Golden Snitches

I am re-reading my Harry Potter books in preparation for a) the movie and b) the newest and final book, which will hit stores on July 21. I spend my lunches sitting in various restaurants in the Etown area, reading and reading and not stopping. The other day I actually declined a lunch invite, which I never do because I like eating with people, to just go read. I explained why I was declining, and ended with "because I'm nerdy that way." I don't know WHAT my coworker thought, but she let me go read in peace.

I plan to preorder a copy of Book 7, get it at midnight, and spend all day that Saturday reading it. I will finally know if Harry dies or lives, and what happens to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But what I'm really hoping for is a sneak peek into the future. Does Harry marry Ginny? Does Ron marry Hermione? Do they all have children who go to Hogwarts? Yes. This is what I mostly care about.

If Harry dies, of course, some of these questions are useless.

But also: is Snape really, truly evil? Did Dumbledore really make a mistake that big when he decided to trust? I kind of hope that Dumbledore was right about Snape, but the evidence is very much against him. (in fact, it's been so long since I've read the books that it might really be undeniably against him). The only thing I can hope is that somehow Snape is a double-agent who is deep inside the Death Eater camp to infiltrate it.

I don't know why I want him to be good, but I do. People in books shouldn't be predictable, and everyone has suspected Snape from the beginning.

But I think JK Rowling has enough for a sequel series, and possibly a prequel series, to discuss how James and Lily Potter got together, fought evil, and died. This whole thing can't really be OVER on July 21, can it?