DH: What Do I Expect?

[markira]

I've put off writing about this for the sole reason that I don't really want to think about how this all ends.  But I want to get some of my ideas down before I read Deathly Hallows so I can laugh or cry at myself after I've read it.

Behold: My Pre-DH Thoughts

1. Harry is not a Horcrux.  Harry will not need to die in order to destroy Voldemort.
2. We will properly meet Aberforth.
3. Neville's new wand.  It's been important to me that he's finally using a wand that chose him, and it was one of the last Olivander sold before his disappearance.
4. Come to think of it, what will Neville be like?  Knowing that the prophecy could have referred to him, knowing his parents have been enslaved by broken minds (and actually suspecting now that maybe the sweet wrappers his mum gives him at St. Mungo's have notes on them, or that they are faking/exacerbating their condition to bide their time until they reveal they have been slowly healing), and knowing that he's got guts and a desire to fight the Dark side, I'm looking to him to kick some ass.  My RL friend Joe thinks Neville may well end up weakening or even finishing off Voldemort.  We'll see.
5. Does Aberforth actually have Slytherin's locket?  I base this upon the skirmish Harry witnessed between Aberforth and Mundungus in Hogsmeade, HBP paperback pg 245.
6. Is McGonagall evil?  I read that theory once I'd begun my reread of the series, and after that every time I read any of McGonagall's scenes in the book I either put it in the Pro or Con section of my brain with regards to the theory.  Still can't make up my mind.  I'm going with McGonagall = GOOD.
7. Snape, also, but just barely = Good.  A few thoughts: Snape's an awful person.  He's vindictive, holds grudges like it's his day job, taunts the children under his tutelage, is a smarmy bastard, etc, but he's on Dumbledore's side.  Quite simply, Dumbledore trusts him, I trust Dumbledore.  Also, there are 2 books entitled after people of Harry's acquaintance, Prisoner of Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince.  I can't see JKR naming a book after someone who is on the Dark side.
8. I find it striking that both Harry and Snape seem to feel the same way about doing something that is hurting Dumbledore.         -Harry: "Hating himself, repulsed by what he was doing, Harry forced the goblet back toward Dumbledore's mouth..."               -Snape: "Snape gazed for a moment a Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face."    And when's the last time you "gazed" at someone you truly hate?
9. Horcruxes: the cup, the locket, the snake, something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's. 
   
10. What awaits us at Godric's Hollow? 
    
11. LOVE LOVE LOVE.  This should have been number 1, but I'll save the best for last.  LOVE.  How will this theme help Harry to save the day (and live to tell the tale)?  As cheesy as I have always found the fact that Love is what saved Harry in the first place, I strongly believe that it will be what saves him in the last, as well.
12. I think we'll have to say goodbye to Hagrid this time around.  I've always liked psychic_serpent's theory about the Black, White, and Red alchemical symbolism referring to the deaths in books 5, 6, and 7.  Black is Sirius, White is Albus, and Red is Rubeus.  Also, I noticed during my HBP reread that the Gryffindor hour glass shatters and all the rubies fall....
13. THE VEIL.  Will we see it again, and learn its secrets?  Are these the deathly hallows? 
    
14. Sirius...will we see him again?

I think that's it for now.  It's late and I want to get some rest so that I can do as much reading tomorrow once I get my book as possible before I have to leave for the birthday party.