With
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince due to be released in the summer of this year, it was only natural that sooner or later publications would start to speculate as to what the story may feature and who might die by the end of it.
The
Star-Telegram suggests that clues as to what may happen in Harry's future could be found in the
Lord of the rings or the legends of
King Arthur.
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Clues can be found in Camelot and the Shire as well as on the Rowling Web site. Either by accident or intent, Rowling is taking Harry down story paths that, among others, King Arthur and Frodo have already trod.
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Rowling so far has recycled familiar material, albeit in an exceptionally interesting way. For instance, there's the orphan angle. Arthur Pendragon and Frodo Baggins were raised by uncles, too, though Sir Ector and Bilbo, respectively, were considerably more congenial than Vernon Dursley. "A-great-wizard-as-mentor" plot line provided Arthur with Merlin and Frodo with Gandalf. Harry has Dumbledore. In each instance, the young protagonist is aided by a motley crew of associates, and someone evil (Morgan le Fay, Sauron, Voldemort) has considerable dark magic to wield against them.
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A key character or characters must die. Arthur lost Galahad, Gareth and Gaheris. Boromir died saving Frodo from the orcs. So Rowling will almost certainly knock off a fan favorite, and Hagrid seems the obvious choice.
My suggestion for that would be Ron, however unpopular the idea of his death in the series may be.
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One way or another, at a crucial moment Harry will suffer long-term loss of Dumbledore's protection. Merlin was bewitched by Nimue. Gandalf seemed to die, re-emerged as an even stronger wizard, but was kept otherwise occupied in faraway battles while Frodo had to destroy the One Ring in Mordor. Since neither Merlin nor Gandalf was completely gone forever, it's unlikely Rowling will make Dumbledore's departure an actual demise. Which might make Hagrid even more nervous.
Harry seemed to suffer loss of Dumbledore in OotP but as the prophecy read only Harry can kill Voldemort, it seems pretty clear Dumbledore will need to distance himself slightly in order for Harry to learn to not rely on him all the time.
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Harry must be betrayed by someone he trusts. So far, the surprises in the Harry series have involved seemingly bad characters turning out to be on Harry's side after all -- Sirius Black, for example. Arthur's eventual destruction came at assorted supposedly friendly hands: his wife's affair with his best friend, his son (Mordred) turning against him. Boromir was ready to do away with Frodo to get the One Ring for himself, and Smeagol pretended to be Frodo's ally for a while. Harry's got the back-stabbing to come -- perhaps by a favorite member of the Hogwarts faculty.
I can hear you all screaming "Snape!" from the rooftops, loud and clear. But I'm unsure as to who, if anyone, would betray Harry. Wormtail did in PoA, in the sense that Harry showed him mercy and he spat it back in his face, so to speak, through running away. And I frown at any suggestions that Ron could betray his best friend. Percy may seem like a likely candidate, but I think he's done all the betraying he was intended to do.
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Harry won't live happily ever after. Arthur was critically wounded in his final battle with Mordred, then spirited away by boat, never to be seen again. Frodo never did settle permanently back in the Shire; he, too, soon disappeared over the sea. In epic literary tradition, defeating great evil comes at great personal cost. Don't count on grown-up Harry ending up as Hogwarts headmaster, married to Cho Chang and contentedly presiding over many subsequent generations of fledgling witches and wizards. More likely Harry, broken at least in body and perhaps in spirit, will sail off to parts unknown.
This I see happening for sure, the title of the books alone implies he's a tragic hero, although I'm sure we'd all rather see him die than sail off to some place all alone.
Source:
The Leaky Cauldron