[MysticCat]

Finally got the book finished on a plane flight late Saturday night. Wow!

A few random thoughts, sparked by comments above:

My first thought was that RAB was Mr. Burke (of Borgin and Burke's), but I think Regalus is probably a dead-on guess.

I didn't mind all the "snogging." These are teen-agers, and it was interesting how Harry's feelings about Ginny bacame just as important to him as the bigger story about HWMNBN.

I wanted DD to be right about Snape, but I'm not so sure he was asking Snape to kill him. I read his dialogue with Snape as the disappointing realization that he had been wrong about Snape, just as he was wrong about not telling Harry sooner. My guess is that JKR was typically careful about how she worded that scene so that it could be open to different interpretations.

Through it all, I kept remembering that Snape is a Slytherin. Aside from cunning and a penchant for the Dark Arts (and pure blood), isn't one of the traits that Slytherin prized placing self-interest above all else? Snape would perhaps, at all times, be working from his own self-interest.

There is still something we don't know about DD and Snape -- a reason why Snape trusted him. McGonnegal and the other Order members were talking about it after they learned that Snape killed DD, but they did not know what it was that DD knew.

DD is indeed dead, but with his portrait in the headmistresses' office, he can still be of service.

As for the "DD will never have truly left Hogwarts while some there remain loyal to him" comment, I thought it significant that Harry repeats that to the Minister after the funeral.

The theory about Harry or his scar being a Horcrux is an interesting one. What if HWMNBN was trying to create the last Horcrux when he tried to kill Harry, but because the curse went awry the attempt to create the Horcrux did as well? Maybe, if that is the case, HWMNBN doesn't realize that Harry or his scar is the last Horcrux.

I think Hogwarts will be open next for year 7, and Harry will be there, at least part of the time. Don't have too much to go on for that except this: Each of the books has a subtitle -- "Year # at Hogwarts." I doubt the last book will be "Year 7 Not at Hogwarts."