Half Blood Prince: two sentences missing from UK edition

[Judy]

Tim  wrote:
> I'm at Accio 2005 and heard from Troels Forchhammer via Ali Hewison 
> a very strange omission in the UK version of Harry Potter and the 
> Half Blood Prince. 
...
> I can understand language changes, but why would Bloomsbury cut two
> sentences, or Scholastic add them?

The missing sentences are:
"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right 
side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can 
possible imagine."

It is pretty obvious that this isn't a language change; it is a flat-
out mistake. The question is, which version did JKR intend? 

I was just talking about this with a friend at lunch, and she thinks 
JKR must have changed her mind about this passage, but only one 
version got her changes. My friend's theory is that JKR wanted to 
take out the two sentences in the US edition, because she was afraid 
they would lead fans to conclude that Dumbledore had only pretended 
to die.  

This is possible, but doesn't explain why JKR left the following line 
in both editions: "Nobody would be surprised that you had died in 
your attempt to kiil me." This line also makes it clear that the 
Order can fake deaths.

So, my guess is that it was just an editing glitch.

By the way, I really wish I was at Accio!  I considered going, but 
didn't want to spend the money.  What was I thinking???  Hope you 
have a great time, Tim.  

-- Judy