This. It's more original.

 

I like this idea and would like to see how you resolve the fight with Voldemort at the end. Have you written anything for it?

 

This is a flawed question, as my ideal Harry Potter becomes immortal and witnesses the end of the universe.


If he has to die for the sake of argument, fuck that heroic sacrifice shit. He lives to a ripe old age of 200+ and dies among friends and family in a world he helped secure and advance.

 

I'm for a 'Dark knight Rises' sort of end, wherein Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived is 'killed', but a stealthy wizard with green eyes gets to live a decent but anonymous life.

 

The reality is Rowling set up Harry's death throughout the series and couldn't pull the trigger when it came down to it. As suggested by Ched, this would have been a poignant way to do it, but I think millions upon millions of fans would prefer to see Harry live. Personally feel wordhammer is right with this one -- the chosen one dies at the end but Harry gets his chance to get away from the fame, despite the Weasleys' feelings on the matter. It would have also given Rowling (and us fanfic heroes) an opportunity to give Harry an authentic new adventure without Ron and Hermione.

 

I think Ched had the best take in this thread—he dies the way his mother did, by sacrificing himself for the sake of others. That feels the most narratively and thematically appropriate end for him, and brings his story full circle by dying the way his mother had for him.

However, I have to disagree with you there @Averis - the series as a whole and the Deathly Hallows especially so are, in the vein of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, heavily influenced and inspired by Christianity, with Harry serving as a Christ allegory. In that light, his resurrection is something I personally believe Rowling had planned since the very beginning.

 

Voldemort's soul being the black twisted eldritch horror that it is claws itself a handhold at the edge of the pit. What seems like an eternity of torture and pain ruthlessly quashed under his iron will as he slows drags himself up towards a pinprick of light, fainter than a dim star.

Against the very laws of nature and screaming defiance in death's face Voldemort climbs. Finally excruciatingly, he nears the starlight thread, victory at hand.

One hundred and twelve year old Harry Potter, Boy who lived and Headmaster of Hogwarts leans back in his chair and with a smile whispers, "Not today, Tom."

He exhales his last breath and slumps slightly.

Voldemort falls, screaming in terror.

 

I think I would prefer the old Norse ideal of a heroic death for Harry: standing against an unstoppable evil in the full knowledge that he will fail, but standing defiant anyway, sword (wand) in hand.

That, or having smashed the corrupt, ineffectual magical Ministries of the world and united all of Wizard-kind under his blessed, benevolent rule, God-King Harry I passes at the age of 150+, after ushering in a new Atlantis, a new golden age of Magical Civilization...

 

I really like the idea of Harry, The-Boy-Who-Lived, dying, but only for a green eyed wizard to show up somewhere else in the world. Something along the lines of Rand al’Thor from The Wheel of Time, where (spoiler alert) to the worlds knowledge the protagonist has died, yet actually lives on away from the fame.

I would think a Harry-Hermione conspiracy would be the best way to go about it. Remember how weak Voldemort was after he killed Harry in canon? That is sufficiently distracting for a lone witch under an invisibility cloak to take him out. Or maybe some sort of use of the Horcruxe in Harry? I can’t think really think of something imaginative, that’s just how I see things happening. This way, everyone else thinks Harry is dead, but Hermione alone knows he is somewhere out there, alive. Maybe Ron knows as well? It would be interesting to read the different perspectives of characters who thought he had valiantly sacrificed himself and those who knew he was alive.

 

I'm actually note sure how to feel about these types of deaths in fiction. If I were in such a position, I wouldn't ever trust that they'd be safe even after my death. I'd probably double down on living even harder. It's hard for me to accept that characters would be willing to die without knowing as an absolute fact that the people they love will be safe for the rest of their lives.

 

Lying atop a big pile of pussy.

Kinda how I imagine Vlad's Bromance Harry dies in the future.

 

That is not how it is done.

 

Canonically I would imagine that he lives for a very long time and dies surrounded by family and friends, or perhaps more realistically he gets hexed in the back by an old Death Eater.

 

A broom riding accident.

 

At a ripe old age after siring a dozen children and becoming Minister of Magic.

To make Trelawney's best prediction be when she was overtly making shit up to spite Umbridge.

 

I always imagined that realistically he'd have died in the Second Year, because okay the Mother's love thing was there day one, Rowling always intended that to be there. But there is no reason that magical poison coursing through his pre-pubescent body shouldn't have killed him instantly. It would be an interesting idea for a fic if Harry actually died and Dumbledore has to resurrect his Chosen One either by finding the resurrection stone early or doing some black market dark magic ritual.