Presumably what’s happening is some ritual involving the Deathly Hallows, carried out by Harry or Voldemort or both
Most likely with the goal of defeating Death (somehow)
So I guess the litres of blood are a requirement of the ritual (note: in view of earlier stuff about how modest the things sacrificed in rituals are, it had better be something as grand as defeating Death)
Harry doesn’t seem like the type to spill other people’s blood even for such a goal (though, I dunno, he might) and Voldemort may quite possibly wish to spill Harry’s
So maybe it’s Harry’s blood, and he’s (directly or, or letting Voldemort do it) sacrificing his own life to put a permanent end to death for everyone else
Which would make a certain amount of dramatic sense
In which case, probably the word being screamed is “No!” or “Harry!” or something of the kind
Though maybe it ends up with him getting resurrected too; see, e.g., canon Harry Potter, Narnia, Jesus—the first two being deliberately derived from the latter; not so congenial an idea to Eliezer as to Rowling (who is a Christian), but note Eliezer’s “Ta-da” remark when Leah mentioned “Christus Victor” and divide-by-zero errors
So maybe e.g. Harry needs to be killed while invisible to Death because of the Cloak of Invisibility; perhaps that sends his soul-or-similar-thing to wherever wizards’ souls go, but without him actually being properly dead, and enables him to fix things up there (a very “Christus Victor” idea; maybe too much so)
None of this seems to connect with the prophecy about “the one with power to vanquish the Dark Lord”, but maybe as others have speculated the Dark Lord in question is Death or something
What makes you think that the rational hero wouldn’t push the fat man?
From chapter 39:
Well obviously I’m not going to popularize a method of immortality that requires killing people! That would defeat the entire point!
and recall his anguished inner debate about whether he would, in extremis, allow himself to kill people on the other side in his war against Voldemort. But, for sure, that’s not enough evidence to be certain he wouldn’t, which is why I added:
Can’t be Harry’s blood; at age eleven he’s certainly got less than 3 litres (if he weighs ~80 pounds), possibly little more than two (can’t recall if HJPEV is as skinny as Canon!HP). If you cut off a limb, he might have as much one litre “spill” out, but the rest would just sort of… dribble in spurts.
If so, then:
Presumably what’s happening is some ritual involving the Deathly Hallows, carried out by Harry or Voldemort or both
Most likely with the goal of defeating Death (somehow)
So I guess the litres of blood are a requirement of the ritual (note: in view of earlier stuff about how modest the things sacrificed in rituals are, it had better be something as grand as defeating Death)
Harry doesn’t seem like the type to spill other people’s blood even for such a goal (though, I dunno, he might) and Voldemort may quite possibly wish to spill Harry’s
So maybe it’s Harry’s blood, and he’s (directly or, or letting Voldemort do it) sacrificing his own life to put a permanent end to death for everyone else
Which would make a certain amount of dramatic sense
In which case, probably the word being screamed is “No!” or “Harry!” or something of the kind
Though maybe it ends up with him getting resurrected too; see, e.g., canon Harry Potter, Narnia, Jesus—the first two being deliberately derived from the latter; not so congenial an idea to Eliezer as to Rowling (who is a Christian), but note Eliezer’s “Ta-da” remark when Leah mentioned “Christus Victor” and divide-by-zero errors
So maybe e.g. Harry needs to be killed while invisible to Death because of the Cloak of Invisibility; perhaps that sends his soul-or-similar-thing to wherever wizards’ souls go, but without him actually being properly dead, and enables him to fix things up there (a very “Christus Victor” idea; maybe too much so)
None of this seems to connect with the prophecy about “the one with power to vanquish the Dark Lord”, but maybe as others have speculated the Dark Lord in question is Death or something
All, of course, pure wild ass-speculation.
Why? What makes you think that the rational hero wouldn’t push the fat man?
From chapter 39:
and recall his anguished inner debate about whether he would, in extremis, allow himself to kill people on the other side in his war against Voldemort. But, for sure, that’s not enough evidence to be certain he wouldn’t, which is why I added:
Can’t be Harry’s blood; at age eleven he’s certainly got less than 3 litres (if he weighs ~80 pounds), possibly little more than two (can’t recall if HJPEV is as skinny as Canon!HP). If you cut off a limb, he might have as much one litre “spill” out, but the rest would just sort of… dribble in spurts.
Is there any stipulation that the blood must be freshly gathered, and not kept preserved as for transfusions?