Weighing in on the PotterCast questions

Pottercast is on tour this summer, and their podcasts are very interesting to listen to. One of the things they're doing is asking each city the same 5 questions. They're going to keep records and check after the book comes out to see which city did the best predicting the outcome, though I think it's going to be like a 5-way tie.

Anyway, I thought I'd weigh in on the 5 questions they are asking with my own answers so I can come back and check if I'm right.

Will Harry live or die? I say he'll live, though he may seem to have died for a time during the book, but he will come back to life or be healed or whatever.

Trust Snape, or Snape is a very bad man? Gosh, this is the hardest one. I have two main reasons to lean in both directions on this one: Dumbledore trusts Snape, so that points to Snape being trustworthy. But Snape is so mean, not only to Harry but to Neville, and Hermione and Ron too. I have a hard time trusting someone who is a teacher but mistreats kids so blatantly.

Is Harry a Horcrux? No

Will Harry return to Hogwarts for his 7th year of School in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I'm torn on this one, too. I think he might show up for some of the year, but not all of it. I can see the point of him not going, he's going to be pretty busy. Yet, it won't be as fun if he isn't there, plus the original idea was for the series to cover the 7 years Harry is at school, so to have him not be at school in the 7th year seems wrong somehow, plus those who don't get the series will be able to say Harry is a dropout and that sets a bad example, and I can't believe Rowling wouldn't anticipate that, though maybe she doesn't care. She does seem to have a theme that how you do in school doesn't necessarily predict how you'll do in the world after school, after all. I hope to see Harry ride the Hogwarts Express and be there for the opening feast and see who the new DADA teacher is but be free to take some time off as he gets info on the Horcruxes.

(This leads me to a sub question to the above which Pottercast didn't ask but which I'd like to weigh in on: Who will the next DADA teacher be? Each year, there has been a different Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. In book 6 we learn that the job is cursed and that a different person has done it each year since Voldemort applied for the job and was turned down. I believe Hogwarts will reopen in book 7 and that the DADA teacher will be someone we haven't met before this book. However, we (Harry) will meet this person before he gets to Hogwarts. Maybe the person will be invited to Bill and Fleur's wedding. Maybe the person will be part of the delegation from the Order who arrive to escort Harry away from Number 4, Privet Drive (though I think that's going to turn into a battle, myself). But this is part of the pattern that has held true for all of the books so far so it will hold true for the last one, as well.)

Will "we" go behind the veil? I put "we" in quotes because I'm a bit unclear what they mean by this. I see three possibilities. First, what I think they mean: that Harry will actually, in a conscious state and with the reader looking over his shoulder, go behind/beyond the Veil and we will see what's back there. I think that's what they're asking. I don't think that's what will happen. The second possibility is that he just won't go back there and the book will continue with him not dying. The third possibility is that Harry will seem to have died, and we will see things from the perspective of another character, thinking Harry is indeed gone for good, but then he will come back somehow, having not been truly dead after all, or having been brought back from the very brink of death by a skilled magical healer. I think this is what's going to happen. We won't see what's behind the veil. Whether Harry will or not, I don't think we'll get details. I guess a forth possibility is that Harry will go beyond the veil and stay there, dead, but I've already said above that I don't think that's going to happen.

HP Prognostications is going to be talking about questions and answers as well, and that should be highly interesting because they always have good, intelligent discussions and interesting ideas.

I'm working on a huge master list of all the questions I can come up with that still need answers. But I probably won't post that till June 20 and it will be just questions, not answers. Things I want to know, not my predictions.