[Tax-chick]

If you say that good people suffer because of evil, that projects the possibility “outward” into the real world, where it could actual harm (and certainly cause anxiety) to a child. It’s true that evil is part of the world, but there’s no need to allow fiction to threaten a child’s security. (Even a limited exposure to history or current events is enough for that, but that’s a different thread.)

If you emphasize that the author has made everything up, a child can still emotionally engage with the characters, while recognizing that they haven’t “died,” because they were never anything but words on the page and images in the imagination in the first place!

[TightyRighty]

FWIW, I agree with you on the death of Tonks. Her death really bothered me and I felt like it was done only to make the story come full circle. I understand that during a war everyone is at risk but there was plenty of death in the book to drive home that point.

What I found to be the REAL tragedy of this story was - that at 38 - Severus Snape died a virgin.