It is officially out in...
I am so excited right now, here are my predictions about what i think is going to happen...
Please note that these are predictions and are not spoilers, post your predictions
before midnight, and we will see who was right
.
I am not a moderator, but please don't post what happens untill at least Monday, and if you do, clearly mark that you have posted a spoiler before you write it.
Death
I think that Dumbledore will die, it will happen about half-way through the book. He will die, because of a number of different reasons. Firstly, Dumbledore is Harry's mentor, Dumbledore has bailed Harry out of trouble in most of the books. He needs to die in the middle of book 6 because if he died at the beginning of book 6 it would set the tone of the rest of the book and the story wouldn't progress too much, if he died at the end, then there wouldn't be enough time to finish all the mourning before book 7 and if he died at the beginning of book 7, then the rest of book 7 would be about Dumbledore, when really it needs to all be about Harry. He also needs to die becuase Harry needs to realise that he is going to have to face Voldermort alone, and Dumbledore will not be bailing him out.
Spinners End
I was reading an article on mugglenet the other day, and it is very clever. JKR has said that there is a chapter called Spinners End, and this lead loads of disccussion about what it was.
This spinner is found on the rubbish page on JK Rowling's Website, two of the arrows point to chewing gum wrappers.
While all this seems innocent enough, it is made interesting by this quote from Order of the Phoenex...
quote:
"Neville's mother had come edging down the ward in her nightdress [in St. Mungo's] She did not seem to want to speak, or perhaps she was not able to, but she made timid motions toward Neville, holding something in her outstretched hand.
"Again?" Said Mrs. Longbottom, sounding slightly weary, "Very well, Alice dear, very well-Neville, take it, whatever it is"
But Neville had already stretched out his hand, into which his mother dropped an empty Droobles Blowing Gum wrapper.
"Very nice, dear," said Neville's grandmother in a falsely cheery voice, patting his mother on the shoulder. But Neville said quietly, "Thanks Mum."
"Well, we'd better get back," sighed Mrs. Longbottom, drawing on long green gloves. "Very nice to have met you all. Neville, put that wrapper in the bin, she must have given you enough of them to paper your bedroom by now."
But as they left, Harry was sure he saw Neville slip the wrapper into his pocket."
This section lead to a huge debate about there being any significance in this innocent looking paragraph. JKR has said that she doesn't write things in the book for no reason, and she is known to leave clues on the website. This theory is further compounded by the fact that the webpage is the rubbish bin which is where Neville's grandma told him to put the gum wrappers.
Godric Gryffindor
JKR said that something he discovered in Chamber of Secrets is the key to who the Half Blood Prince is. So, in CoS he pulled out a sword from the sorting hat, and this sword was property of Godric Gryffindor, bearing in mind two things... 1) The sword was encrusted with diamonds and stuff and 2) Wizards don't really need a sword in the same way that muggles used to, since they can use wands for everything.
So, think about it, apart from battles, where else are swords used for? Royalty!, the queen knights people with her sword, so maybe the Half Blood Prince is Godric Gryffindor, also Harry's parents used to live in Godric's Hollow, before they died, and JKR has already said that there is something significant in the name.
Shipping
I think that in book 6, Ron and Hermione will get it on, but Harry will secretly love Hermione and on book 7, something major will happen, where he and Hermione hook up. But to keep him busy for book 6, he will either go out with Ginny or Luna.
Ginny can stand up to him, and is just the kind of gal to bring Harry back down to earth and put things in perspective.
Luna on the other hand has the amazing ability to be able to detatch herself from the rest of the world, and I think that Harry will need this when times get tough.