Harry Potter Predictions

In a week this will be absolutely pointless. But, I just want to voice my predictions for the upcoming book, and see how right I am in a few short days' time.

1.) Harry himself is a horcrux (albeit, an unintentional one) and will ultimately have to sacrifice himself to bring about Voldemort's end. This is my die-hard uber-theory, prompted by, of course the prophecy that "neither can live while the other survives" (it all depends on your interpretation of said prophecy), but also by something mentioned in Chamber of Secrets, on pages 332-333 of the American hardback edition:
"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort-- who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin-- can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure..."
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck.
"It certainly seems so."
I would venture a guess that Voldemort, who had every intention of murdering Harry, unwittingly transferred a fraction of the remaining part of his soul when the love Lily Potter demonstrated for her son by her death prevented the Dark Lord from accomplishing the Avada Kedavra curse. It's just a theory, but I'm sticking to it. I of course would like to be proven wrong-- I don't really want to see Harry die... but then again, there's always something cool when the hero goes out in a blaze of glory.

2.) Ron and Hermione will both survive and marry each other. I have become more and more convinced of this as I have gone back and re-read yet again the earlier books. Whenever anyone insults Hermione, be it Snape or Malfoy or whomever, Ron is always the first to stand up for her. All he needs to do is grow up a bit and be a man. (A side-prediction of mine that pertains to this particular one is that if indeed Harry does die, and if the novel does feature Ron and Hermione's lives down the line, then they will have named one of their children Harry. I don't claim to hold to this side-prediction too tightly at all).

3.) Hagrid will die. Rowling's trend over the last few books has been to kill off people, in order of increased attachment felt by the reader. Cedric Diggory's death was a shocker, but come on, we weren't too incredibly emotionally invested in the guy (he'd basically been around for one book). Sirius' death was more of a harder blow, for not only did we get just enough of character development to really empathize with the guy, but it was also tough because of what it meant to Harry-- the last person whom he could really call family was wiped out (we had known Sirius for 3 books). Dumbledore's death, on the other hand, was quite a blow. He represented wisdom, leadership, and the only power tough enough to frighten Voldemort. Rowling has crafted in the reader a sense of loving respect for Dumbledore ever since he caringly explained the Mirror of Erised to Harry over Christmas break of his first year at Hogwarts-- this is why his death hurt so much. There are only three other characters whose deaths could possibly cause more of an emotional pain than Dumbledore: Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid. Since I'm pretty sure that Ron and Hermione will live happily ever after, that leaves Hagrid to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Shame, really-- I think he's my favorite character. But trust me, if Rowling decides to kill off Hagrid, he's gonna go out swinging.

4.) Snape's a good guy. Please. This is obvious. All the debate about this has been ridiculous. Yes, he is loathsome. Yes, he is despicable in how he hates Harry. But seriously, the writing's on the wall. The clues are all throughout Half-Blood Prince that he and Dumbledore had made an agreement that if it looked like Draco was about to suceed in his mission, Snape would actually do it. Snape didn't want to, that's why he prevented Harry from being killed or captured for so long, and that's why he was arguing with Dumbledore (as reported by Hagrid), and that is why he had the look of revulsion on his face before he performed the Avada Kedavra curse (he was revolted by the act he had to do, not by Dumbledore), and that is why Dumbledore was begging him "Severus, please..."-- Dumbledore was begging Snape to finish the job he did not want to do. He killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore's orders to acheive some unforseen greater advantage. My guess is that Rowling's got some semi-Deus-Ex-Machina plot device in store in which Dumbledore's death will somehow strengthen the Order of the Phoenix in ways they didn't think possible. Sort of like an Obi-Wan-saying-If-you-strike-me-down-Darth-I-shall-become-more-powerful-than-you-ever-imagined thing. Incidentally, I also think Snape will die. The Order wants to kill him and the Death Eaters will want to kill him once they learn his true alleigance has always been to Dumbledore-- there's just no getting out of this alive for Severus.

I have some other theories, as well, but I won't explain them, because I haven't thought them all the way through. Most of them include death. Some of them are....
--Rufus Scrimgeour is not entirely on the right side
--Ginny might be a Horcrux, due to her involvement with Riddle's diary.
--Fred and George might die, but if they do, they'll go out in a blaze of glory, just as they did when they left Hogwarts.
--Umbridge will meet a sticky end (I hope).
--Draco Malfoy will die (at Voldemort's hands, not Harry's).
--Lupin and Tonks will get married (I hope-- the revelation of their relationship at the end of Half-Blood Prince was one of the best things about that book).
--Percy will be reunited with the Weasley family (about time, too-- he's a little jerk).
--Neville and Luna will get married.
--Neville will finally come into his own and kill Bellatrix Lestrange, anvenging his parents.


But, after all this is said and done, I would be remiss if I didn't mention something Ben Blakey told me the other day as we were going to see the opening-night midnight showing of Order of the Phoenix. He said that he has faith in Rowling's abilities to tell a good story and to pull something out of her sleeve that none of us saw coming. Ben said that he wouldn't be satisfied with an ending that people like me could look at and say "see, I totally saw that coming... I totally called it, dude." I actually hope Ben's right. I want to be surprised by this book, like I was by the last one. We'll know in a short while.