by Pattenrond » Saturday 23 July 2005 11:49:24am
I think the most pointless death until now in the HP books was that of Cedric at the end of book 4: there's really no reason why Cedric should have reached the cemetery with Harry, he was there only to prove Voldemort's cruelty. I was really shoked by that death (and he was a defenceless child...).
Sirius' death didn't make me cry, it's more that I felt the same as Harry: anger. Harry knew if he had been more "careful" not to believe his "dreams", to learn Occlumency, and no to believe Kreacher, the whole thing wouldn't have happened. I don't mean it was Harry's fault, but the whole story was just so irritating that it gets hard to accept that death. The worse thing for me after Sirius' death was Harry's reaction, it almost spoiled a bit of the emotion... But of course it was part of his "initiation", of his "becoming an adult". Another irritating detail about that death: there wasn't any body to mourn, Sirius had actually just "disappeared". And the worst: if Harry had opened his present before (the little mirror), he could have known that Kreacher lied...
Dumbledore's death was much more emotional, maybe because we can see it coming (although I hoped someone was going to save him!), and because there is a body, there is a funeral... I still don't understand fully why Dumbledore had to die but I think we'll have answers in the last book. So for me, his death was much more sadder. I felt sadness, not anger. And thinking about it, it couldn't really have been avoided.