A few thoughts in passing

[hg_skmg]

Ginger:
Anything JKR answers will be answered, and anything else is up to my 
> imagination.  I will be able to speculate with total abandon on 
> anything she doesn't cover, which means I can go nuts in a way I 
> haven't been able to since I finished PoA...When book 7 is 
> done, I can do with JKR's world as I please, so long as it fits 
canon.

hg:
Ginger, this is by far the most positive attitude I've read regarding 
the end of the series, and I thank you for it.  The thought never 
once crossed my mind that our imaginings would be released from the 
successive limitations (from the books, interviews, website), but 
rather that it'd simply be all over.  Perhaps the end won't be so 
depressing after all.

Ginger:
> Another thought I had was about dragon's blood.  Could it have 
> healing powers?  Hagrid used a dragon steak for his black eye in 
OoP 
> as one might use a beefsteak in real life.  The twins wore dragon 
> jackets rather than plain leather, explaining that they were 
treating 
> themselves as business was so good.  It would seem that dragon is 
> more expensive that cow, so why was Hagrid using the more expensive 
> cut of meat?  Healing powers?  Was that Dragon's blood trickling 
from 
> DD's mouth?  If so, what did he intend by it?  

hg:
Now you've got my mind racing.  First off, I've been confused for 
quite some time about the different colors of dragon's blood we see: 
The steak is dripping greenish blood, but the blood on the walls in 
the Muggle house Slughorn is inhabiting is glutinous and red.  Are 
they both dragon's blood?  I've read elsewhere speculation that 
Hagrid had Common Welsh Green meat on his face -- could the 
difference of breed allow a difference in color?  I also thought 
maybe the blood dripping down Hagrid's face perhaps had a green 
iridescence, like a tuna steak.  (Sheesh, what revolting images.)  Of 
course, it's not nearly as fun to come up with either such reasonable 
explanation; I'd rather suppose that Slughorn was full of it and it 
wasn't dragon's blood at all, and for some reason Dumbledore didn't 
call him on it.  
But nonetheless, there's Hagrid nursing his wounds with dragon meat.  
Perhaps one of the uses of dragon's blood is indeed for healing 
purposes.  You bring up the jackets -- the twins, soon after being 
seen wearing them, are developing Shield Cloaks -- I wonder if 
there's any connection.
Then, finally, I have long thought the blood on Dumbledore's mouth 
was the same dusty blood Slughorn rebottled in chapter 4.  Surely 
there's a better reason for this action than to demonstrate his 
thriftiness.  

Ginger:
> What I think would be cool (which means that she probably will come 
> up with something cooler) would be for Harry to get notes via owl 
> with messages like "Go to Godric's Hollow and look at the base of 
the 
> elm tree in the back yard.  Sincerely, your friend who likes 
> raspberry jam."  We'd be wondering all book long if DD is still 
> alive, or if it was someone like Snape (if he's good) using the jam 
> as a password.  Either it could be DD, who faked his death, finally 
> having time to go hunt the horcruces unhindered, or it could be 
> Snape, who has found out about them by Legilimancing LV and is 
> passing on the info, or something else I haven't thought of yet. 

hg:
Love this idea.  There, too, was something that aggravatingly didn't 
return in HBP, the jam password.  This train of thought interests me 
because it's a clean way of structuring Harry's journey.  Might I add 
that if he did indeed fake it, perhaps he thought he gave Harry 
enough info to find the ones he knew about, leaving him free to wait 
for Voldemort to unwittingly direct him to the unknown Horcrux, which 
I think is almost certainly at Hogwarts.

hg.