Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

What would be the worst possible ending of the last Harry Potter book?

164 replies

spacedonkey · 27/02/2006 17:03

(I have nicked the idea for this thread from another forum I post on so I can't take credit for it)

My lame contribution was:

" ... and Harry woke up to find it had all been an incredible dream ..."

Then someone suggested that it could end with Voldy writing a letter of apology ...

"dear mr potter, sorry for trying to do you in all these years, i saw so many similarities between the two of us and i suppose i was jealous of how well you handle things, and you're so good at quidditch.

sorry for killing your parents, i just get so angry sometimes and i'd heard this thing about having to kill you and i just got carried away

oh yeah, and sorry for the scar

yours

Lord Voldemort BSC Hons"

PMSL

OP posts:
cupcakes · 01/03/2006 13:40

What is the significance of Fawkes? Is he Dumbledore in spirit or something? Is Dumbledore an animagus and is he the phoenix seen at the funeral - or was that Fawkes?

expatinscotland · 01/03/2006 18:04

I think he's just a phoenix.

cupcakes · 02/03/2006 09:21

I find it really hard to believe that Dumbledore won't come back. And I think JK has placed a lot of emphasis on the life of the phoenix without actually using it yet and I think she will in the last book. The significance of the phoenix dying and being reborn from the ashes has to be used and I think it will be linked to Dumbledore.

DumbledoresGirl · 02/03/2006 12:45

Tamba mentioned on another thread the draught of living death and whether that was what Dumbledore drank to retrieve the locket. I must say, I dond't think it entirely fits the pattern of what then happened to him, but JK doesn't tend to mention things casually and I can't think that the draught of living death has been used anywhere else in the books, so how about here on Dumbledore?

JK made Dumbledore say that even wizards can't rise from the dead, so I doublt Dumbledore will be able to either, but I think he could appear to rise from the dead, a la the phoenix, if he had only seemed to die in the first place.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 12:49

dumby's said several times, no spell can raise the dead. but we do have instances of the dead helping out the living somewhat - like when james spoke to harry in the goblet of fire - or the dead taking action - as when phineus nigellus went to his portrait at 12 grimmauld place to call out for sirius after he was killed.

think he's truly gone, tho, and ordered snape to do it.

cupcakes · 02/03/2006 12:57

I find it hard to imagine a HP book without Dumbledore in. But I do think that Harry really needs to become his own man and not have the reasurance of Dumbledore's wizarding strength behind him. So can only do this with Dumbledore being dead.
Am still convinced that the white phoenix is significant.

ernest · 02/03/2006 16:42

I think in the 1st book when they were discussing the philosophers stone, d said he thought the idea of being immortal was horrible. he's also really really old, so it's a shame, but i think his time came & he was happy about this. I think it would be a bit too 'Dynasty' for him to come back in book 7. Hope we don't have to wait a couple of years for it ....

Oliviab · 02/03/2006 19:43

The less said the better about the communicating through matching portraits and also eternal life of a kind through portraits - the potential to kill the action stone dead in each book thanks to this technology gets nicely ignored Grin.

Dumbledore'sGirl - you're right, I forgot it's all a kind of Clockwork Orange lesson in freedom of choice for Harry to learn ('No fate but what we make' I believe was the phrase used in Terminator Wink.

ghosty · 02/03/2006 20:02

I am so relieved I am not the only one obsessed by HP ...
I wasn't but when I read the 1/2 Blood Prince I decided to re read all the others to remember what the hell was going on. I read them all in 4 weeks (DH was really pissed off with me because I did everything with an HP book in one hand ... well not everything Wink)
I then got the 3 DVDs out and watched them back to back ... and cried when I realised I missed out on The Goblet of Fire as they took it off the cinema before I got a chance to go Blush so I have to wait till it comes out on DVD.

Anyway ... I think that Harry is a horcrux and that the only way JK can finish the series is to kill him off while he is doing in Voldy. I reckon they both die and Ron and Hermione go off to be Aurors and carry on Harry's good work.

