Who should have died in Harry Potter #7?

In Wednesdays USA Today there was an article about an interview with J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. In this interview she tells who the two characters that originally weren't supposed are, as well as the character who got a reprieve is.

Well, the two ended up getting killed were Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks and the one who got reprevie was Arthur Weasley.

In the interview, Rowling says:

Fred, Lupin and Tonks really caused me a lot of pain. … Lupin and Tonks were two who were killed who I had intended to keep alive. … It's like an exchange of hostages, isn't it? And I kept Mr. Weasley alive. He was slated to die in the very, very original draft of the story.

Harry Potter #7 (Spoiler Alert!)

Well, I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Do not read further unless you want to be spoiled.

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Back in April I posted how my Mother, Sister and I had each made a list of three people we thought would probably include the two people J.K. Rowling said would die:

One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die...A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil...They go for the main characters... well, I do.

Having talked with BriGal, a friend from #userfriendly on Undernet, I realized that we three interpreted things wrong. It wasn't two deaths that were going t happen, it was deaths = 2 + N, with the plus N being Voldemort (obviously) and the N - 1 not quite so important people who died as well. All in all, over seventy characters die in the book, with 20 of them named specifically along with an unnamed family of Muggles, a bunch of Gringotts goblins and 51 unnamed others dying in the defence of Hogwarts against Voldemort's army.

My Mom – guessing Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger, Professor McGonagall, and Draco or Lucius Malfoy – didn't get any right.

Janelle - – guessing Voldemort, Percy and a member of the Order of the Phoenix – got two right, though I think that Voldemort dying was a gimme and since the OotP were the good guy warriors and one of them dying was pretty likely.

Me, I guessed Draco, Molly or Arthur Weasley and Professor Snape, so I got one right. I guess I';ll have to eat my words about Snape not truly being Dumbledore's agent, as it turns out that Dumbledore intended Snape to kill him.

There were a few things I would have liked to see in this book, like more of Neville, Ginny and others from Hogwarts, but Harry, Ron & Hermione were on the lam for most of the book so I can see how that wasn't possible. Rowling's writing style doesn't really seem to have secondary side plots, so characters not directly involved tend to get left out. Also, even though Ron was supposed to be affected by wearing the real locket, I though his estrangement from Ron and Hermione to be a bit forced and his return had a tinge of deus ex machina to it, but it's not the first time for that in the Potter-verse and nor is it the only time in this book, what with Dobby appearing out of nowhere at the Malfoy's.

All in all, I give this book a 4 out of 5, and the postscript at the end, Nineteen Years Later, makes me wish there were other books ahead.

Who's it going to be — Muggle or Wizard?

Well, the biggest thing about up and coming final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is that two main characters die. In an interview, J. K. Rowling said:

One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die...A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil...They go for the main characters... well, I do.

Talking about this a few weeks ago with my Mom and sister Janelle, Janelle came up with the idea that we would each pick three people from whom we thought the two goners would come from, and then see who was closest on 21 July 2007 when the book is due to be released. I picked two names right away, but it took until Sunday to finally decide upon the third.

Here are our picks:

Nancy Ellen

• Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger (The “sidekicks” theory)
• Professor Minerva McGonagll (My Mom likes the character)
• Draco or Lucius Malfoy

Janelle

• Voldemort
• Percy Weasley (the “git” theory)
• One of the Order of the Phoenix

Cory

• Draco Malfoy
• Arthur or Molly Weasley (the “Weasley parent” theory)
• Severus Snape

You'll see that Janelle says Voldemort is going to die, and while I agree that he probably does, Rowling says that two will die whom she did not intend to die. For me, Voldemort dying is just way to obvious, so I think Rowling means two other characters.

Also, Mom chose a Draco/Lucius possibility while I chose just Draco. I don't think that Lucius is enough of a major character to be one of the unintended deaths that people are making such fuss over. Draco, on the other hand, has been Harry's secondary nemesis from day one at Hogwarts.

The one I had so much trouble choosing was Severus Snape. I'm not entirely convinced that he was an undercover agent for Dumbledore, so I'm thinking Snape's either going to get caught as such by the other Death Eaters or he's going to pay the price for being a double agent (and being truly loyal to Voldemort all along).

All we need to know, now, is who's the character that got a reprieve from death?