What will happen to Harry?
Or, maybe ...
Harry Potter will live, defeating his nemesis, avenging the deaths of his parents and friends and earning his long-awaited happily ever after.
How the last Harry Potter book will end is anyone's guess -- although it seems just about every fan of the series has a theory.
But there's very little guesswork involved when it comes to gauging the escalating level of Harry hysteria surrounding the July release of not only the fifth movie but also the seventh and last book in the series.
"It's huge," says Erin Eickleberry, community relations manager at the Valparaiso Barnes & Noble. "Everyone wants to know what happens in the last book of the series."
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released at the stroke of midnight July 21. Even before that, on July 13, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" hits the big screen.
While dedicated fans are already ordering advance tickets to the film -- which offers the last 20 minutes in 3-D -- much of the excitement is centering on the book. In fact, the first printing for "Deathly Hallows" in the United States alone is 12 million.
Long lines are expected to begin forming at local book stores hours before midnight July 20, as faithful fans, many dressed in Hogwarts garb and Harry spectacles -- eagerly await their copy of the final chapter. Sleep will come much later; after they've read as many pages as possible before fatigue sets in.
After following the boy wizard for nine years -- through heroic battles with evil wizards, teen angst and Quidditch matches -- what, fans are anxious to know, will happen to Harry? Will he defeat the dark Lord Voldemort and his followers, or will their evil be his undoing?
Those following the series already know that author J.K. Rowling has admitted killing off two major characters in the last novel.
"A price has to be paid," she told a British talk show host in 2006. "We're dealing with real evil here. (Villains) don't target extras, do they? They go for the main characters."
However the series ends, the last book will mark a milestone for readers who have been following the adventures of the beleaguered boy wizard and his magical world since the release of the first book took the Muggle world by storm in 1998.
"I've been reading them since third grade," said Kerstin Vossberg of Hobart, now 14. "Just the idea of a boy wizard who has to go all through these troubles and is still happy at the end of the books -- it's still amazing."
She ordered her book in November and harbors no illusions about how one of her favorite characters will fare.
"I hate to say it, but I think Harry will die," she said. "I think he has part of the horcrux in him -- that he is the horcrux -- which is part of Voldemort's soul. So I think he'll have to sacrifice himself to kill (Voldemort.) I don't want it to happen, but I think it will. I think it will be very heroic."
Lorrie Davenport hopes she's wrong. The Portage wife and mother of two has been reading the books together with her 9-year-old son Ethan for more than two years.
"I really hope that Harry survives," she said. "I hope that J.K. (Rowling) wants good to outwit evil.
"I really feel that, essentially, it's a story about good versus evil," Davenport said. "It's just been something that Ethan and I could both connect to. I've cried, I've laughed, I've gone through about every emotion."
Together -- each with their own copy of the book -- the two would huddle for hours, taking turns reading aloud, completely mesmerized by the magical world woven by Rowling.
"I remember one time, we read for more than six hours," Davenport said. "We really wanted to know how the book ended."
There has been so much interest in the ending, in fact, that wagerweb.com, an online gaming Web site, has released odds on which two characters will perish.
It's 3 to 1 odds that Harry and Lord Voldemort will die, followed by Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy at 4 to 1 odds. The longshot, at 4,000 to 1 odds, is the Weasley twins.
A morbid bet? Perhaps. But nobody ever said that Harry Potter books were just for kids.
"We've actually had a lot of older people -- people in their 60s or so -- in here looking for the books," said Lynette Christenson, head of youth services for the Portage branch of the Porter County Library System. "I'm actually catching up with my reading and finishing book five right now, before the movie."
The stories are ageless, agrees Anthony Pellegrini, a 44-year-old fan from Lake County.
"My sister got me hooked on Harry Potter," he said. "She gave me the first book and I read it, and I was like, 'OK, where are the rest of them?' Within two weeks, I had read the first three books. I just devoured them."
The books are written so well, he said, it's easy to fall under the author's spell.
"Harry Potter isn't just for kids," he said. "You can create in your mind's eye what the characters look like, what they see," he said. "Every time I read (the books), I find something new."
Harry is realistic, he said, even though the world he inhabits is not.
"The books are about good and evil, but there's more going on there," Pellegrini said. "They're also about growing up and all that it involves. Yes, the characters are going to a wizarding school, but they're also sorting through the turmoil of relationships, they're becoming aware of the opposite sex, and they're battling their own inner demons."
There are so many twists and turns in the novels, it's easy for fans to find camaraderie, said Kevin Morgan, manager of the Portage 16, which will offer the latest movie on the region's IMAX screen.
Tickets, he said, are almost sold out for the midnight showing.
And if this movie plays out like the others, he knows what to expect.
"We usually get some die-hard fans who show up about 6 p.m.," he said. "Others start showing up about 9 or 10 p.m. A lot of them dress up in character and they have their Harry Potter board games and they just settle in and wait."
This year, he said, the discussion will most certainly turn to Harry's uncertain future.
"That will be a topic of conversation all night long, I think," he said.
However the series concludes, it won't really be the end of Harry Potter, said Shellie Kramer, assistant manager at the Merrillville Barnes & Noble. The bookstore, like others in the region, is gearing up for a "Deathly Hallows" release party.
"This is something that will be passed down through generations, I think," Kramer said. "I have a daughter and she'll read it and maybe one day she'll have a daughter and she'll read it, too.
"These stories will live on. Just because this is the last book doesn't mean this is the end of Harry Potter."
Contact Diane Majeske at 648-3108 or dmajeske@post-trib.com