Reason for Neville as the HBP, and side notes about Lupin, Tom, and Mark

[aboutthe1910s]

No: HPFGUIDX 103341

In the Extra Stuff section on Dean Thomas, JK talks about how she
wanted to include a lot about him in Chamber of Secrets, which got me
thinking that maybe *he* was the HBP--but then she mentions that his
background story will probably never find a place in the books now. 
Since I don't think JK would actually lie just to throw us off the
track, my interest fell on the sentence following the one dismissing
Dean's background story--where she says that she sacrificed Dean's
story for Neville's development, because Neville is a bigger part of
the central plot.  So I don't know.  I think Neville has potential at
least.

I like the idea of Lupin being the HBP too.  He's one of my favorite
characters, and I've always felt like he totally got shafted at the
end of POA--Harry sends all year developing this relationship and then
Sirius comes along and he's completely swept aside.

As for Tom Riddle as the Half Blood Prince--it's certainly possible,
but I will be even more disappointed with that than with the prophecy
at the end of OoTP (which I spent hundreds of pages biting my nails to
find out and then it was just that Harry has to be the one to defeat
Voldy?  I could have told you that without ever having read the books
and having only a vague idea of the plot of the series.  The
protagonist is always the one responsible for vanquishing the
antagonist).  Tom as the HBP is just too obvious, even if she is
trying to throw us off by saying it's not Voldy.

Also--hasn't it already been pointed out on here that Mark spells his
last name differently from Lily?  One uses an "a" and one uses an "e."
 Harry has *no* other living relatives, people.  Accept it.

a