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Posted by: rowena r Oct 27 2008, 11:29 AM

How many things did you find in HBP that were hidden in plain sight for us to see by the most wonderful Jo ? HBP being the penultimate book in the series, Jo had to give us a lot of clues while hiding them too. tough job, but she succeeded very well on the whole.

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1. What are the things that foretell the end of HBP itself ?
   
2. And also of what was to come in Deathly Hallows ?
   
3. How many people knew Dumbledore was going to die beforehand ?
   
4. And how many knew that Snape was the Half Blood Prince ?

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Posted by: lostielover Nov 1 2008, 01:20 PM

What are the things that foretell the end of HBP itself ?
Harry actually passes the vanishing cabniet on his way to hide his potions book, its kind of cool how Jo brought it back up again before we actually find out that it was what was being fixed.

And also of what was to come in Deathly Hallows ?
In the chapter Sectumsempra, when Harry was hiding his book he "perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue's head to make it more distinctive" Its kind of funny how many times he had actually been a close proximity with a horcrux before he started hunting them(the diary, the locket, the tiara).

How many people knew Dumbledore was going to die beforehand ?
I think that Dumbledore's death was extremely ovbious. For one he was noticely becomes physical weaker shown by his newly blackened hand, and I knew that it would happen just because I didn't think that Jo would keep him alive because then the seventh book would have been too easy.

And how many knew that Snape was the Half Blood Prince ?
I didn't realize that it was Severus until close to the ending, because I didn't know that he was a half-blood. Throughout reading the book for the first time I was listing of in my head all the half-bloods that I knew of in the series, so I had skipped over Snape thinking that he wasn't a half-blood. Looking back though its so ovbious, the book being in the potions cupboard, Severus' knowledge that Harry had the book, and Hermione's little artcle about Eileen Prince.

Posted by: bunya dragon Nov 2 2008, 09:35 PM

What are the things that foretell the end of HBP itself ? And also of what was to come in Deathly Hallows ?

The ring, the ring...(gollum, gollum) Dumbledore wore it to Slughorn's place and it was the reason his hand was burned and why he was dying. The stone in the ring was the Resurrection stone. And Bellatrix being entrusted with Voldy's most precious.. (gollum, gollum). Later on, there is more to learn about the Cupcrux.

Posted by: Milligan Nov 3 2008, 07:16 AM

1. What are the things that foretell the end of HBP itself ?

Not quite the Ending of HBP but the chapter named Spinners End, then Aragog dies kind of cool. In this very chapter while Snape is staring out the window he has already agreed to be the one who kills DD and knows this is one of those now or never times with the unbreakable vow.

Another one is when DD says something along the lines of The fact that he is a lot smarter than other men his mistakes are correspondingly larger this i think comes to a head because he is so sure the Horcrux is in the cave yet we find out its not, so all the damage that happens when he and Harry go searching for it and the fact that its a fake make this a pretty big mistake.


2. And also of what was to come in Deathly Hallows?

One of my favorite passages in the whole series is after one of DD and Harry's private lessons. The one where Harry gets the memory from Slughorn, they are having a conversation about the prophecy and he reasons why Harry never turned to the Dark Side and that harry will have to kill Voldemort not because the prophecy says so but because he wouldn't be able to live without trying, he understands DD to be telling him that theres a difference between being dragged into an arena to face a battle to the death or walking to same fate with your head held high. I think this foretells what Harry knows he has to do at the end of DH.

Another one yet a lot more subtle comes in the very same chapter. In the memory mentioned above the young Tom Riddle is discussing Horcruxs with Slughorn, the Potions master says "Its natural to feel some curiosity about these things, wizards of a certain calibre have always been drawn to that aspect of magic." We later find out that DD was also drawn to that aspect of magic not to create Horcrux's but to avoid death he just went about it differently.

Posted by: Fourmagpies Nov 14 2008, 07:43 AM

I thought Dumbledore's death was really really obviously signalled.

In fact, "signalled" isn't a strong enough word. In the first chapter Snape made an unbreakable promise to kill him. And just to make sure we know, Hagrid later overheard them talking about the promise Snape made and has to carry out. How clearly do you have to spell it out??


For me, I have always trusted Dumbledore's judgement on that one matter on Snape's true allegiance. So it immediately followed that Snape would only have made that promise with Dumbledore's knowledge and agreement. So it must be part of The Plan. And the advantage to The Plan is indeed obvious: Voldemort will really trust Snape after that. The disadvantage is no more Dumbledore to direct the plan. Therefore I also guessed correctly that the wizened hand thing must be killing him anyway, so there would be nothing to lose.


If you don't trust Sanpe, then I suppose that you might be imagining that he could be stopped and killed. But I think my guess even then, since it is absolutely certain that one of them must die, would have been that Snape would be more useful in the last book than Dumbledore

Posted by: Alva Nov 15 2008, 06:18 PM

What are the things that foretell the end of HBP itself ?

There are a few signs that Dumbledore is going to die. The first for me was when Dumbledore and Harry prepare to disapparate out of Privet Drive and DD tells Harry to hold on to his (injured) arm. It's the first instance in which we see that DD is not invincible and in which the distance to him as a hero starts to melt away. That was the first instance where I thought that Jo is going to kill him ...