Rather than just do a comment to Erin's moving post about Fred and George below (another lovely poem!) I thought I'd post a few thoughts here on the loss of Fred.
My husband and I debated a good bit, going into DH, about which Weasley would die. Note that I didn't say IF a Weasley would die, but which one. We felt almost sure that the book would not end without losing at least one Weasley, given how many of them there are and how fully involved in the war effort. We also kept citing the chapter in OotP where we see Molly's worst fears about losing her children...the boggart scene. Extra sad now...
I never seriously thought we'd lose a Weasley parent, or at least I hoped not, so am wiping my brow a bit to hear how close we came to losing Arthur...it's so nice to know he not only survives DH but must live to a good old age, since Ron references "Granddad Weasley" in the Epilogue. I also didn't think we'd lose Bill, since he'd already had such a harrowing narrow escape at the end of HBP. I had convinced myself that we would not lose any of the trio, so that ruled out Ron. I also didn't think we'd lose Ginny, primarily because I was pretty sure Harry would survive and was hoping that they'd end up married.
So that left Charlie, Percy, and the twins. And Dana and I never saw eye to eye on who would be the one to die. We pretty much agreed that Charlie, as much as we liked him, was not a major enough character for his death to feel like a huge loss. I was fairly certain (though I kept changing my mind) that Percy would die, but here's the scenario I was half-way predicting: Percy would either turn out to be have been playing the double agent (actually only acting like a prat while spying for the Order on his father's or someone else's orders) OR that he really was a prat, but would repent of his terrible mistakes and return to his family. I thought returning to his family might involve a heroic sacrifice: showing once and for all that he was fully on the right side by dying defending one, or perhaps two of them. In short, I thought Percy would redeem himself and die saving the twins.
Dana didn't think so. He was positive we'd lose a twin, though he wasn't sure which one. His instincts for this kind of thing are unusually good so I was nervous. Oddly enough (since I haven't heard anyone else mention this) he felt like Rowling was giving us a bit of a clue in the scene in GoF when Voldemort coldly proclaimed "Kill the Spare" when Cedric showed up in the graveyard with Harry. Not that one of the twins is a "spare" exactly, but Voldemort might feel that way, given his callous attitude toward human life. Note: D. was so sure about this that it was one of the few things he decided he didn't mind if he was "spoiled on." We're reading the book aloud together now, but are only several chapters in. Because of his work schedule, it's going to take us a while to get through. But when I finished my first read-through, he wanted to know "did we lose a twin?" I could tell he really wanted to know, so I gave a reluctant nod.
I'm not sure if that was really a clue or not, but I do think Rowling tried to prepare us for Fred's death when George lost his ear early on in DH. I know part of the scene was a kind of red herring...we were directed to think of Snape as a bad guy again, since he used sectumsempra on one of the good guys...but she could have had that curse hurt several other characters. Why choose George, and why make it such a grotesque wound and a permanent loss? I think maiming was her way of showing us, visually, what George's life would like at the end of the book...an empty hole where his twin was, a loss of something precious and part of himself. She even made him asymmetrical. If that's not symbolic of what George goes through when Fred dies, I don't know what is.
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You know, you're right, it would have been strange not to lose a Weasley. But I so hoped we wouldn't... That scene with George was so harrowing, and coming in the chapter The Fallen Warrior; it seemed obvious someone didn't make it out alive, and for a moment I thought it might be George. And then to only have him lose his ear... The relief was so intense that the scene became almost comical. And I thought for sure then that this would be the twins' major injury, that they'd be okay after that.
When they showed up in the Room of Requirement, though, I think I sort of shouted, "What are you doing here? Go away!" Though of course they would have joined in the fight, and should have. But their presence made me a bit nervous, and I got a knot in my stomach when we came upon Fred and Percy dueling the Death Eaters.
In retrospect, though, the ear scene does feel like foreshadowing. We get a glimpse of how George must have reacted to Fred's death by the bloodless panic in Fred's face when he saw the unconscious George. And while the twins really seem to be equals, there's a very slight air of dominance about Fred. I think he may be more of a take-charge guy than George, who will have a difficult time adjusting to having to make all his decisions on his own...
Yep, I definitely think it was foreshadowing. At least I do *now.* (Wan smile.) Like you, when we first lived through the scene were George is hurt, I felt prickles of relief. I also hoped that meant the twins had done their worst suffering and that neither of them would die.
I think it's realistic that we'd lose a Weasley; on the other hand, I think JKR could have spared them all if she'd chosen to. Do you think Fred's death made sense? Did it feel necessary?
I'm still struggling with that. It isn't as though his death accomplished anything; he just was in the way of the blast and caught the full brunt of it. Well - maybe it did though. It seems to me that Molly suffered enough over all those years to go ballistic on Bellatrix without losing one of her sons, but perhaps Fred's death gave her that extra burst of energy to make absolutely certain Ginny didn't meet the same fate.
And of course it revealed a great deal about poor Percy, who clung so valiantly to Fred, so unwilling to accept that he could not protect the younger brother he'd only made up with minutes before. Can you imagine how he must be feeling, thinking of all the times he could have spent with Fred in the last three years if he hadn't been so pig-headed? So Fred's death accentuates Percy's repentance. Thinking about it today, Percy really reminds me of Susan Pevensie, and somehow him coming around gives me hope that she will too, though it must be that much worse for her, having lost her entire family...
Could Rowling have spared Fred? I keep telling myself she could have, she should have, but maybe it had to happen. Sigh. I don't know... Rather traumatic summer for me in terms of losing characters. Charlie, Tom, Hedwig, Dobby, Mad-Eye (who I wasn't totally convinced was dead until about halfway through the book), Lupin, Tonks... And somehow Fred just feels like the worst of all.
...oh, and Snape! I knew I was forgetting somebody important... What a terrible way for him to die, and it didn't even accomplish what Voldemort intended. (Am I the only one who, when Harry identified Draco as the master of the Elder Wand - before I realized he wasn't anymore - thought Draco might finish Voldemort off?)
I wonder what life would have been like for Snape if he had survived...
I'm way over-commenting on this post, but something just occurred to me. Surely I've made the connection before, but mostly I haven't been conscious of it... My paternal grandpa - the one who died when I was eight - was named George Frederick. I wonder if that might have the teensiest bit to do with how whole-heartedly I've embraced the twins from the beginning...
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