The arrival of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is less than a month away, and I promised our faithful readers that I would share what Clan Murphy thinks about how this amazing series will, or should, end. So here’s our first offering in the series.

Now, we have no inside information, mind you, and hough we did pick up that Good Snape/Bad Snape book Borders is hawking, we haven’t read it et; nor have we gone scouring the internet–yet!–to read other’s predictions. (Once I get this off my chest, I intend to spend a fun couple of hours doing just that.)

So what follows is pure conjecture. Indeed, you might say it’s how we would choose to end the book, were we responsible for writing it. But most of us have read the books several times and have been discussing it for years, so if we happen to get something right, please don’t blame us for SPOILING it. Let me repeat, POTENTIAL SPOILER alert: we might just get something right! (Or we may be way off base and you can come back here a month from now and hoot at us.)

Anyhow, Clan Murphy sat down at the dinner table the other night and canoodled, and here’s what we came up with:

First, a sort of first principle. I’ve written a mystery novel and know a bit of how it’s done, and the Clan agrees with me that J.K. Rowling has essentially written not only a fantasy series, but a mystery series in which the overarching “mystery” is extended over seven books. This mystery is not so much a Whodunnit (we know Voldemort dunnit), as a Whydunnit and Howdunnit. But it is also a Whodunnit to the degree that we’re wondering Whodunnit with Voldemort. (Mainly, the question of Snape, of course.)

Now, the writer of mysteries is constrained by certain unwritten rules, the primary of which is that she must give the reader all the information he needs to solve the puzzle. She’s got to “play fair.” But how does she do this without, as it were, telegraphing the solution?

The answer is simple, though pulling it off is a real challenge: the mystery writer must practice the old magician’s trick (appropriately enough) of Misdirection. In other words, using her skills as a writer, the Mystery Magician will direct the reader’s attention (by way of all sorts of dramatic techniques and legerdemain) on the “clues” that will look good on the surface, but actually point the reader in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, with the other hand, she lets drop (casually, as if in passing) all those clues which, seemingly unimportant, would actually lead the reader in the right direction if he were only paying sufficient attention. (Remember the opening line of that wonderful movie about stage magic, The Prestige: “Are you watching closely…?”)

The upshot is, we think we’ve been watching closely, and we think that Rowling, that Mystery Magician, being the fair-minded writer she is, and so canny, has of necessity left a bread-crumb trail of clues throughout her books—clues she has dropped without drawing Harry’s (and the reader’s) attention to them. Clues which Harry (and we) may have overlooked because our attentions were fixed by the clever Mystery Magician on the fireworks being performed on center stage. (Or Center Page, as it were.) What Clan Murphy has tried to do is go back and pick up those carefully dropped bread crumbs and see where they lead us.

This will take a few days, patient readers, but I will begin with the question on everyone’s mind: Good Snape or Bad Snape?

Clan Murphy’s answer, unanimously and resoundingly…Good Snape!

We believe Snape is the real unsung hero of the books; the wizard who has had the courage to incur hatred and enmity from all sides while playing Double Agent. We believe his remorse over his part in the killing of Harry’s parents is the key to all this, of course, and his loyalty to Dumbledore, because Dumbledore was the only Wizard willing to give him a second chance (with one important exception); the only one who ever believed in him.

The one exception, at least early on: Harry’s mother, Lily Potter. Indeed, Clan Murphy is also firmly convinced that Snape was actually in love with Harry’s mother, and though he still hated James Potter because of his cruel treatment of him, it was Voldemort’s murder of James and Lily that drew Snape back from the Dark Side.

A thematic element: If Snape hasn’t turned away from the Dark Side, then hot-headed Sirius’ analysis will be true, that “once a Death-Eater, always a Death-Eater,” which is a rather un-Christian view of things–and we think JKR is very much a Christian. To end the series with no redemptions would be most unsatisfying. At least one Death-Eater in this series must be redeemed, and we think it is Snape.

And speaking of satisfying, we think we’re going to see an absolutely beautiful and very touching reconciliation scene between Harry and Snape, as Snape dies having sacrificed himself to save Harry and/or kill Voldemort. (We think the two deaths JKR has said will occur in the book are Voldemort’s and Snape’s.) We think Snape’s dying words to Harry will be–JKR has been setting this one up over the whole course of the books–”You have your mother’s eyes.”

And after six books’ worth of calling Harry “Potter” or “Mr Potter,” he will finally call Harry by his first name. And Harry will finally call him–willingly for the first time–”Professor”.

More next time.