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

[Demmero]

It's pretty clear (to me at least) that, should both survive, Harry and Ginny will wind up together.

Or one will make a sacrifice to save the other. I felt so stupid when it finally hit me today that Harry and Ginny are virtually mirror images of James and Lily Potter (Harry looks just like his dad and Ginny has the same red hair as Lily). I get the feeling that whatever sacrifices were made to save Harry's life will be somehow reflected in Harry's final encounter with Voldemort.

Snape's allegiance is to Snape. Things are deliberately ambiguous with where he will wind up. Personally, he'll bite it at some point in Book 7, but not before messing things up for both Voldemort and for Harry. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Quite possible. He doesn't seem to truly be serving Voldemort; his reasons for NOT killing Harry that he gives early in Book 6 have flown out the window by the end of that book. He should kill Harry then when the opportunity presents itself but doesn't. Maybe he's hoping Harry will defeat Voldemort and then Snape himself can become leader of the Death Eaters. Or maybe he's deep undercover and working with the Order of the Phoenix to destroy Voldemort.

Dumbledore seems MIGHTY certain that Snape can be trusted, and usually the headmaster's wisdom can be trusted. Snape made one Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy; who's to say Dumbledore didn't make him take another one when he first applied to teach at Hogwarts?

I have a suspicion that while Snape hated James Potter he may have had other feelings for Lily. Maybe Lily wasn't supposed to be home the night Voldy attacked, and Snape's sincere sorrow about his Death Eater days comes from her death in protecting Harry. I've always thought it strange for a professor to flat-out hate the son of someone he hated back in his own school days without giving the kid the benefit of the doubt first. Maybe when he looks at Harry he sees Lily's eyes looking back at him.

I was REALLY surprised that we learned next to nothing (again!) about Harry's mother; she's got to be unveiled in Book 7.

Draco has always been a coward, as witnessed by his adventure in the forest in the first book. I do wonder when Harry will figure out that Dumbledore died to save Draco's life -- he wanted Harry to witness this.

I agree. Maybe Dumbledore wants Harry to be able to do something similar when he confronts Snape again (assuming that Snape's not wholly evil).

As much as I hate Draco, I'm working on a theory that maybe somehow he (and not Harry or Neville) is The Chosen One. Although I don't believe Malfoy's birthday is ever revealed, he's one of the few 6th-Year students too young to take Apparition classes (so his birthday's at least in the same neighborhood as Harry and Neville's). In OotP, Dumbledore claims that the prophecy means that The Chosen One "would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times." If that's true, then I'm wrong. But in Book 6, JKR gives us three examples of the Malfoy family defying Voldemort (Lucius by slipping Riddle's diary into Ginny Weasley's cauldron back in Book 2, Narcissa by speaking to Snape about Draco's situation, and then Draco himself by not killing Dumbledore when he had the perfect opportunity).

I'm kinda digging this theory

 

[Uzumaki]

I also like the 'competition between dark wizards' bit I read out of the R.A.B. letter. No idea who it might be, though.

Regulus A. Black, Sirius's brother. Was I the only one who realized this right away? Unless we found out what his middle name was and I just forgot. It was never stated specifically that he was dead, not that that means you're never coming back, obviously. The locket is in 12 Grimmauld Place. Betcha.

Besides agreeing with everything PCat said, I also liked how Rowling actually made Draco a threat in this book. It's always bothered me that he's never been more than a bully, when there's essentially an agent of Voldemort in the school.

As I was reading, I wondered how Rowling was going to fit in finding the other phylactr-, I mean, horcruxes, the duel with Voldemort, and the wrap-up, as well as squeezing in the standard Hogwarts hijinks, so Harry deciding not to return to finish his last year wasn't wholly surprising. In fact, I was pretty happy about it. Rowling finally seems to be straying from some of the cliches she fell back on in earlier books.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I haven't read the rest of the thread yet. I just want to mark, for myself, where it was when I started reading. My wife has just finished. I'm off to bed and I'll start reading in the morning. I' actually just about a third of the way through rereading HPIV:GoF, but I think that I'll go ahead and skip ther rest of IV and all of book V. I think I remember them well enough.

 

[Storminator]

I think Snape is deep undercover. He's got impossibly good credentials with the Death Eaters right now.

He started teaching the DADA students nonverbal spells, then he pointed out just how very important that is by deflecting every one of Harry's spells at the end, and pointing out that Harry needs to use nonverbals and close his mind better if he wants to succeed.

Snape is the key to defeating Voldemort.

PS

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I think Snape is deep undercover. He's got impossibly good credentials with the Death Eaters right now.

He started teaching the DADA students nonverbal spells, then he pointed out just how very important that is by deflecting every one of Harry's spells at the end, and pointing out that Harry needs to use nonverbals and close his mind better if he wants to succeed.

Snape is the key to defeating Voldemort.

PS

I hope you're right! Snape has been doing his best Snively Whiplash to Harry's Dudley Doo-Right since book 1--at least in his treatment of Harry. I think JKR likes twists & turns, so I find it hard to believe that all of Dumbledore's trust is for naught. And what does Dumbledore say at the end of book 6? I don't remember his saying, "Help me" but just saying "please" to Snape. Now, was that a "Please, help me" or was it a "Please remember your task, Severus" plea from Dumbledore?

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Harry, the Pawn of Black...

It hurts your analogy that some of the characters are named Black.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

And I guess the key question for Book 7: who is RAB?

…ah, yes.

Well, my real name is Rubin Aloysius Blunderbuss.

That said, I do think Snape is a black-hearted villain. And as for turning an apparently evil character to good, somehow I don’t see Harry turning Draco and then Draco tossing Voldemort down a convenient power-shaft.

Any dates for the release of the last book?

 

[Xath]

I like the theory that Regulus Black is RAB. It would explain alot. However, even if the locket had been stashed at 12 Grimawld Place, I think Rowling has given us enough clues that it's not there anymore.

Mundungus Fletcher, anyone?

 

[Xath]

As much as I despise Snape right now, a part of me is pretty sure he's not evil. I was always ready to side with Harry when he said Snape was evil in the other books, but this time I have my doubts.

Remember how Nearly Headless Nick said that Snape and Dumbledore had had an arguement? Snape had said that he didn't want to do it anymore and Dumbledore told him that he had to. I think Snape completed the Unbreakable Vow under orders from Dumbledore.

Harry had suspected Malfoy of doing plenty of evil things, and had informed Dumbledore. But none of the evidence Harry had given was enough to prove to Dumbledore that Malfoy had been behind the previous attacks. Dumbledore had to have been learning from Snape. He didn't know the whole story because Malfoy wasn't telling Snape everything.

Also, I don't think Malfoy is going to become completely evil. It was proven in this book that the only reason that Malfoy was fighting for Voldemort was out of the love he has for his mother (and himself). And Dumbledore said that those who can love cannot be truely corrupted.

I think that if the Death Eaters hadn't intervened, Malfoy would have joined Dumbledore.

 

[Zog]

Personally, I think Dumbledore was wrong about Nagini. Its Wormtail - or at least his hand. His most faithful servant, the ONLY truly faithful one. And he owes Harry his life.... Which we have been waiting to matter since book 3 - so it has got to pay off in book 7.

One other explaination for the 'Snape really isn't that evil' is the Dumbledore was dying. Snape helped with the curse that killed his hand - he would have known that it was still slowly killing Dumbledore. So at the end, he was asking Snape to finish it, put him out of his misery. But... Snape could just be evil. Evil, evil, evil. And unless Snape sacrifices himself to save Harry (or Ron, Ginny or Herminone), Harry will never believe otherwise.