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The 7th Wonder

  By Asad Laghari

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on 21st July, 2007 at exactly 12:01 A.M. In London's history museum, J. K. Rowling will be giving free Deathly Hallow books to everyone, signed by her to the winners of a lottery competition. Later that morning, JKR will be reading the book to special people chosen by her.

In the following paragraphs, I will outline explanations and possibilities concerning Harry Potter book 7, for example: What are Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes? Who is the mysterious R.A.B? Where is Slytherin's real locket? Is Dumbledore really dead? And Is Snape really evil?

Why the 7th book is called 'Deathly Hallows':

When the name of the seventh book's title, 'Deathly Hallows' was announced, many ideas popped up in people's minds, however, one lies above the others: the name is associated with the legend of King Arthur. In King Arthur's legend, they are the four hallows:

The Holy Grail

The Broken Sword

The Stone, the Dish or the Pentacle          

The Spear of Destiny

The story was that King Arthur and his Knights set out searching for the Grail and proved themselves worthy of it. They found a wasteland where the Grail and the rest of the Hallows were guarded by a man known as 'The Fisher King'. He was badly injured and as the legend goes, he would be healed when whoever worthy of the grail would arrive.

But how does this relate to Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes and 'Deathly Hallows'? The theory goes that the Deathly Hallows are the four relics synonymous with the Hallows of the Fisher King:

Hufflepuff's Cup represents The Holy Grail

Gryffindor's Sword represents The Broken Sword

Slytherin's Locket represents The Stone or Dish or Pentacle

Ravenclaw's Wand represents The Spear of Destiny

So that's one part of the title 'Deathly Hallows', but what about 'Deathly'? Why would the Hallows be deathly? Simply, because they contain a piece of Voldemort's soul.

'Hallow' could also come from 'Halloween', the night when Harry got his scar, the night Harry's parents died, and the night Lord Voldemort lost his powers.

R.A.B and the missing locket:

Who is R.A.B? We know that he was a Death Eater and that Voldemort killed him personally. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius shows him his family tree tapestry to Harry. He tells him about his brother, Regulas, saying, 'Stupid idiot...he joined the Death Eaters.'

When Harry asks if he was killed by an auror, Sirius says, 'No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders more likely... From what I found out when he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out.' Well, Voldemort always wanted to keep his Horcruxes a secret, like when he gave Lucius his Horcrux -the diary, he did not tell him what it was. If we presume that Regulas Black was the mysterious R.A.B, then everything will fit into place. He told Regulas to hide his Horcrux, without telling him what it was. Now we can guess here that Regulas took the locket home thinking about where to hide it and what was so important about this locket. He probably did some revealing charm and found out what it was. Then the second piece would fit in, 'he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out.' Well, just like Sirius said, 'you can't hand in your registration to Voldemort. It's a lifetime service or death.'

But then what about the fourth piece: where is the locket?

We all know that Dumbledore almost died trying to destroy the ring Horcrux. He was saved because of being the most powerful and skilled wizard and because he took Snape's healing potion. On the other hand, Regulas' chances of dying were very high. So if he failed to destroy it, then it should be at his house.

In Order of the Phoenix, when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, Fred and George were cleaning up the house, they found many things, including 'a heavy locket that none of them could open'; since Kreacher didn't want his masters' things thrown away, so he may have hidden it with the rest of things he'd hidden.

So that's that. R.A.B may be Sirius' brother, Regulas Black, and the locket may be with Kreacher.

Dumbledore, dead or alive?

This is probably the most talked about and debated topic in the world. As much as I hate to say it, I must say, that Dumbledore is really dead.

There is a lot of evidence which suggests Dumbledore is dead, but there is also little evidence that he is alive.

I would like to start with the 'Dumbledore is alive' theory. When Draco had burst through the doors, Dumbledore put a paralysing charm on Harry; was this to protect him, or not? Maybe Dumbledore had something else up his sleeve. May be he needed a witness to tell the world that he was dead and then he could work silently to destroy the remaining Horcruxes.

The most important clue is of course, the Avada Kedavra curse. Through all the books, especially Goblet of Fire, we learn that when the Avada Kedavra curse is done, the victim, is locked in some sort of fit, and then falls to the floor. But see how Dumbledore died: 'Dumbledore was blasted into the air. For a split second he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly backwards, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.'

Take a look at all the Avada Kedavra curses ever done, this never happens, why? There could be many explanations:

Snape was on Dumbledore's side and created a jinx of his own, which emitted a green light and sent the person flying into the air, in short, created the closest hoax which resembled the curse, letting Dumbledore escape. Everything went as planned and everyone overlooked the flaw.

And now we come to the 'Dumbledore is dead' theory.

When Harry was locked in the body-bind lock and Dumbledore got hit by the killing curse, Harry felt himself move again, the curse had lifted, and there was only one reason, the caster had died.

Long after Dumbledore died, Fawkes begins to sing 'a stricken lament of terrible beauty' that echoes the pain and sadness everyone was feeling. Phoenix's are very intelligent and magical creatures and if Dumbledore was just faking his death, Fawkes wouldn't have acted as it did that day. Yet another clue is what Dumbledore once said, 'Death is but the next great adventure.' He was never afraid of dying.

The last evidence is what J. K. Rowling said herself when she saw that people still believed Dumbledore to be alive. She has repeatedly said, 'Dumbledore is definitely dead.' So there's no doubt that he is dead, but we'll hear much more of him in the last book.

Snape

The following are the clues to prove that Snape is and always was loyal to Albus Dumbledore:

In the Half Blood Prince, when Snape is telling Bellatrix and Narcissa why he did not kill Harry for so long when he had ample opportunity, he says, 'Of course, it became apparent to me very quickly that he had no extraordinary talent at all. He has fought his way out of a number of tight corners by a simple combination of sheer luck and more talented friends. He is mediocre to the last degree...'

He means to say that Harry would not be able to take on Voldemort, so he saves Harry for Voldemort to finish him off. But we know this is a lie, he knows that Harry is a parselmouth, that he could produce a full corporeal patronus when he was just thirteen-year-old, he also knows that Harry stood up and fought with Voldemort five times, and that can be no coincidence.

He lies to the sisters again and again, but when he got stuck, he would either pour more whisky or draw the curtains, he did all this to think about a perfect lie to gain their trust, he would even try and escape the questioning by saying, 'Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?'

The conversation that Dumbledore and Snape have in the forest, overheard by Hagrid tells us that Dumbledore has told Snape to do something difficult or unpleasant. We know that Snape is definitely part of the plan and that Snape agreed to do it.

If you just believe that Snape killed Dumbledore on his orders, then, the 'Severus...please' part takes on a whole new meaning. What could possibly be going on in the two most accomplished Legilimens' minds? A conversation was going on in their heads and this can be what was really going on:

'Severus ...please, you must kill me'

'I can't kill you...'

'You must, you gave me your word...'

In short, Dumbledore wasn't saying, 'please don't', he was saying please do.

Then Snape did it: the Avada Kadavra curse.

Harry later called him a coward, how would you expect him to react after all this then being called a coward, but still, Snape only threw him off his legs and ran, as Albus commanded him to.

When JKR was asked if Snape was evil, she replied, 'I can't answer that question because it's a spoiler, isn't it?'

Well one cannot say if these predictions will be verified or denied. only J.K Rowling can put an end to these speculations. For this we  have to wait for the book itself! Well the D-Day is not far. Potter mania is ready to strike again!