Harry Potter speculation

So this weekend the last Harry Potter book comes out. Countless folks will dress up in robes and invade Borders to pick up the book one minute after midnight Friday night. It whould be quite a scene, but I'll do the civilized thing, and pick up a copy on Saturday morning. I am looking forward to reading the book. The series is growing more and more in complexity, to the point that the consequences of the last book will be truly memorable.

I hope Harry doesn't die at the end of this book. That would be sad. I do have this fleeting thought that it will be kind of like the end of the show "Newhart" (the second show, where Bob was running that inn in Vermont). He wakes up as Bob Newhart from the original Bob Newhart show, next to Suzanne Pleshette, and the second series was just a dream. So is Harry really a forty-year-old psychologist in Chicago, and the entire seven-book series is just a dream? ;)

No, that wouldn't be a very good ending, wouldn't it? I think Harry needs to face Voldemort one on one, take him down once for all. I have read a lot of commentary on internet message boards, and people have all kinds of theories. Some people have proposed the idea that in Harry's final battle with Voldemort, he will prevail, but will lose his magical abilities and become a muggle. That would be kind of a bummer, though.

I hope at the end of all this, Harry gets to run a nice bookshop in Yorkshire somewhere. The poor guy's been through enough.