate: Voldemort can't win, because you can't end the series like that. Obviously Harry's can't die, because if not that will just suck and Ginny will never be truly happy, and Ron and Hermione won't be too pleased either. And if they both die, then it's a tragic and honorable sacrifice, but then Harry's still dead and that still sucks, because although it's a 3rd person narrative it's always told from Harry's point of view and how will the rest of the story be told?
Anything further that I may have missed, please let me know.
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