So ... it's going to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The end of HBP reminded me of Watsuki-san’s Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin is going for the battle against Shishio Makoto and the Juppongatana. Saitou has cruelly showed him that anyone attached and dear to him is endangered for knowing him, an easy prey for Shishio and his men. So, Kenshin bids Kaoru goodbye. He goes alone, leaving Kamiya Dojo family behind. At this point of no return, he knows not whether he would come out alive. I was anxious for Kenshin.

I wished him victory, of course. I wished he would survive. But what I wished and hoped the most was that he would keep his sword Sakabatou and what it represents.

Atoning for his bloody past, Kenshin has vowed not to kill anymore. He picked up Sakabatou. This reversed-edge sword has the dull side do most of the deadly blows so if it meets flesh, it won't kill. Yet, Saitou has also pointed out that nothing stops Shishio but death. To stop him would involve killing. Saitou comes to bring out Battousai, to once more perform as the cold-blooded shadow assassin Kenshin had been. Battousai uses sword as killing tool as opposed to what the rurouni has been doing for fourteen years, using the blunt edge of the sword to defend the weak. The rurouni's philosophy of sword that doesn't kill to protect is now challenged, as well as his resolution.

Would Kenshin give up his Sakabatou? Would Kenshin's resolution, not to kill anyone, hold? How could Kenshin stop Shishio without killing him? And survive too? I was eager to see how Watsuki-san would pull this off.

Now, I feel familiar anxiety for Harry Potter.

‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal … but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other … for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies … ’

(OotP, p.924)

‘The end of the prophecy ... it was something about ... neither can live ...’

‘... while the other survives,’ said Dumbledore.

‘So,’ said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, ‘so does that mean that ... that one of us has got to kill the other one ... in the end?’

‘Yes,’ said Dumbledore.

(OotP, p.927)

JK Rowling had molded Lord Voldemort, a character who craves power and immortality. To conquer death, he has gone further than anybody along the path that leads to it (GoF, p.566), by splitting his soul and encasing the parts in Horcruxes.

‘By an act of evil — the supreme act of evil. By commiting murder. Killing rips the soul apart. ... ’

(HBP, p.465)

Ms. Rowling had also created Harry Potter, who embodies what Voldemort has never been (at least, I think Harry should), and ‘has the power the Dark Lord knows not’ (OotP, p.924). His pure heart has spared Wormtail's life in the Shrieking Shack, and saved him from Voldemort's possession at the Department of Mystery (HBP, p.478). To save the wizarding world, Harry is now willingly taking the task to ‘vanquish’ Voldemort.

‘ ... I've got to find [Voldemort's horcruxes] and destroy them and then I've got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit that's still in his body, and I'm the one who's going to kill him. ... ’

(HBP, p.606)

So, if killing rips soul apart, won't Harry's too be ripped when he kills Voldemort? Is that the sacrifice Harry has to make? The price for defeating, say, evil? Would ‘vanquish’ really have to mean ‘kill’?

I understand this is war. Lives, as well as innocence and probably virtue, pay the price for defeating, say, evil. Still I wonder.

In the last couple of books, the loss of Sirius and Dumbledore has pushed Harry further to somewhat darker territory. He has tried one of the Unforgivables, the Cruciatus Curse, on Bellatrix Lestrange (OotP, p.927) and Severus Snape (HBP, p.562). I particularly cringed at Harry here:

‘Well, there’s one good thing,’ [Harry] said savagely. ‘Snape'll be gone by the end of the year.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Ron.

‘That job’s jinxed. No one’s lasted more than a year… Quirrell actually died doing it… Personally, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for another death…’

‘Harry!’ said Hermione, shocked and reproachful.

(HBP, p.159)

I was shocked and reproachful too. It's not so much about the curse being unforgivable. It's the idea of Cruciatus Curse — torture. It's about Harry willing harm and suffering (and painful death) on others regardless it is induced by righteous anger or the receiving ends being evil. Harry is getting darker.

The good side will certainly prevail. Of course. I hope Harry Potter will come out of this debacle alive and victorious too. Just as the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone is “The Boy Who Lived”, it would be great to have the last chapter of Deathly Hallows called “The Man Who Lives”. But most of all, I hope the journey will help him rise above this sinister side. I hope, by the end of the day, he will still have his heart pure and his soul intact, whole and untarnished, of which incomparable power is something Voldemort never paused to understand when he set the prophecy in motion himself by going after Harry (HBP, p.478).

In Kenshin’s fight against Shishio, Watsuki-san didn't disappoint me. I hope JKR won't either.

‘No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter!’ [Snape] shouted over the rushing of the flames...

(HBP, p.562)

Now Harry, just this once, please listen to Professor Snape.