News Flash! HBP covers released!

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 125773


SSSusan: "Well, I have thought of one possibility, GEO. The U.S. cover
shows Harry & DD looking at what appears to be a Pensieve, and there
is a lot of eery green light emanating from it and swirling around
them. Green light makes me think immediately of one thing: an AK.
Since a pensieve replays memories, I'd think it might be possible that
the cover depiction *is* of a flashback of sorts, maybe even of the
events of GH if DD has a reason to possess a memory of it. Harry's
gaining THAT information would certainly be significant enough to
warrant a cover reference."

It might be an AK, but I get something positive out of the American
and the British children's covers: Dumbledore and Harry are much
closer in this book than the last.  I think we'll see Dumbledore
actively mentoring Harry much more, and they will share danger
together for arguably the first time in this book. (I decided not to
count the MoM battle in OoP.) I believe we're preparing for the
passing of the torch.

An implication of this greater closeness, if it happens, is that Harry
has gotten over or is getting over his anger at Dumbledore. I've
believed that Harry's mental state will be much better now and what I
saw made me feel good about that.

As to the Potions book, I wonder if Harry did much better on his
Potions OWL than anyone thought?  Wow, if that's true, that sure will
put Snape in a bind! Let's see, the kid he hates got a great score on
his OWL while Snape was giving him the worst grades he could contrive;
he's got to put up with him in his NEWT classes; Snape's been further
shown up because kids do much better once he's unable to terrorize
them. (It'll be even worse if Neville did well.)  And Harry won't view
it as an unmixed blessing, either.  Whether this means that Snape is
the Half-Blood Prince, I don't know.  I'm inclined to believe the HBP
is someone new.

Jim Ferer