Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince-SPOILERS!!!!

[Barendd Nobeard]

I don't think that is a likely scenario, mostly because I don't think the publisher will let JKR get away with it. But technically, it's still a possiblity for Harry to martyr himself.

I think JKR can do anything she wants. I'm sure if the publisher doesn't like the book she writes, some other company would be more than happy to publish it instead.

 

[JimAde]

If Harry IS a horcurux, it doesn't necessarily follow that any time a wizard tries and fails to kill someone a horcrux would be created. I'm saying that perhaps Voldemort was trying to create a horcrux when he killed Harry. That, combined with the way the spell backfired on him, would certainly be a very rare occurrence. Possibly unique.

And his willingness to kill Harry indicates either that he's willing to lose this horcrux (since he has several others) to clean up his mess, or he for some reason doesn't know what happened.

 

[billd91]

I kind of figured Snape didn't have the money, and was using a Class Copy of the book. Not sure why he'd have left it there. Not sure why he didn't retrieve it later. Not sure why he didn't give it to Draco...

The publication date of the book is pretty much irrelevant with respect to anybody owning it. After all, it's the same text the students are still using 50 years after it was written (presumably as a later printing). So Snape owning it some 20 years ago isn't a big deal and doesn't do anything to indicate it was in the family.

I assume it was Snape's personal copy and that, as potions teacher, he had it in his classroom along with all of his other old texts and then barely gave it another thought. I also assume that he probably just didn't think it significant enough to retrieve it when he moved up to DADA.

Of course, his considerable proficiency with potions, as evidenced in his marginal notes, sure goes a long way to explain why he was made potions instructor even though his teaching style was pretty bad.

Edit: Another bit on leaving the text book behind. It probably never crossed his mind that Slughorn might hand out his old potions book as a loaner. After all, Snape would probably never have done so himself, certainly not to Potter.

 

[Larka]

First of all, some very interesting theories. I like the idea that Harry is a horcrux, though I'm not entirely convinced, and I was also facinated about the possiblility of Dumbledore being a portrait. This would be extremely usefull, obviously, but might not help the general storyline...we'll see...

Anyway, this whole 'Regulus Black is R.A.B' thing fits quite nicely, and if you read paragraph three on page 108 in Order of the Phoenix, the cleaning crew find 'a heavy locket that none of them could open.' Could this be the horcrux that Harry and Dumbledore tried to get in the cave?

If it was a horcrux, then it will be hard to find, and they threw everything away. However there is a posibility that Kreacher stole it (if you remember he tried to retrieve items which were being thrown away) or possibly Mundungus (who Harry threatened outside the Pub when he found out he had been stealing from Grimmauld Place.

Finally, I refuse to believe that Snape is evil! I just wont believe it, i dont care if he killed the only person Voldemort was ever afraid of, and despises the person responsible for Voldemorts downfall, he is not evil, I'll beet my socks on it.


Ok, maybe I'm being stubborn and ignorant, but hey, I'm British, what can I say?

 

[Chimera]

Edit: Another bit on leaving the text book behind. It probably never crossed his mind that Slughorn might hand out his old potions book as a loaner. After all, Snape would probably never have done so himself, certainly not to Potter.

I dunno. Consider that he's worked closely with Dumbledore and was even assigned to personally instruct Harry in skills he needed.

Then consider how the heck Harry managed to get a passing grade in Potions after everything Snape put him through. Sure seemed fishy to me. I figured Snape would fail him for sure!

So perhaps Dumbledore arranged for Slughorn to give Snape's personal book to Harry, after arranging for a change in professorial possitions, so that Harry could learn potions from Snape without knowing, without Snape appearing to aid Harry, without anyone else being the wiser. The positional swap could have been Snape's reward and would also have spared him the pain of watching Harry use his book as well as any other difficulties.

 

[Macbeth]

I'm betting Snape is a Good Guy. The early chapter where he makes the Unbreakable Oath can be read 2 ways: Either he's really working for Voldemort, and this is how he really is, or he's working for the OotP, and this is what he has to do to maintain his cover. I didn't see anything in that chapter that couldn't be explained be 'keeping his cover.'

