Scholastic’s 7th Question – What are the Deathly Hallows?

Scholastic is asking you what are the Deathly Hallows.  Head to their Shrieking Shack Poll to let them know when you think we’ll find out – in the beginning, middle, or end of the last book.

I am more interested in hearing what you think the Deathly Hallows are?  I have only one theory on the subject and it stems from Mary GrandPre’s illustration on the cover of The Deathly Hallows.   She shows Voldemort and Harry battling in front of an audience of shadowy people, but in the foreground, directly in front of Voldemort and Harry, are curtains.  This makes me wonder if we are looking into the Veil that Sirius fell through in Order of the Phoenix.  What do you think?

 

If Voldemort dies, how will it happen?

There’s been a lot of debate on whether or not Voldemort will be killed at the end of Book 7. I’ve seen less discussion, though, on the means of his demise. The Harry Potter series has seen it’s share of violence, but it’s never been easy to kill a character. Case in point, consider the battle in the Ministry at the conclusion of Book 5 — there were a dozen or so highly trained and capable wizards engaging each other, but only one death and that one we can judge as accidental. Technically Bellatrix killed Sirius, but he died from the veil and not the spell. Similarly, Harry himself has shown that he’s more willing to see the wicked rot in Azkaban (Wormtail) than be killed.

So in the climactic showdown between Harry and Voldemort, will we witness Harry stepping out of his principled mold and use an Unforgivable curse?

Will it even be Harry that kills him, or will it be Snape, Ron or Hermione, Dobby, Draco, or someone else?

 

Seeing the Dead

Now, I know J.K. Rowling has said that Dumbledore is definitely dead. I am not in any way denying that he is not by asking these questions, but do you think we’re going to see him again in Book 7? There is the portrait of him in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts. That could play a role in The Deathly Hallows. Or what about those chocolate frog cards? The first card Harry ever got had Dumbledore on it, and in The Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore did say that he does not care what they (the Ministry) do to him as long as they don’t take him off the chocolate frog cards. Was this just Dumbledore’s sense of humor showing, or could it have been a clue?

The other person who could make an appearance in Book 7 is Sirius. What do you think? How will we see him? Will it be through the two-way mirror he gave Harry in Book 5? Will it be a portrait? Or will it be through the Veil?

I’m always eager to hear your thoughts and ideas. Please send in your comments!

 

R.A.B.

One of the greatest mysteries that came at the tail end of the sixth book is a note found in the locket Harry and Dumbledore rescued, believing it to be a Horcrux. The original locket, what would have been the Horcrux, had been replaced and the following message was left in the new locket:

 

 

The most common conclusion people have drawn is that R.A.B. was Regulus Black, brother to Sirius. In fact, there are no other people mentioned in all six of the Harry Potter books who have those initials, so it seems to be the most reasonable assumption. In an interview with J.K. Rowling shortly after the publication of Half-Blood Prince, Rowling herself hints that R.A.B. most likely stood for Regulus Black. The following link will take you to a transcription of the interview: http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview2.shtml.

What Sirius told us about his brother is that Regulus was a Death Eater, and when he attempted to disassociate himself, he was killed on Voldemort’s orders (but he was not important enough to be murdered by Voldemort himself.) In Book 5, Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 6 a locket was discovered in the Black home while the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione were cleaning. They were unable to open the locket, and Sirius put the locket in a pile of goods to be thrown away. Could this have been a clue?

What I feel is the bigger mystery, is how R.A.B. discovered the truth about Voldemort’s Horcruxes and came to destroy at least this particular one. We know from Harry and Dumbledore’s experience that two people were needed on the excursion – one to drink the potion (like Dumbledore did) and the other to not allow the drinker to stop (Harry’s role). Assuming R.A.B. left the scene exactly as he found it when he took the locket to destroy, someone else would have had to be in the boat with him.

 

Who could this second person be? One possibility I have come across is that Kreacher, the Black’s House Elf, was R.A.B.’s companion. Kreacher now belongs to Harry, so we could be learning a lot more about this house elf in the final book.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts or comments on R.A.B.’s identity, or the Kreacher theory? What other theories on this subject have you heard?