"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" out tomorrow!

[Guynemer]

After 20 more pages, and being sorely tempted by the above spoiler tags (though I have resisted thus far), I have done an aboutface and am absolutely convinced that my above prediction is 100% incorrect.

The HBP is

Spoiler:

Lily Potter, nee Evans

Take it to the bank!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Verto
LOLZ OMFG

[Guynemer]

Okay. So I was wrong. Twice.


Holy criznap.

The question is...

Spoiler:

Did Sirius' ill-fated brother actually succeed in destroying the horcrux before he was killed? If not, how with Harry recover it? If so, how will Harry discover this?

I really liked the new professor.


EDIT: I see, on review of the thread, that Wombat posted exactly the same thought in his spoiler. Great minds...

[Guynemer]

And a few final thoughts:

#1, regarding the most important happening in the book

Spoiler:

Snape killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore's orders; his look of rage at the time was for being placed in that terrifying position by Albus. Dumbledore did it to both maintain Snape's cover and spare Draco's life.

#2, regarding a bet-the-farm Book 7 death

Spoiler:

In Book 5, Sirius Black died. In Book 6, Albus (Latin for White). In Book 7? Rubeus (Red) Hagrid. One could also make an argument for any (or, horrifyingly, all) of the Weasleys, all of them being linked to red as well; however, Rowling has thus far gone with characters with color names.

And #3, regarding the quest set out for Harry

Spoiler:

If the thought is that each of the four remaining horcruxes is linked to a Hogwarts Founder, then the snake is a red herring; Voldemort found something of Ravenclaw, and Harry himself is the Gryffindor horcrux, as a side effect of the attack on him as a child. In the end, he must sacrifice his own life to end Voldemort's.

[Immortal Wombat]

#1

Spoiler:

That is a possibility, and Rowling certainly left it very carefully ambiguous. If so, Draco damn well better do some serious redemptive ass-kicking in book seven.

#3 very spoiler/

Spoiler:

Ooh... interesting. I was trying to make the four founders' horcruxes fit into tarot suits: Godric's sword, Helga's chalice, Salazar's coin (~locket?), Rowena's club? (or staff? or something?). I suppose it still fits if that was Voldemort's aim, but was prevented by circumstances, and forced to use Harry instead. Or maybe Harry and Nagini are horcruxes? That would spare the need to come up with some arbitary Ravenclaw trinket for book seven, but if Harry is questing rather than schooling then maybe that doesn't matter so much.

This is assuming one can kill Voldemort's corporeal form before destroying the last horcrux and still extinguish him fully.

and also

Spoiler:

How does James know Snape's dangle-by-the-ankle spell after OWL exams, but Snape wrote it out in his NEWT level Potions book?

[Solver]

Written in a book doesn't mean being invented at the time of writing and not before .

[Immortal Wombat]

Indeed. But why would it then be written down if its inventor already had it memorised?

[Pekka]

I've trolled every HP thread, because well.. Harry IS a victim of incest, lying in a dungeon made by his own incest dad, in coma after he got hit in the head with a rock after he tried to bite it off, living in fantasy land and stuff. It's only a survival mode he's playing, but I'm glad you all like to read it.. and not save the guy. Incest supporters

[Solver]

It seemed that quite a lot of the written down stuff was easily memorisable, but still stored down. Just in case. Like, why does everyone have even the commonly used phone numbers written down, despite having memorised them?

[Pekka]

It's common problem when you are in incest abused coma. It's like people can't sweat in dreams, like in Total Recall.. it's a tell off if you sweat, it means you're real. Just like the phone number thing.

[SpencerH]

I picked up my amazon preorder from my mailbox yesterday morning (17th). It must have been delivered on the afternoon of the sixteenth (since I very much doubt they made an early morning run yesterday)!

[Immortal Wombat]

Yesterday was the 16th

[Guynemer]

Hey Wombat, correct me if I'm wrong, but...

Spoiler:

In Book 5, when the kids were cleaning up the Black estate, didn't they come across a locket that couldn't be opened, or something like that? Do you remember what happened to it?

[Pekka]

Guynemer, sure, but it required

*spoiler*

MORE COWBELL!

*/spoiler*

[Guynemer]

Damn yeah.