Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released tonight. Any predictions?
John Granger gives his predictions regarding the new book, and I think some of them are quite plausible. For example, he claims that Dumbledore will die in this upcoming book. He makes a lot out of the alchemy motif and, apparently, the three colors in the process are black, white, and red. He claims that the last three books represent those colors. OOTP was black, where Sirius Black died. HBP is white, where Albus Dumbledore will die. Book 7 will be red, which could mean that Rubeus Hagrid died, though I don’t think Hagrid has any other “redness” to him.
Granger also argues that since it must be JKR’s hero, Harry, who carries the day, he must defeat Voldemort. We’ve known since early in the series that, according to Hagrid, the world is fine with Dumbledore around and Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort fears. With Dumbledore around, Harry is, at best, a noble sidekick. Dumbledore must die, and Harry must conquer without him.
Granger also notes that in every book the history lessons are about “Goblins rebellions” and thinks that this foreshadows a real rebellion in the near future. I think this is plausible, but it could also be comic relief in a class that is otherwise dry and boring.
Regarding Snape, why is he the only non-Death Eater who refers to Voldemort as the “Dark Lord”?
My prediction? it will sell out.
If we’re going on black, white, red, I think it much more likely that the red signifies that Ron will die in book 7 (though I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hagrid go too.) Besides the fact that red-headed Ron is much more important to Harry, his death is blatantly foreshadowed in the chess game in book 1.
I’m hoping to know more about Professor Snape, and what happened to prove to Dumbledore that he’s no longer a Death Eater operative. I want there to be some sort of therapeutic understanding dialogue between him and Harry.
I think it might be Dumbledore who dies. There are always forces stacked against him, and if the arch-plot thickens so much more, he may be more vulnerable without more powerful protectors.