I Trust Severus Snape

I'm going to join the ranks of bloggers who are voicing their opinions of HP6. I know there are a lot of us, but since I really only two faithful readers anyway, it doesn't matter a whole lot that I'm only one voice of many.
This is absolutely the best one yet. The writing is much more solid, the characters are developed more believably, Harry doesn't have fits of all-caps hormonal screaming and moodiness, and Ron and Hermione are building slowly and surely, the one romantic (or pre-romantic) relationship that's actually functioning in a believable way. And JK has left us lots to think about. Here are some theories circling my very-full apartment, and what I think about them:

1. Harry the final horcrux for Voldemort. This was Maddie's idea. I think it's a fantastic thought, though I have my doubts about it still. First off, how did it happen? Did Voldemort plan to make Harry his horcrux when he killed the Potters, and everyone thinks that Voldemort tried to kill Harry too just because no one else was there? Or did it happen by accident, and not even Voldemort understands that the power he transferred to Harry the night he tried to kill him actually is a part of his soul?
I think that, given Dumbledore's theory that Voldemort decided to split his soul into exactly 7 pieces, it's sort of... messy, if the Harry-horcrux thing happened by accident. Simply because then Voldemort's soul would actually be in 8 pieces, but nobody knows that, not even Voldemort. Which would be interesting, but i'm not sure how anyone would ever figure that out, if nobody knows it to begin with. I think I need to know more about the process of creating a Horcrux to decide whether it's possible for Harry to have been made one by accident when the Avada Kedavra backfired.
However, I'm not sure it would work to say that Voldemort was planning to make Harry his horcrux, either. I mean, if he thought he knew that Harry was definitely the boy in the prophecy, the boy who could defeat him, why on earth would he stick a piece of his soul into that boy? And how would that process created the "death" that Voldemort suffered on that night?
I think the first theory, the accidental horcrux, is more likely and more explainable, but I still haven't wrapped my brain around it in a decisive way.

2. Snape and Dumbledore have a PLAN. This is something I am an absolute proponent of, as the title of this post might suggest. Though we still haven't found out what the mysterious and fantastic reason for Dumbledore's trust in Snape is, I think that it's a real reason. And it must be a damn good reason. I think that Snape, in making the Unbreakable Vow, was acting the only way he could and remain a counterspy, let alone remain alive. I also think that Dumbledore's death (yes, I think he is really dead...), particularly the circumstances of his death, have set something in motion. There is something larger going on here, and I think it's clear from the way Snape and Dumbledore both behave in the pages leading up to and following the actual event. I mean, come on, guys. Why would Dumbledore plead for his life? He's pleading for his death, asking Snape to do what he must in order to carry through with whatever their plan may have been. And Snape's treatment of Harry fits quite nicely with this idea; he doesn't really harm him, nor does he capture him--in fact, he saves him from someone else's Cruciatus Curse. It's true that Snape dislikes Harry, even hates him, a long-carried-over grudge against James Potter. But when Harry calls him a coward for killing Dumbledore, that's when Snape has had enough. How else would he react? It takes an extraordinary amount of courage to be as effective a spy as he has been, more so to kill in order to maintain that position, and even more so to kill Dumbledore. Of course he's angry when Harry calls him a coward. And it sure as hell makes a lot more sense than Snape suddenly turning over an old leaf after JK's spent so much time convincing us that he's on Harry's side.

3. R.A.B. is Sirius' brother, Regulus Black. This is an interesting theory posited by Katie R. I think I agree at this point simply because Regulus is the only R.B. that I can think of, middle initials aside. So, I checked out the Lexicon (www.hp-lexicon.org) and looked through all the B's for an R.B. The only other one is Rudolf Brand, captain of the Heidelberg Harriers quidditch team. I highly doubt this is the R.A.B. who signed that note.
So, what do we know about Regulus? Sirius said in the 5th book that his brother got nervous when he was asked to do something, and tried to back out of the Death Eaters, and lasted only a day before he was caught. But who really knows? Maybe it will be a totally new character, and all this speculation about Regulus will be thrown out the window.

I'll update after everyone in the apartment has finished reading the book and we can stop having secret, small discussions, and instead have large, loud discussions in the living room--I bet some more theories will appear then.

PS--I think Draco may be redeemable, after all. JK's beginning to make him a little more sympathetic, and I say good on her. Maybe next he'll be playing muggle chess and reading To Kill a Mockingbird.

London

It still hasn't quite sunk in, I don't think. I mean, it slips through my mind, because, for one, though I lived in London, it's not as familiar to me as New York was. For another, bombing the tube seems less...dramatic, I suppose, than crashing a plane into the WTC. But I read some news reports today, and saw a little map of where the explosions were, and it started to make more of an impression in my mind. I mean, the TUBE. The District line, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, the Circle.... One of the first things I thought of when I realized the Circle line was hit was this pair of men who used to sing and play guitar on the trains, and called it the "Happy Circle Line," and I always gave them money when I saw them. It's strange, the things you think of.

I'm sure none of you are reading this, and probably most of you aren't even at school anymore--but to the residents and friends of flat C-8, and to all of Goldsmiths, and to the town of New Cross--I hope everybody's okay.

Greedy

You go, girl! Way to want the whole cake! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8358266/site/newsweek/