Am a bit embarrassed about my obsession so please don't tell anyone ... ta xx

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 20:23

Ghosty
I used to slag HP books off - and people who read them even worse! Then I fell ill and couldn't leave the house. A mate of DH's dropped by, I moaned about having nothing to read. He said, 'How about these?' and brought over his set of HP books. I was like, 'God, you must think I'm desperate.' Well, I was. I got to book 3 and was hooked Blush.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 20:27

I was the same way w/The Lord of the Rings. Now I've read that 5 times . . . Blush.

I've read all the HP books 2x Blush.

lunavix · 02/03/2006 20:31

I think harry is a horcrux and will die. But I don't think he should, poor soul has had enough misery in his life without copping it, too.

Think fawkes is dumbledores horcrux perhaps....

Don't think Neville will turn out to be the 'one' as dumbly said that voldemort ended up choosing his opponent... so harry is already 'the one' iyswim.

I'd like a nice conclusive ending though...

Does anyone else think Michael from My family would have made a good Harry? He's a lot weedier than Daniel whatshisface... apparently they didn't plan for him to become so broadshouldered!

I too like TP books... but strangely only the ones with the stupid wizard, I forget his name. There's just something more appealing about them.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 20:35

Fawkes can't be a horcrux for Dumby. That would mean Dumby had murdered someone - that's the only way you can make a horcrux, that's why it's considered the blackest of dark magic.

I do think Harry's gonna cop it. I mean, everyone he loves best has, so to join them would be a release. But I think he's taking Voldy w/him.

Snape's going, too, either him or Hagrid. Or Hagrid lives and marries Olympe. Or Snape lives and marries Trelawney. :o

Blandmum · 02/03/2006 20:48

There is also the key issue that you can only kill using an unforgivable curse if you really mean it. This crops up when harry is fighting belatrix at the end of Goblet of fire. Could Snape really mean to kill Dumbledore?? Even if D ordered him to do it (which I think he did BTW)

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 20:50

He must have meant is b/c the green streak shot out of his wand.

Malfoy tried to use an unforgivable curse on Harry in the Half Blood Prince. Then Harry tried to use one on Snape.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 20:50

Is it b/c they were both underage that they are not able to successfully use them?

Blandmum · 02/03/2006 20:55

Not convinced

Harry is a good enough wizard , even underage ,to do spells that adults can;t, like the patronus. Belatrix say that you have to want to cause pain using the cruciatus, and that Harry can't really do it because he doesn't really want to.....he does generate a spell, it makes her scream but not writhe in pain.

It think it is the same with Adeva Kedavra, you have to really want to kill to use it.

DumbledoresGirl · 02/03/2006 21:05

Expat, Dumbledore defeated the evil wizard Grindelwald (or whatever the name is) in 1945 (see HP1 and his biography on the bak of the chocolate frogs card) so he could have conceiveably murdered someone and made a horcrux. I think a stronger argument is to say that Dumbledore says there are worse things than death so it is unlikely he would strive for immortality.

Ghosty, just to let you know, the Goblet of Fire DVD is out on the 20th March - I alredy have my copy ordered although I did see the film in the cinema!

TambaTheDragonSlayer · 02/03/2006 21:07

I have been reading this thread for a few days now trying to decide what I think the worst possible ending would be for me.

But then I find I cant bare to think about the Harry Potter series ending Blush Blush Grin

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 21:09

Yes, but Dumbledore also told Harry that making a horcrux was an awful, unnatural thing to do. It's so distasteful, Slug tried to cover up telling Tom Riddle what it was.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 21:11

K, add another to the list, I think Bellatrix Lestrange is gonna cop it. I think Neville is going to waste her for turning his parents into permament residents of St. Mungo's.

TambaTheDragonSlayer · 02/03/2006 21:12

Has Neville got it in him to kill belatrix though?

DumbledoresGirl · 02/03/2006 21:12

Yes, I agree with you, it doesn't seem a Dumbledore thing to do. But just wanted to point out that he could have killed someone "for the greater good". I believe Grindelwald is meant to be Hitler.

TambaTheDragonSlayer · 02/03/2006 21:12

And what do we think Luna is going to do in the next book, I dont think JK would have introduced her if she didnt have plans for her.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 21:13

'I believe Grindelwald is meant to be Hitler.'

Huh? Sorry, I didn't get that.

I think by the end of book 7, Neville's going to have it in him to waste Bella for screwing over his parents so badly.

He's been getting stronger and stronger.