Predictions

In exactly one week, I will have in my hot little hands, the last Harry Potter book. I will be unavailable for anything other than eating and possibly sleeping until the book is done. Which would be the next day. Definitely by Monday I would be done.

Okay, here are some of my predictions. It will be interesting to see how they compare to what actually happens. After I read Deathly Hallows, I'll post again. Not to give away any spoilers, but just to say "50% (or whatever) of my predictions were right" or "This is just as good as Goblet of Fire." Things like that. I personally don't mind spoilers. Even if someone had told me that Dumbledore died and Snape's the one who did it, I would still read it to know how it happened.

So here are my predictions:

1. There will not be a happy Hollywood ending.
It'll be more like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" where the main characters do not live happily ever after. Rather, some live, some die, and life goes on, with both regrets and some satisfactions. You know, like real life, after war. Some soldiers come home as heros, but that fades, and some come home and eventually end up homeless.

2. People who live:
Hermione, Ron and all the Weasleys, the Dursleys, Neville, Luna, all the other kids in Hogwarts. That includes Draco, who I think will survive, but with consequences.
Hagrid, McGonnegal, Trelawney, all the other teachers and adults at Hogwarts. Yes, I think Snape lives.
All but one or two of the Order of the Phoenix. JKR killed off Dumbledore and Sirius, and it is battle, so people on both sides will die.

3. People who die:
Harry, Voldemort, maybe Bellatrix, maybe Lucius

4. If these people die, I would be so sad:
Hermione, Ron and all the Weasleys, Neville, Luna, Hagrid, McGonnegal, Trelawney.

5. Relationships: Harry comes to his senses and goes back to Ginny. Ron and Hermione finally hookup. Luna and Neville do not hook up. That would just be too neat.

6. Characters who become prominent:
Neville becomes a crucially deciding factor. How, I don’t have any idea. It would be really cool if Neville rises up like Eowyn killing the King of the Nazgul. Like he mortally wounds Voldemort, Voldemort weakened still manages to fatally wound Harry, and Harry deals the killing blow and then dies of his wounds. But more probably, Neville and Bellatrix will have a showdown.
Luna makes a prediction. Not like Trelawney's predictions, but more like she sees something that the others don't. She's the one who thinks way outside the box and goes against conventional wisdom and so she perceives things that others don't and kind of dismiss because she seems like such a flake.
Snape turns out to be good and he does something as critically important as killing Dumbledore and being revealed as the Half-Blood Prince.

6. Characters and elements we see again:
We see the larger, international wizarding world again like we saw in Goblet of Fire, my favorite so far. The giants, house elves, centaurs, and other nonhumans play crucial roles.

7. A yarn shop opens in Hogsmeade :) And not managed by Fred and George. Who will continue to be very successful.

8. Neither Harry nor his scar is a horcrux.

9. Kreacher helped R.A.B.

Okay, this is a partial list. Probably during this week I will come back and edit this post to add more. But will stop once I get the book.

Can. Not. Wait.