Last chance at Harry Potter predictions

Ok...I admit it...I'm a Harry Potter fan.

Not in the insane, I'm-staying-up-until-midnight-to-get-my-copy-of-The-Deadly-Hallows sense, but I do enjoy the series.

I read a quote from JK Rowling today that really touched me. Several days ago, for reasons I don't remember, Sidharta was asking me about whether he would die or I would die, or ... He got a little agitated, but I tried to explain it to him as well as I could. Rowling exactly captures my philosopy:

"I think children are very scared of this stuff even if they haven't experienced it, and I think the way to meet that is head-on," she says. "I absolutely believe, as a writer and as a parent, that the solution is not to pretend things don't happen but to examine them in a loving, safe way." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_en_ot/j_k__rowling)

And in fact, I think perhaps this captures what is best in the series: her willingness to intensely illustrate what is dark or unjust in human behavior, and show children that like Harry and his friends, they have a choice to stand up against it. Call me a hopeless optimist, but I'm hoping that the Harry Potter generation will be a little less likely than their parents to ascribe negative characteristics to people from communities other than their own.

Since this is my last chance to make predictions, before the release, I guess I'll jump in. This won't make sense to those of you who haven't read the series, but...

1. Though Rowling has come out pretty strongly on the Harry-Ginny romance, it just doesn't make sense to me. I found it very unconvincing. I will go out on a limb and guess that Harry will end up somehow with Hermione.
2. Snape will turn out to be on the side of "good".
   a) His murder of Dumbledore will have been either pre-arranged with Dumbledore in the case of extremity or else he will have done it to prevent Draco Malfoy from doing it (per Voldemort's orders -- I believe it was significant that the other death eaters wouldn't step in to finish the job for Malfoy.)
   b) Snape is motivated by some sort of love for Lily.
3. Major figures to die (Rowling has said there will be 2, and I assume this doesn't include the loser of the Harry/Voldemort battle)
   a) Definitely, one of them will be in the set {Ron, Ginny, Hermione}
   b) Ron and Ginny could both be killed, freeing up Harry and Hermione for each other.
   c) Most likely to die: Ron. Members of Harry's safety net have been systematically killed off, and at this point, we're pretty much down to McGonagall, Ron and Hermione as the most directly instrumental to his survival. And remember, in the tri-Wizard...who was it that would be most missed?
   d) Snape's a pretty good misunderstood martyr candidate
   e) Luna's a reasonable misunderstood martyr candidate, but not important enough, I think, to make much of an impact, so I'd have to put this low on the probabilty list. Neville for a similar reason.
4. I sure hope that Grawp and Firenze play some sort of role in the resolution of the story because they will otherwise have been an extraordinarily long waste of time. (Can you tell I'm a little less than impressed by some of the plot-lines?)
5. And the ultimate victor of the battle of good over evil? Good will prevail. But it will be a hollow victory, because someone Harry really, really cares about will be gone.

And no...I haven't peeked at any of the online photographed copies of the leaked book. Or purchased an early-shipped copy. Or seen any other form of Book 7. :-) Of course...if you haven't read this post before the book comes out, you may never know whether I edited this post after the fact to agree with the actual outcome. Lucky thing I'm an honest person...most of the time.