Is Lavender Brown alive?

Oct 05, 2015

Posted by: Emma Pocock

Books, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling, News, Opinion, Pottermore, Rumor

The question of Lavender’s death has been floating around since 2007, and recently Pottermore has added further fuel to the fire.

Forums everywhere (such as this one on Reddit, and this one on Goodreads) have no definitive conclusion, trying to take evidence from both the book and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 film.

Her ‘death’ scene in the book seems a little more vague:

“Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead. As they reached the ground a grey blur that Harry took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen. “NO!” shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown.”

After falling from the balcony, Greyback is seen almost making a mid-fight snack out of Lavender, but Hermione throws him back, and Lavender is seen ‘feebly stirring’, which suggests that she could be alive.

 

Some seem to think the movie errs more toward the ‘dead’ side of the argument. Acknowledging that movies do not make better sources than books, most say that they make it pretty clear; Trelawney and the Patil twins are seen saying ‘She’s gone’ and covering a body, and the earlier suggestive shot of Lavender looking vacant (and dead) after Greyback attacks someone certainly makes it look like she’s dead.

lavender-brown-dead-movie

Her Wiki page also looks bleak. It states that she was killed by Greyback in The Battle of Hogwarts, stating  Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey as a source.

Now Pottermore itself (and through it, potentially Jo herself) has entered the debate. In its recent update, Pottermore had stated Lavender as ‘presumed dead’:

Screen Shot 2015-10-05 at 08.48.23

That’s already vague wording, but as if that wasn’t enough, Lavender Brown’s page on Pottermore recently updated again, removing all information about her death:

Screen Shot 2015-10-05 at 08.48.32

Hypable and Bustle have had the same discussions, and are none the wiser. Though J.K. Rowling has been closely involved in the production of the films and of Pottermore, we’ll need the words from Jo herself if we’re going to sort this once and for all.

It’s a close debate, so what do you think? Is Lavender alive?





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