Who do you think will die in the last Harry Potter book?

[MithLuin]

As clever as Hermione is, she is terribly insecure, and she really does need someone like Ron to be totally impressed by her. And, despite their not-quite-great compatibility....they are head-over-heels for each other, so they'll make it work

But if you think Hermione needs someone who is her intellectual equal, I recommend the Snape/Hermione ship Granted, most of this began well before HBP, and most authors are good enough to graduate her and send her off into the world for a bit first (so she's not so ridiculously young). This is most certainly not canon, and not a direction JKR would ever take the story.... but so what?

Heart Over Mind by Regann is a good introduction, I think. It ends rather abrubtly, but if it is unfinished, it hit a good stopping point. Romance, rated PG-13

Ashwinder is a site dedicated to this ship. Head the warnings/ratings. (They use their own rating system. L and W are R or X)

A few there by duj: Everything I've Ever Done, Post-Mort, Who Lives in Disguise

Dark Sarcasm, another collection of Snape/Hermione stories.
And Whispers, yet another!


Pawn To Queen by Riley
Unfinished, but one of the better known (ie, earlier) stories in this pairing. Basically, Snape decides that sexually abusing Hermione is the least evil thing he can do (in a particular scenario involving Death Eaters), so he hurts her to save her, and the entire story is the aftermath of that event. A couple of graphic scenes.

Lest the Old Traditions Fail by Quillusion (a very short story in which Albus plays matchmaker) Rated PG.

At this point, I realize that I don't remember the titles or authors of most of the fan-fic I read - I can't find anything!


....And if all that isn't weird enough for you, look up a pairing between Hermione and Draco or Lucius Malfoy
such as The Muck and the Mire by Madam Malacia
or A Quest of Paladins by bambu345

[Impenitent]

....And if all that isn't weird enough for you, look up a pairing between Hermione and Draco or Lucius Malfoy

Plenty weird enough, but thanks for the thought.

I am amazed at where people take these things. I mean...amazed. Flabbergasted, also.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Gobsmacked?

[MithLuin]

The main reason for pairing Snape with Hermione is for the verbal sparring:

"If I've never spoken well of someone's work, it was merely because it deserved no such praise."
"Of course, that's the only reason," Hermione challenged playfully. "It has nothing to do with you being stubborn, condescending, spiteful and -- dare I say it? -- pretentious."
"I'm far from pretentious, Miss Granger," he rebuked smoothly. "I simply realize how capable I am and how incapable everyone else is."
"Of course," Hermione rolled her eyes. "It seems that I forgot delusional in that list."
Snape could not help but smirk. "I'll not argue the point with you."
"So, you admit you're delusional."
"No. I only mean to leave you to your own delusion."
"Hmph," Hermione replied indignantly as Snape chuckled at her obvious disapproval.
Heart Over Mind

She and Ron can bicker, but she and Snape can be more clever about it. Of course, the trick is coming up with a plausible reason why Snape and Hermione would be standing around trading good-natured insults. It is out of character for him, and she has good reason to hate him (though converting her is generally the easy part).

So, the other main reason is that the author enjoys a challenge of bringing an extremely unlikely couple together. Of course, since it has been done so many times, it isn't exactly novel any more. In that case, you have to turn to an even trickier project, like Lucius/Hermione.

Or, it can just be fun:
Down the Ferret-hole, An Alice in Wonderland crossover.

[nerdanel]

I don't read fan fiction, partly because I'm not much for pairing together characters that the author hasn't paired together, one way in which I'm generally a purist. Also, I admit that I really dislike the adult/underage pairings that HP fans come up with (particularly disturbing ones that RL friends of mine who are in HP fandom tell me about include, IMO, Snape/Hermione, Snape/Harry, Dumbledore/Harry (make it go away), McGonagall/Ron (where do they get this stuff?), Hagrid and any of the kids, etc.) Pretty much, if two characters exist, someone has probably written them together in that fandom...and with the age differences between them.

I suppose it could be amusing to pair the kids together in unconventional ways, although the textual support is pretty slim. I have two friends, one online and one RL, who swear by Draco and Harry together. We had to agree not to discuss the books together.

Many of the fandom pairings seem so completely improbable to me. Take two characters who hate each others' guts and want to kill each other most days, then write fics in which they fall in love? My sneaking suspicion is that these ships are mostly about what people find hot together, and it annoys me when people commandeer others' characters for that purpose. I know that JKR really doesn't care, though. Probably, I care more than she does.

