What’s Next for Harry Potter? Specuation on Book Seven of J. K. Rowling’s Series
The odious little fellow student of Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, who had originally been charged with the liquidation of Dumbledore, was also on the run. The future of Hogwarts itself, still reeling from the full blown assault that killed its headmaster, was in doubt. Meanwhile, Harry Potter has vowed to wreck vengeance on Lord Voldemort, the Osama bin Laden of the Wizarding World. And if Snape falls under his hand, so much the better.
Book Seven of the popular Harry Potter series is due out next summer. J.K. Rowling, who has been made richer than the Queen of England by her young wizard character, has offered few clues as to what is in it. We only know that Rowling plans for Book Seven to be the final Harry Potter novel and that two major characters will die in it.
This last disturbed Stephen King, a remarkable feat, who said, “I don’t want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls”, in reference to the way Conan Doyle tried-ultimately unsuccessfully-to kill his signature character, Sherlock Holmes.
We also suspect that there will be some kind of final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, who had killed his parents, tried to kill him, and is now leading a campaign of terror against the Wizarding World of Merry Olde England. Here’s what I think will happen.
Harry pursues Voldemort to the edge of an abyss. He finds Snape there before him. Harry, with great satisfaction, prepares to dispatch Snape, when Snape suddenly rushes in front of him, taking a blast of magic energy from Voldemort meant for Harry. Shocked, Harry holds Snape on his arms as he dies.
“Why?” Harry will ask.
“Stop your sniveling, you blubbering idiot, and go and get him,” Snape will say. And then he will die. Major character death one.
With a howl of rage, Harry Potter attacks Voldemort. It is an epic battle, which will feature as much fists as it does blasts of magic. Just as Harry’s friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley arrive to help, Voldemort and Harry tumble together into the abyss. Major character death two. And three, come to think of it.
It is revealed that Snape was always on the side of good. Whatever had caused Dumbledore’s arm to whither in Half-Blood Prince was killing him by inches. As Dumbledore did not have long to live, he and Snape staged the killing so that there would be no more doubt of Snape’s loyalty to the Death Eaters. Thus Snape had become an undetected spy in the very heart of Voldemort’s organization.
Oh, and Dumbledore will show up again too, though likely in another form. Dead you say? Remember Dumbledore’s association with the Phoenix, the magical bird who dies in flame and then is reborn.
Book Seven will be a big hit, will sell lots of copies, and will make Rowling even richer. The movie will be pretty good too. But if Rowling or anyone else thinks that it means the end of Harry Potter, she is kidding herself.
Remember what happened to Conan Doyle when he killed Holmes. People accosted him on the streets, demanding that he be brought back. Conan Doyle resisted for years as he had grown bored and annoyed with his signature character. But, finally, he succumbed, first with an “untold” earlier adventure of Holmes, then with his return from death in The Adventure of the Empty House.
So, I think that sooner or later there will be a Book Eight, set no doubt years after Book Seven. Ron, working at the Ministry of Magic like his dad, and Hermione, now a teacher at Hogwarts, will be married. McGonagall will be headmistress of Hogwarts. Fred and George will have a chain of Jokes Shops all over the Wizarding World and will be as rich as Croesus.
And then:
Ron had not been in his study five minutes when the house elf entered to say that a person desired to see him. To his astonishment it was none other than that strange old book-collector, his sharp, wizened face peering out from a frame of white hair, and his precious volumes, a dozen of them at least, wedged under his right arm.
“You’re surprised to see me, sir,” said he, in a strange, croaking voice.
Ron acknowledged that he was.
“Well, I’ve a conscience, sir, and when I chanced to see you go into this house, as I came hobbling after you, I thought to myself, I’ll just step in and see that kind gentleman, and tell him that if I was a bit gruff in my manner there was not any harm meant, and that I am much obliged to him for picking up my books.”
“You make too much of a trifle,” said Ron. “May I ask how you knew who I was?”
“Well, sir, if it isn’t too great a liberty, I am a neighbour of yours, for you’ll find my little bookshop at the corner of Diagon Alley, and very happy to see you, I am sure. Maybe you collect yourself, sir; here’s `Magic Beasts,’ and `The Life of Dumbledore,’ and `Quiddich through the Ages’ – a bargain every one of them. With five volumes you could just fill that gap on that second shelf. It looks untidy, does it not, sir?”
Ron moved his head to look at the cabinet behind him. When he turned again Harry Potter was standing smiling at him across his study table. He rose to his feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then fainted dead away. Certainly a grey mist swirled before Ron’s eyes, and when it cleared he found his collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of butter beer upon his lips. Harry was bending over his chair, his flask in his hand.
“Ron,” said the well-remembered voice, “I owe you a thousand apologies. I had no idea that you would be so affected.”
Ron gripped him by the arm.
“Harry!” Ron cried. “Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?”
With apologies to Conan Doyle and J. K. Rowling.
One other thing.
We’ve seen English wizards, French wizards, and Slavic wizards. But for some reason there have been no American wizards. Surely in the great war against Voldemort and the Death Eater terrorists, America will come to the aid of her cousins from beyond the sea, as has happened so often before in the Muggle World. How about it, Ms. Rowling?
