X-post: *When* did Dumbledore die?

[Jen Reese]

Pippin:
> The blood is far too prominently placed to be an unintentional red 
> herring. And  lots of major clues have looked like
> window-dressing at first: Quirrell's turban, Riddle's middle name,
> Scabbers's missing toe, stolen boomslang skin and the vanishing
> cabinet to mention just a few.

Jen: The problem is it's difficult to tot up the number of red 
herrings we have so far because we don't want to close the door on 
possible clues. All the things you mentioned above and more have 
turned out to be significant for the plot. I'm guessing twice as 
many prominently placed objects, creatures, names etc. will prove to 
have no meaning other than JKR providing atmosphere and interest to 
the story.

There was a *lot* of blood in HBP: Slughorn's faked death scene, the 
glasses of bloodred wine, Sectumsempra cuts, all the talk in the 
cave of the value of blood and Voldemort's blood payment, and then 
the scenes with the DE's at Hogwarts--blood everywhere! Harry slips 
on blood and follows blood trails through the castle and bleeds 
himself to mention a few things. 

I think the fact that blood=life-force in Rowling's world is part of 
the reason why the increase in blood, as well as a need to visually 
show the stakes are getting higher.

So in the case of Dumbledore the small drip of blood seemed very 
symbolic to me, the life-force drained out. It reminded me of 
Dumbledore telling Harry in OOTP that Voldemort had shed Lily's 
blood. Lily, Dumbledore and Harry are completely different from 
Voldemort in that all are willing to shed their blood if called on 
to do so, they know it strengthens rather than weakens.

Jen