I’ve always pictured a Deatheater assault on Hogwarts to get Harry. Probably during the Christmas Holidays when most of the students (and presumably a lot of the teachers) are away.
You could have many of the teachers/students in peril without having to come up with reasons to get them away from Hogwarts during the year.
Other idle speculations:
a. Colin Creavy (sp?) to get injured/killed after Harry rebufs another of his attemps at friendship, thereby giving Harry extra impetus to get involved when:
b: Ron or Hermione get kidnapped by the Deatheaters and used to get to Harry.
c. One of the students (Cho perhaps or another girl Harry likes) gets put under the Imperator curse & tries to injure Harry.
Question for the full blood fans here: what’s up with Luna? She’s pictured as being very odd, but she does have hidden depths. She’s one who’s actually been able to comfort Harry, some. I wouldn’t be surprised that with the proper spell, she could become attractive.
Neville’s got hidden depths, as well. I predict he’s got more of a role to play.
No, a half-blood is someone like Seamus, or Voldemort himself-one parent is a muggle, one parent is a witch/wizard.
As for all Slytherins being bad, this is my theory about Salazar Slytherin: See, back when Hogwarts was founded, wizards really WERE in danger from muggles, what with the church and the persecution of supposed witches. So, he probably wasn’t evil so much as he was genuinely concerned that muggle-borns might lead to the school being harmed. And he wanted to find a way to protect it-thus, the basilisk.
As for why it took until Tom Riddle to be the Heir, well, parselmouths are extremely rare. So while you may have had a parselmouth or two in the history of the school, none of them were related to Slytherin. And while certainly his descendents attended Hogwarts, none of them were parselmouths. Tom Riddle was probably the first to be a parselmouth AND be a direct descendent of Slytherin.
Why can’t Snape be in love? Easy-perhaps seeing the way his parents were (and there are definitely hints that his father was abusive), he just doesn’t want to go down that path.
Salazar has long been a Dark Horse candidate for Prince, and given Jo’s track record, it’s likely one of the Dark Horses that’ll be the Prince. He’s never been my favourite, but the idea has merit.
A Half-Blood is someone with a mix of pureblood and Muggle ancestry, in any combination on either side. The Muggles in question can be back generations, on one side of the family or both.
Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacouer will be back. Which opens up the possiblility of a big ol’ macho fistfight between Viktor and Ron over Hermione.
A Weasley will get killed; Bill, possibly, while trying to protect Fleur. Remember in the last book, one of the twins mentioned Bill took an office job at Gringotts to be closer to Fleur, who was also working there?
Harry HAS to do N.E.W.T. level potions, otherwise there’s almost no opportunity for interaction between him and Snape. So either he got an O on his O.W.L. level, or Dumbledore intercedes and makes Snape accept him in the class.
Hagrid manages to civilize Grawp, who becomes assistant gamekeeper.
The centaurs have too much to drink one night and launch an attack on the school. Okay, that one is REALLY out there, but it’d be fun to see.
Actually, Lily was muggle born meaning Harry’s grandparents on his mother’s side were muggles and thus “contaminating” the blood. Harry being a half blood, like Voldemort, is why he was chosen over Neville.
Who says the other “half” (assuming one wizard half) of “Half-Blood” needs to have been muggle? I think the HBP is Hagrid - and the other “half” is giant.
Or perhaps, a switcheroo - the HBP is not a wizard term, it’s a giant term in the first place. Perhaps the alliegance of the giants in the new wizard war will be key in this book, and Grawp will be more in Hagrid’s life than just another Norbert or Skrewt.
Sorry Hamish, for some reason I read you as saying Snape was the Dark Horse favorite. I didn’t mean to be confusing (or confused for that matter).
This is the first time I’ve made a prediction regarding Harry Potter, so I’m kind of extra excited for the book. (Even if others have had the same thought.)
The cover with the winged horses is an OoTP cover; the creatures are the thestrals the DA gang rode to the Ministry.
I can’t make much from the UK cover for HBP. It looks like Harry and Dumbledore are fighting against something together, which is a first of sorts. Judging by the fire swirling around the joined hands, I’d say they’re producing it. Maybe it’s a defense of some sort. The back cover is just plain cryptic. The basin-like thing in the foreground (and on the front of the American cover) could be the Pensieve, or it could be something else entirely. The background appears to show a small boat drawn up against a dock of sorts. I have the odd impression that it’s supposed to be underground, but that’s just a guess.
The back cover of the American version seems to offer something less ambigous–it shows the Dark Mark looming over Hogwarts. I suspect it indicates a direct attack of some kind at the school.
Hey, cmkeller, I’m not shomer shabbes, so I’m not sure if this would be bad, but could you prepay for your book now and just pick it up on the 16th? (I’ve already paid for my copy.) Or would carrying such a heavy book count as work? Do you live within an eruv?
Appreciated, Kyla, but I’ll be just fine waiting until after Shabbos (about 9:30 PM) to pick up a copy from Wal-Mart or Shop-Rite. I highly doubt they’ll be sold out, I’d wager they pre-ordered plenty enough.
I do happen to live the rest of the year in a neighborhood with an Eruv, but for the summer I’m up in a bungalow colony in the Catskills (hence my intention to buy at the above-mentioned stores rather than a Barnes & Noble or Borders), which is surrounded by its own Eruv, but that doesn’t even stretch to the next house over.
In theory, I probably could have pre-paid and picked up a copy from a bookstore within my Eruv if I were so desperate.
I’ve found myself idly wondering if Viktor isn’t destined to become a DADA teacher at Hogworts - he did say he liked it better there, and he’s fairly skilled…
I wonder how old you have to be to become a teacher at Hogwarts? I know Viktor was older, but he’d still be very fresh out of school. Interesting idea, though. Also, IIRC, they were actually allowed to practice Dark Arts at Durmstrang, so he’d have a really good basis for teaching the defenses.
