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To the people that are angry at Rowling: Spoiler: Think about it a second. Potter's almost 17. Until present, she has depicted him as a boy. Over the course of this one book she needed him to become a young man. When Dumbledore was emergying from the cave, he was likely the weakest he had been in his entire life, yet he stated he had no anxiety because he was with Harry. She spent the entire book establishing Dumbledore's faith in Harry as an individual and an adult to inspire the same faith in her readers. The most effective way to culminate this maturation was for his last remaining parent figure to die. I hope he doesn't come back like Gandalf did. I'm curious where Rowling will draw the missing comic relief from, though. Dumbledore's jokes seemed to play the equivalent of Shakespeare's knave: subtle jokes that offered more insight than the other characters cared to notice.
As for the seventh book, Spoiler: I'm really drawn to Yakk's idea about Lily. I need to reread the previous books before making stronger guesses on the ending. Given Harry's philosophic thoughts at the end though, when he recalls the people that have died out of love to save him (his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore) I think this was a clue to Snape's role in the seventh book. Harry won't need to "convert" him Darth Vader style. Rather, Snape (of his own accord) will sacrifice his life, allowing Harry to complete his quest killing Voldemort. Perhaps out of love of Lily (as Yakk suggested), or out of some yet unrevealed love. It would fit with Rowling's permeating theme of "yay for Love" and would also highlight Dumbledore's often-criticized insistence in looking for the good in people. As a finish to the series, it would let Rowling preach the power of love and looking for the good in people, which seems to be the goal of the series as a whole (as far as I can tell).
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