For all that I've never been accused of being repressed or a prude in real life, though, I find that I am a prude regarding fiction books I see as "clean" (including both LOTR and HP). I'd prefer not to see the HP kids as sexual in any way and I'd prefer a minimum of details about their romances. Yes, I know that in the real world, 16 and 17 year olds are experimenting with first love, and such. But HP isn't the real world, and I wish that it could stay innocent in this respect.

[Frelga]

I don't read fan fiction, partly because I'm not much for pairing together characters that the author hasn't paired together, one way in which I'm generally a purist.

I do read fan fiction, although not HP kind usually, but I dislike gratuitous pairings as well. In fact, I am not even that thrilled about canon pairings. I mean, why do they HAVE to be paired? How many brainy 16 year old girls found the love of their lives at that age?

But Snape and Hermione... Actually, now I think about it, Snape is a pretty good candidate at getting killed in book 7.

[elfshadow]

Actually, now I think about it, Snape is a pretty good candidate at getting killed in book 7.

I agree.

[MithLuin]

I have to admit that I do not like any non-canon pairing for Tolkien's work, and I dislike the idea of reading fan-fiction about romances, anyway. That isn't the main point of why I like the original stories. As far as I'm concerned, romance and pairing people off should just peek around the edges of a story. If the romance is the story....why should this interest anyone else?

But I have trouble taking Harry Potter as seriously as I take LotR, so I have no problem with people doing whatever they want with the characters for fun - not that I'll read it all! And when I write my own, the point of the story is not romance. Torture, perhaps....but not romance.

Most stories that focus on romance have an 'artificial' quality to them - there is some contrived situation that sets it all in motion. So, for Harry Potter, someone drinks a potion or is hit by a curse or needs to be nursed back to health or the Ministry passes a Marriage Law or something like that. Sometimes, the fact that people hate each other is glossed over, but most of the time, the author works at them seeing each other in a new light (not always convincingly, but there you have it).

And I also agree that if the story is "innocent," then any departure from that is (by definition) AU (Alternative Universe). It can't be considered canon-compatible.

Of course Hermione and Snape would never see each other as potential dates! But, if you remove the characters from their surroundings, it is true that they are somewhat compatible (as intellectual equals, anyway). She always defends him to Harry and Ron, and she found Viktor Krum attractive. He's never expressed any liking for her (I mean, as a good student), but he seems to have liked Lily Evans, who is a cross between Hermione and Ginny. Of course, she's 16 when he's 35 (or so). So, not exactly realistic! (Even if that was the age difference between my grandparents...)

I would imagine most people are totally shocked by a lot of the HP pairings. I didn't mean to derail this thread with one, I just thought it might serve as a nice alternative to Hermione/Ron or Hermione/Harry - meaning, if you don't like the way the real story goes, make up your own! And yes, poor Hermione (as the leading female character) has been paired with everyone under the sun (usually humorously, but I'm sure you can find some serious attempts too )

Basically, if Hermione's 'real' choices are between Harry and Ron, (we don't really know any of the rest of her classmates well enough), then Harry is the better choice. He's more mature and more stable (and wiser and more impressive) than poor ol' Ron. Ron really is the sidekick who is used to make Harry look good. That is why it is so strange that she falls for Ron. On the other hand, Harry has a lot of weight on his shoulders and is old beyond his years. Given enough time, Ron will grow up (at a 'normal' pace) and be mature enough for her...but he'll almost certainly never be clever enough for her to respect him.

Although, the more I think of it, I can see Hermione falling for one of the twins - she does respect the cleverness of Fred and George, and they do keep her on her toes with all their antics. (She disapproves, but Harry and Ron have gotten her used to rule-breaking by now!) Also, they are some of the few who will actually challenge her. Everyone else just ignored SPEW or wrote it off, but they challenged her premise by asking (up front) - have you actually talked to the House Elves about this? (Ron's other brothers are too old, I think - but the twins are only 2 years older, which would be fine.) Of course, JKR will not do this .

And yes, Snape has a target on his back now . Poor guy...

[Crucifer]

Harry will die so no one can write a trashy sequel...

