BOOK 6 ANNOUNCEMENT ON JKR WEBSITE

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 103294

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Debra" <hpsupergeek at y...> 
wrote:
> As for it being a completely new character that we haven't heard 
> mention of even once: I don't think this is a possibility because 
> although we couldn't possibly speculate about the female DADA 
teacher 
> in OP, this character forms the entire *title*. I still think it's 
> someone we have *barely* met before, because I think JKR gets so 
much 
> joy out of making the entire fandom go "D'oh!" Some seemingly 
> insignificant character, mentioned once in passing.

Not only that, it must be a character who appeared in CoS.  The fact 
that "Half-Blood Prince" was an early draft of the TITLE of CoS 
seems to me to indicate that whoever it refers to was someone 
important to *that* book.  Yes, JKR could have written out this 
person completely in order to save him for Book 6, but I suspect 
that that would have required a major restructuring of the whole 
book. Rowling's titles are not that tricky - so far, every one has 
accurately described the "kernel" around which the whole book is 
constructed.  Imagine trying to remove the Philosopher's Stone or 
the Chamber of Secrets from books one and two in order to put them 
somewhere later in the series; they'd be completely different 
stories.  So I think that the character was there in the book we 
read, but the outlines were softened a bit in order to avoid giving 
away too much information too early. 

(I think this also strikes down the idea that Mark Evans is the HBP -
 if Mark is 10 in OotP, then he was 7 during CoS, and I can't see 
how a child that young, not even old enough to go to Hogwarts if he 
IS magical, could have had any role to play in CoS.)

Although the titles of the books are not tricky, JKR *is*, and I 
think her hint at the end of the message is meant to trick us.  "Not 
Harry or Voldemort," she says.  I think it's Tom Riddle, *before* he 
became Voldemort.  Tom wasn't born bad - he BECAME Voldemort.  He 
even gave himself the name.  And a "prince" is one who is not yet 
king.  I think that Book 6 will involved time travel, as so many 
others have opined, and that Harry will travel back in time to meet 
Tom Riddle, in order to stop him before he starts his journey to 
become Voldemort.  Maybe he'll try to kill him, maybe he'll just try 
to interfere with him, or maybe he'll try to reform him; but 
whatever happens, Harry is going to try to stop Tom from becoming 
Voldemort.

Wanda