As for Dumbeldore: despite speculation from this thread and other sources (Time Magainze, among others), I think he'll stay at least mostly dead. Perhaps a few talks with his portrait (which will be more of characature then a true personality) or some Obi-Wan style ghosting, but I think he'll stay dead.

I do have to say that the death in this book was much better then in Book 5. When Sirius died, I felt bad for Harry, but it wasn't really sad. Sirius was more like the cool older kid, who has to die to prove things are real. Dumbeldoor, on the other hand, made me sad just to see him go.

I'm also glad that there may be some possibillity for breaking the pattern of the other books in Book 7. Throughout Book 6 I was thinking it was feeling a bit formulaic: Dursleys, The Burrow, Hogwarts (sorting hat, classes, mysterious happening, quidditch), Harry's theories, conclusion. I'd compare it to a formula TV show, like Law & Order, or perhaps Star Trek: each episode has the same basic plot, with some new scene dressing. Sure Harry had more character development, but it felt like the same story (Hagrid even says "It's like the Chamber of Secrets all over again"). The 7th book could be the one that makes an impact by breaking the patter, like the few Law & Order episodes that break the Investigate and Prosecute plot (by changing the order,or doing something else entirely).

Anyways, good book, and I hope JK Rowling really gets cracking on the next one.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Was rereading during discussion. Theoretically (if Dumbledore is right), Harry was to be the 6th Horcrux. Instead, it was the snake years later (when he kills the muggle in book4).

Also, time frame wise. I don't think Snape could have betrayed the Dark Lord because of Lily's Death, since he was feeding info to the Order before then, given that the organization fell apart when the Dark Lord died (along with Lily.)

 

[billd91]

I dunno. Consider that he's worked closely with Dumbledore and was even assigned to personally instruct Harry in skills he needed.

Then consider how the heck Harry managed to get a passing grade in Potions after everything Snape put him through. Sure seemed fishy to me. I figured Snape would fail him for sure!

So perhaps Dumbledore arranged for Slughorn to give Snape's personal book to Harry, after arranging for a change in professorial possitions, so that Harry could learn potions from Snape without knowing, without Snape appearing to aid Harry, without anyone else being the wiser. The positional swap could have been Snape's reward and would also have spared him the pain of watching Harry use his book as well as any other difficulties.

Snape can't fail Potter at potions. The OWL testing is a national standard test, run and graded by a testing board. The individual teachers can prepare the students for the tests, but they don't have any bearing on the outcome. It mimicks the British system to a certain degree.
Snape seems genuinely surprised that Potter is using material from his old book. He's pretty sure it's going on since Potter uses one of his old nasty hexes, but Potter manages to dodge him for a while on it. I seriously doubt Dumbledore had anything to do with it. I think it's just a coincidence designed by Rowling to give us more insight into Snape's character.

 

[billd91]

Was rereading during discussion. Theoretically (if Dumbledore is right), Harry was to be the 6th Horcrux. Instead, it was the snake years later (when he kills the muggle in book4).

Also, time frame wise. I don't think Snape could have betrayed the Dark Lord because of Lily's Death, since he was feeding info to the Order before then, given that the organization fell apart when the Dark Lord died (along with Lily.)

Harry wasn't supposed to be the sixth horcrux. His death was supposed to fuel the creation of the 6th horcrux. There would have been some other vessel, something inanimate, possibly even something left behind that Harry and his friends might find when they go back to the place of his parents' deaths.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Harry wasn't supposed to be the sixth horcrux. His death was supposed to fuel the creation of the 6th horcrux. There would have been some other vessel, something inanimate, possibly even something left behind that Harry and his friends might find when they go back to the place of his parents' deaths.

Right, that's what I meant, sorry. Harry was supposed to create it...
Basically just meant "he probably isn't the horcrux, if the snake is made afterwards", but who knows for sure.