Anticipating the last Harry Potter book

I can't believe that it's almost here, the last book of the Harry Potter series!

Like I said, I hope I'll be able to go and pick up my reserved copy from the bookstore during this weekend. But as I'm coming down with a bad cough, I don't know now if that is a sure thing. Perhaps I can just go (about an hour by car) and then come right back. Anyway, I don't think I'll be up to anymore shopping after that (although I'd like to shop for textbooks for my classes). (By the way, I've already reserved a piece of plastic bookwrapping material--imported from Singapore!--just for this last book.)

As for when I finally get hold of the book...gosh, I'm not really sure how I'll react or feel at that moment. While I certainly look forward to reading it, I also dread finally reading the last chapter because I know it will be the last book, that no more will come after that.

It will be fun though to see if many of the theories and predictions, particularly about the final confrontation, about Snape and the horcruxes, will turn out to be true. The people over at MuggleNet have recently posted their predictions. My favorite Mugglenet columnist, Lady Lupin, has written extensively about her own predictions in Spinner's End.

Rowling herself has stated that a re-reading of the first six books should reveal at least one horcrux that Voldermort created. Having re-read the first two books, scanned the third, read a smattering of the fourth and the fifth in the past few weeks, there is only one thing that struck me as a likely candidate for the missing horcrux: Tom Riddle's special award. After all, didn't he relate to Harry via his diary that "They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble..."? What's more is that received the trophy after successfully killing someone, albeit through the basilisk. And didn't Dumbledore tell Harry that "Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies"? Just my two cents...

I also read somewhere about this theory that Dumbledore had willingly and deliberately sacrificed himself to protect Harry, and, in doing so, re-established the charm that provided Harry with a protection as an infant. It is said that since Voldemort now believes that that charm no longer exists because Harry's blood was used to restore him his body, he will think he will be capable of killing Harry with the Avada Kedavra curse. But what he won't expect is that it will once more rebound on him--just as it did the first time he tried to kill Harry when he was a baby--and ultimately kill him, assuming of course that Harry will have had destroyed all horcruxes then.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. But I have my own modified version: it was never Dumbledore's intention to sacrifice himself when he was killed by Snape in Book 6. Instead, the final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry will be essentially a replay of what happened the first time Voldemort tried to kill Harry. In the end somebody will stand in Voldemort's way and try to protect Harry but will be killed by Voldemort. It is that sacrifice that will re-establish the charm that will protect Harry once again. Who that somebody will be can be anybody's guess. It has to be somebody who loves Harry deeply naturally. Hagrid perhaps? Ron? Ginny (who was made to resemble Lily Potter with her read hair)? Even Mrs. Weasley who loves Harry as her own son (another case of mother's love protecting Harry there). I really don't know.

But I know that I find out only when I've read the last book.