HBP prediction contest

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 130291

1. Who will be the most major character to die?

<throws dart randomly at dartboard covered with mugshots>
The new DADA teacher. Though some old friends will cop it too, and 
there may well be some disagreement as to whether the new DADA 
teacher is a more major character than a Weasley brother.


2. Who is the Half-Blood Prince? (If "The Old Lion Guy,"
describe more.)

Dumbledore.  Firenze will see something about The Half-Blood Prince 
in the stars (or in the dew on a spider's web, or in Hedwig's 
entrails, or something). Felix felicis (whoever he turns out to be) 
will be the obvious suspect. 


3. What is Lily's big secret? (This question will be eliminated
and full credit given to everyone if no big secret is revealed.)

The first "important thing" we learned was about her defending nasty 
people (Snape) against good people (James) when they're innocent. 
Harry will have to do something like that too (i.e. defend Snape at 
some point because he's innocent of whatever he's being accused).
The rest of the important stuff about Lily won't be revealed in HBP, 
but it will be something about her eyes and seeing goodness in 
people, and giving them second chances. Bleugh. 


4. Who will be the new DADA teacher?

Felix felicis, who may or may not be the leonine chap, but he *will* 
be a great teacher, (he *might* turn out to be a DE spy/agent) and 
it will irritate Snape (who can't stand him, naturally) no end. FF 
might even teach Harry Occlumency, (which will irritate Snape even 
more).


5. With whom will Harry have a romantic relationship?

Eugh... shipping forecasts aren't my sort of thing, but here goes:  
HBP will not clear up either of the two major shipping questions. 
Harry and Ginny will not get together, though we will undoubtedly 
see more of Ginny being witty and fun. Ron and Hermione will carry 
on bickering and bantering, but we will be in more or less the same 
shipping climate wrt these two as we are now (only with more canon 
for the shippers to fight over).  Harry may flirt with and possibly 
even kiss someone else, though it's more likely that he's chased by 
this someone than that he does the chasing. How about... Lavender 
Brown?


6. Who will be the new Minister of Magic?

Felix Felicis, who will be a bad guy in disguise.  (I know, I 
know... it's called "hedging your bets". Whoever FF turns out to be, 
with a name like that he'll be for the chop before the end of the 
book, I betcha.) 


7. What is that bowl-thing on the green U.S. HBP cover?

With Lucius in Azkaban, Arthur will finally get to search the 
Malfoy's manor, and in the secret whatsit under the dining room he 
will find ... a pensieve. His loyalty to the Order will conflict 
with his loyalty to the ministry, and the pensieve will make its way 
to Dumbledore, who will find the contents *fascinating*.


8. Will Harry take Advanced Potions?

Bien sûr mes chers! 


9. Will Neville take Advanced Potions?

Doubt it.

10. How many OWLs did Harry get?

<throws dart randomly at dartboard>
Oops. <tries again> 20.  No, hang on... 7. Yes, 7.


Additional (0-10 points each):

1. We're going to find out more about Voldemort and his past, 
probably from DD. We'll find out what it was that Voldy was up to in 
those immortality experiments, and I'm still betting it's to do with 
snakes (specifically Nagini, which is how she became so dear to 
Voldy) – which might mean it's also to do with Slytherin (giving
us a reason to see the Hogwarts graveyard, perhaps).


2. Ron will be shocked to get an O in divination, insisting that he 
was making it all up. He's not a real seer, but he *is* a convincing 
bluffer. He'll carry on with divination for NEWTs (along with his 4 
auror subjects) because he thinks it's easy, and since we need some 
way for Harry to hear about Firenze's Half-Blood Prince thingy 
(Harry, on the other hand will carry on with either CoMC or 
Herbology). This will mean that he's in divination with a lot of 
giggling girls, and will have plenty of opportunity to make Hermione 
screamingly jealous.


3. Sirius was a hot-headed fool, and mucked up something very 
important which will cause Harry a lot of grief. However, he also 
managed to give Harry the wrong mirror, which is actually one of a 
pair, one of which belonged to his brother, Regulus, the other one 
is in the possession of Narcissa.  Harry will therefore find out 
that he can spy on the Malfoys, hence how we find out about "Draco's 
Detour", and about the pensieve of Voldemort's ending up with DD. 
(And why the mirror wouldn't have helped as much as we thought, but 
will help more than we might think.)


Goodness, so many guesses (I'd hardly call them predictions) and so 
few bangs... So (joining in Olivier's ESE!Challenge) let's try:
 
4. ESE!Aberforth. The shifty barman of the Hog's Head, oh yes. 
Brother betraying brother...  Need I say more? 
Oh, well, I will anyway: If DD dies (ignore the contradictions with 
the above nonsense) it won't be a magical bang, it will be POISON.  
That's what Aberforth was up to with the goats – getting bezoars,
so he could experiment... Oh yes. And I bet he gets Winky to do it. 
But there's Mundungus's story, too: a dodgy deal with Aberforth
went wrong, a fight in the pub in front of someone from the 
Ministry, Dung was barred. DD stepped in to get him out of trouble, 
and realised that Aberforth was Up To No Good.  DD didn't know about 
all of it though, just the petty criminal stuff.  Forgave Aberforth 
and gave him another chance... Big mistake. It'll all end in tears, 
you mark my words...

And after that outpouring of barely coherent nonsense, I've got to 
get on with some work.

Dungrollin.
PS Does anyone else wonder if the Hog's Head was shortened from The 
Hogwarts Headmaster? More importantly, can anyone pin a theory to 
it? Could the pub, perhaps, date from the time of the founders?