[rwhen]

Hello Mith Have you shared your story here? Don't feel that I am stalking or anything, but *here's Johnny*

Who will die...

Snape
Voldie

Possibles

Wormtongue
Luna
Neville

Just sayin'. I have given my reasons for these elsewhere, so won't bore ya with details unless ya wanna know. Then just ask.

*wave* to Frelga and all else.

[Crucifer]

Voldie and Harry... They will die killing each other...

[Primula Baggins]

That's too operatic even for me. Besides, the prophecy that one must die for the other to live can only come true if one of them lives.

[Crucifer]

Besides, the prophecy that one must die for the other to live can only come true if one of them lives.

Not necessarily. That would mean that one of them would have to live forever, so H would need the elixer, or else V would survive, which really can't be allowed. Just because neither can live a full life while the other survuves, it doesn't mean that they can't both die. Nothing in the prophecy about that.

[TheWagner]

Besides, the prophecy that one must die for the other to live can only come true if one of them lives.

Crucifer has the important point of the Prophecy: survive is not synonymous with live in this case. However, there clearly is an after-life in Potterverse. Rowling might be playing with something like this.

[MithLuin]

Hi, Rwhen! (And I do feel slightly stalked....)

Hehe, just teasing...

I guess I haven't shared my story here yet, so here goes:

Metanoia

It's my fanfic of Snape's back story, from the time he leaves Hogwarts and looks for his first job, to the Halloween night when Voldemort kills the Potters. As most all of my main characters are Death Eaters, there are warnings for Violence, Torture, and Death. As promised, not much in the way of romance, though there is a wedding (and a couple of babies are born).

I must say that Rwhen has been very kind and enthusiastic about it So, thank you, dear!


As for the current topic: Voldemort is toast, and Harry will live. Copyright laws will protect JKR's work for about 100 years after her death, so....yeah. She already lets fanfic writers play as much as they want. She doesn't care about that.

[elfshadow]

I think that Harry must live--JKR would not be so heartless as to betray her many younger fans, I think. I honestly think that with such a wide fan base, someone would send her a death threat if Harry died. My guess is that the two deaths are Voldemort and Snape, with Snape dying as he proves to the world (or at the very least to Harry) that his is not an evil heart. Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but I like it.

[TheWagner]

My guess is that the two deaths are Voldemort and Snape, with Snape dying as he proves to the world (or at the very least to Harry) that his is not an evil heart. Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but I like it.

Actually, there are not "two deaths." That is a bit of Grimmsian evolution from Rowling's comment that two characters who she initially intended to survive actually die, whereas another character who was going to die instead lives. (Or am I getting that backwards?) Rowling has implied that there will be many deaths in the book: she had a comment about how this is war, and people die in war. So, there almost certainly are a plethora of characters who were going to die and who's fate remained unchanged.

My list:

1. Voldemort;
2. Harry;
3. Ginny;
4. Snape;
5. Pettigrew;
6. Fred & George;
7. Percy;
8. Luna.

A group of us (including MithLuin, rwhen, Lord_Morningstar and Queen Beruthiel) put together a survey of who people think will live, die, do this, that, or another thing, etc., in Deathly Hallows. It has not gotten too many responses here, but anyone wanting to take 20 minutes to do it, your responses will be tallied and dutifully summarized with everyone else's!

[Tyrhael]

With "survive", I think Voldemort will die but choose to become a ghost out of his fear of death — but this means that Harry would not be able to live, as V still would survive. So Harry _will_ die, as I see it very probable that if V is vanquished he'll become a ghost.

[Crucifer]

I agree, Tyrhael, that Harry will die.
I have a niggling feeling that a certain Padfoot is going to visit... After all, he didn't die, he just went through the veil.

[Primula Baggins]

I haven't given the books the kind of close study many have, but as a more-than-casual reader who has enjoyed them, I seriously, seriously hope Rowling is smarter than to kill Harry. Even aside from making a long story unsatisfying, there are business reasons not to do it. I know I would hesitate to buy the books for my grandchildren (when I have them) if the payoff of seven long books was the death of the hero. Why torture them? And my own enjoyment in rereading them would be largely gone, with the knowledge of the disastrous ending hanging over everything.

The number of serious fans predicting Harry's death does not make me hopeful, though. Too bad; this could have been a classic, still widely enjoyed fifty or a hundred years from now, but if Harry dies I really don't see that happening.