On July 21st, 2007, the world will hold its breath. At midnight, parents will grudgingly revoke any form of bed time and across the globe the young and young at heart will sit up all night to answer one question: what happens in” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?” All hand-wringing aside, much of this question can already be answered with some degree of certainty. The 3,341 pages of the six books already in canon hold many veiled clues pertaining directly to the conclusion to the series. By closely examining these traces — as well as probable homage, the hero’s journey, and Rowling’s public statements, — and then filling in the gaps with educated guesses, it is possible to form a semi-complete, highly-probable vision of the events that will transpire in the seventh and final book.

First of all, it’s important to establish the finality of Dumbledore’s death. Rowling has made it abundantly clear that death is as final in the wizard world as it is in the muggle one. That is not to say, however, that Dumbledore will not play a role in the book. In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry receives a Chocolate Frog card of Dumbledore, but Dumbledore’s face on the card eventually leaves. In the first hundred pages of the series, Rowling has planted an important tool for the final book. In Order of the Phoenix when Dumbledore is replaced as Headmaster of Hogwarts and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, he declares that he’s fine with the demotions as long as they “don’t take him off the chocolate frog cards.” At the beginning of Deathly Hallows, Harry will open a chocolate frog card during his obligatory stay at the Dursleys and discover that Dumbledore has traveled from his portrait in the headmaster’s office to the frog card. He will continue to advise Harry throughout the story from this convenient manifestation — like a wizard cell phone.

During the summer, Harry will undertake a trip to Godric’s Hollow, the place where his parents were killed. Rowling was recently asked if the name Godric’s Hollow had anything to do with Gryffindor house founder Godric Gryffindor. She replied, “I’m impressed.” Voldemort is believed to have used a relic from each of the Hogwarts house founders (i.e., Slytherin’s locket or Hufflepuff’s cup), yet the Gryffindor relic is still unknown. It will probably be discovered, captured, and destroyed very early in the seventh book. The destruction of a Gryffindor horcrux will leave Harry with three more horcruxes to find and four more to destroy (we know that one of the seven still resides within Voldemort). This is of course taking into account Tom Riddle’s diary, which was destroyed in The Chamber of Secrets, as well as Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, which was destroyed by Dumbledore sometime between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince.

Dumbledore’s own speculations point in very logical directions to find the three remaining horcruxes. In Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Dumbledore discover fake locket in a sea cave, only to discover that the true horcrux has already been found by someone identified as R.A.B. Of course, R.A.B. is Regulus Arcturus Black, younger brother of Sirius Black. This is evinced by a study of the many translations of the books. In editions where ‘Black’ is translated, for example, to ‘Mustra’ in the Finnish edition, the letters R.A.B. are replaced by the obvious R.A.M. If Regulus was able to destroy the locket, which is doubtful, there are only two more horcruxes. If not, the locket found in the Black House (which now belongs to Harry) during Order of the Phoenix roughly matches the description.

Dumbledore believes that Nagini is quite possibly a horcrux, created on the night that Voldemort killed Frank Bryce. The snake played a vital role in the resurrection of Voldemort by sustaining him with her “milk” and the two seem to share an intimate bond (the fact that they are both snake-like raises questions about just how intimate). The final horcrux is almost certainly Hufflepuff’s cup as it is the only relic that has been developed to any extent. Assertions that Harry could be the final Horcrux are fundamentally flawed in that Voldemort has been bent on killing Harry since his resurrection, and he would surely not want to destroy a seventh of this soul. Furthermore, accidental horcrux creation seems unlikely, not to mention the fact that it would necessitate Harry’s death — something that will be discussed later.

Snape is certainly still employed by the Order of the Phoenix. Despite his seemingly evil actions in Half-Blood Prince, several factors point to his irrefutable innocence. There are several individual instances that cement Snape’s overall good intentions, many of which occur in Order of the Phoenix. Snape tells Harry what it is like to lie to Voldemort, as if Snape has experience. “The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occulumency [i.e. Snape] are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and so utter falsehoods in his presence without detection.”

Rowling is using this exchange to explain how Snape is able to lie to the powerful Voldemort without detection. The events at the conclusion of Half-Blood Prince are perhaps the hardest to explain away, yet even they can be justified. Snape kills Dumbledore (in fact Dumbledore begs him to, “Please, Severus,”) because this is the most advantageous course of action for the Order of the Phoenix and for Harry. Furthermore, Snape does not kill Harry when Harry tries to stop him after Dumbledore’s murder. Snape refuses to jinx Harry but also refuses to allow himself to be called a coward. Snape is not a Judas; he’s more of a Jack Bauer ... a big, greasy Jack Bauer.

In children’s literature in general, the characters with the bleakest outlooks on life are the ones that perish. It makes their disappearance ultimately more manageable. Snape has no family or friends to speak of, and therefore would benefit very little from living. He’s certainly dead. Similarly, Wormtail and the Malfoys have nothing to lose and will die as well. The same is true of Neville.

On the other side of that reasoning, Harry must live. Despite an overwhelming poetic justice that would be served by him dying, he will live. Similarly, protagonists in children’s literature always survive, and he has so much too live for. Hagrid would have died, until Rowling wrote Maxime into the story, giving him a reason to survive.

Obviously, Voldemort dies. Evil must be vanquished. At the end of Deathly Hallows, the Weasleys will become Harry’s surrogate family. Harry will, with McGonogall’s help (“I will assist you to become an Auror if it is that last thing I do!”), be accepted to the Auror department of the Ministry Magic. He will begin Auror training and use those skills to hunt down the remaining death eaters. Arthur Weasley will become the new minister of magic.

At midnight on July 21st, all speculation will be silenced when one of the most anticipated books of all time is released in the biggest popular culture event in recent memory. It’s going to be epic, and anything that Rowling has, in fact, written, will be sure to surprise even the best predictions.

If anyone wants to send Loren the 7th book in Tanzania, he would greatly appreciate it. Just no tellsies!