The title of the seventh and (presumably) final book in the Harry Potter series has been released. It’s spoilered here for your protection: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Is there any deep significance, or is it just a really cool title?
Edit: I fixed the title because I had one word wrong. I was in a hurry, but it’s better now. :)
My guess
My guess is that it will be the location where Harry and Voldemort have their big battle.
Interesting choice of title
That last word does mean what I thought it did, and I even looked it up at dictionary.com to make sure there wasn’t another choice… Here’s the (spoilered) definition:
1. To make or set apart as holy.
2. To respect or honor greatly; revere.
I guess the first option would apply if it’s a reference to a place, but the second definition works too since Harry and Voldemort must have a mutual respect for each other’s abilities by now.
Re: Interesting choice of title
I think V is quite contemptuous of HP. Remember how, at the end of "Prince", Snape casually brushed off Harry’s attempt to attack him. Harry can only survive against V because their wands are linked.
btw, are wands necessary for magic or not? Both Harry and V have done magic without them. My feeling is that this will be important in the finale.
Also, although D said that people cannot be raised from the dead, how do ghosts fit in? "Use the force, Harry!"
Will Harry’s parents appear again?
Tune in next year for the exciting answer!
Re: Interesting choice of title
Or the animated paintings of the deceased for that matter, which would be an established method to enable Dumbledore to appear in Book #7. I’d guess that JKR is going with the usual line that they are entities that have died in the "real world" but have not yet fully completed the trip to whatever lies beyond.
Bringing back Harry’s parents, Sirius and/or Dumbledore would be a bit too "and they all lived happily ever after…" for me, so if they appear at all I hope that it is only in an ethereal sense. On the other hand, the title could also be a reference to hallowed ground, in the form of a graveyard, so it’s a possibility. It could easily come across as a Deus ex Machina cop-out if all the issues (providing a physical body for the ghost/spirit/soul for example) are addressed by a wave of a wand and a few potions and trinkets though.
Andy
Re: Interesting choice of title
I think doing anything other than simple magic requires a wand, or at the very least a wand makes magic a LOT easier. (Most of the instances I can immediately recall of Harry doing magic without a wand were in the first book, before he went off to Hogwarts.)
If we want to get all crazy and try to compare magic (in the Harry Potter books) to magick (as practiced by contemporary Wiccans and other neo-pagans), it’s basically the same thing – while all that’s really required is force of will, tools like wands and athames can make it a lot easier to focus your energy and direct it into your spells. In the world of Hogwarts, some magic may simply be impossible to do without a wand or other magical tools, but again, I don’t think it’s ever been explicitly stated.