Theories, etc.

My theories and some other things that don't really fit anywhere else

Considering book 7 is already out, I'm merely going to go through and comment, in red, on what I was right or wrong about. Green stuff was updates after book 6 came out. Seriously though, kids, there are SPOILERS!

Theories

These are just my thoughts on what could happen next, what kind of connections there could be between characters, etc. They are in no particular order.

• The barman at the Hog's Head is Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus's brother. (He's tall & thin, w/ lots of gray hair and beard, & looks vaguely familiar to Harry.) -->This is supported by the fact that the barman was at Dumbledore's funeral. But I don't want to talk about that. Yay, I was right about this one!
• Behind the locked door in the Dept. of Mysteries is love. -->Dumbledore basically told us this when he told Harry that what he had that Voldemort didn't was love. Nothing new here, although I wish we'd gone back to the DoM in book 7...
• Ron and Hermione are meant to be!!!!!! [I am an unabashed R/Hr fan. They're perfect together! ^_^] -->Well, they finally seem to be getting their act together!! ^__^ Huzzah! They're so right for each other!
• Harry will now own 12 Grimmauld Place, and get all Sirius's gold. [My mom actually thought of this one. Since Sirius is dead :'-(, and he doesn't have any kids we know of, it's logical that his belongings would go to Harry.] -->Obviously, another one that we know to be true, but with the added bonus (if it could be called that) of Kreacher. Nothing really new here, either, although it was nice that Harry ended up being kind to Kreacher.
• Fred and George will be of great help in the war. They're geniuses (just not in the conventional sense)! They could make great weapons - or probably better spy tools - think of the Extendable Ears and Headless Hats! And then there were the Skiving Snackboxes, the fireworks, and the swamp... Really, they're quite smart. -->Okay, so they want to be careful about their customers, maybe, but they are already making some helpful stuff! Also, I wish we'd seen more of them in book 7, especially considering the cruelty of killing off Fred. Poor George, with no ear and no Fred!! ;~;
• Neville will do something with Herbology in the future. (It is his best subject, and there have been rumors that someone Harry's age will become a professor, so it could be him. [Actually, I saw that on another site, but it does make sense.]) And I was right about this, too!
• We ALL know Hermione's going to be Head Girl. Okay, I really thought that Hermione would go back even if Harry didn't. Perhaps she made Head Girl if they went back to do their 7th year? I think it's likely that Hermione, at least, would have insisted on going back, or at the very least sitting her NEWTS.
• Personally, I think that Harry (poor guy!) is going to have an abysmal love life. He didn't do very well in his relationship with Cho... And Hermione was doing her best to help him, too!! Poor, poor Harry... So hopelessly clueless about girls... -->Correction: He'll have a fairly non-existant love life until Voldemort's gone. And he's got Ginny now, too, though I know some people don't like her (::coughJennifercough::). So, I was mostly right here. He didn't have much of a love life, unlike Ron and Hermione (they're so cute! ^_^), until after he killed Lord V.
• My mom wonders if Snape isn't really a double-traitor (spy for Voldie posing as spy for the Light Side), but I think Dumbledore's judgement is still fairly sound, even if he does make mistakes. I don't think Snape could handle that guilt, what with feeling bound to protect Harry because James saved his life and everything... -->More on this further down Ah-HA! I was right! Snape is good!! Or, at least, not on Voldemort's side. He really wasn't the best person ever...
• The link between Harry and Wormtail from Harry saving Wormtail's life will be vitally important. Got that one!
• Okay, I just thought of this the other day: They say the eyes are windows to the soul, right? Right. And Harry's eyes are like his mom's, so he's more like her than James!! Which fits in w/ what we learn about James and Lily in book 5 (James was prat-extraordinaire, and Lily was nice to most people). I think I was accurate in this, although now we do know that Harry's eyes are more important because of the history between Lily and Snape.
• Maybe I'm just adding this because it's my opinion, but I really don't think Draco's as bad as everyone thinks. I think he should turn out to NOT be a Death Eater. Think about it: you don't see any love between him and his father, and he's really close to Snape. I think Snape might try to prevent him from getting the Mark, even if he doesn't end up on the "light" side entirely. Again, maybe I'm just saying this cuz I think Draco's hot, but it kinda makes sense to me, especially if you add in the whole "teenage rebellion" factor. -->Okay, so this obviously isn't all true. I think he's got the Mark already. But... well, there's more further on. So we know Snape tried to push Draco to the light side. And it didn't really work. However, he does have a few (very few!) redeemable qualities. One of which is, in a way, his loyalty to family. It appears to be a Malfoy code that family comes before anything else, which explains Draco's determination to save his parents as well as Narcissa's actions to protect Draco in HBP.
• Is Snape really evil? Is he really on the Dark Lord's side? On the other hand, was he really on Dumbledore's side, ever? Or does he play both ends against the middle? It'd be a dangerous game, but he is a Slytherin... I'm having trouble believing that Dumbledore could be completely wrong about Snape. His theories tend to be correct, although, as he himself admits, when he misses something, it tends to make things much worse... Honestly, I just can't accept that Snape is totally with Voldemort or Dumbledore. He made the Unbreakable Vow (which he did end up fulfilling - rather than forcing Draco to kill Dumbledore, he "completed the task" since Draco couldn't/wouldn't) with Narcissa, which basically meant that he would be going against the Dark Lord's orders in some way. Now, I know he tells Bellatrix that Voldie's the most accomplished Legilimens in about forever, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be good enough at Occlumency to ward him out (this also means he could possibly keep Dumbledore out, which adds to the idea that he plays both sides against each other - and would it really have been wise to say, "Well, the Dark Lord's good at Legilimency, but he can't read my mind," or, "...but he's got nothing on Dumbledore!" in front of fellow DEs?). Also, why was Dumbledore "pleading" with Snape? Did Snape have orders already to end Dumbledore's life if necessary? Dumbledore knew that if Snape walked away, and left everyone else on the balcony alive, his time as a spy for the Order would be over, they'd get no more help, and Voldie would probably kill Snape. Might the "hatred and revulsion" on Snape's face before he kills have been for what he had to do, directed at himself rather than Dumbledore? Right now, I'm kind of in a "he's on his own side" state, since he's so convincing to both sides - I don't know what to think, honestly! Again, I was SO right about Snape being on the side of good!
• It was nice to finally be reassured that Draco Malfoy's not all bad, not that it'll do him much good now Dumbledore's gone, though if Harry can manage to put aside the enmity, they might be able to help eachother... And, since we know he knows Occlumency, might he be useful to the Order in some way? It seems a little far-fetched, but you never know... I don't really expect him to be joining the Order - I'm not sure how many of them would really give him a chance, apart from Snape, but I'm fairly certain that if he wished to, he could contact someone and get help hiding from Voldemort or whatever. Narcissa and Draco (not too sure about Lucius) seem to be leery of Voldie's aims, or at least his means. We know they're both focused on keeping the family whole and alive, which opens up great blackmail possibilities for Voldie. We don't know why Lucius first became a DE, but might it have been the same thing? Or, possibly, it might have been more of a Regulus Black deal... He may have approved of Voldie's goals of (basically) proving pure-bloods superior, etc., but when they found out the lengths he was willing to go to, it was too late to back out; and of course, Voldie would then be able to threaten the family (ie, do this, Lucius/Narcissa/Draco, or I'll kill your wife/husband/mother/father/son). As I said before, I think the whole "Family first" mentality played a large part in why the Malfoys fell from favor with Voldemort, and possibly in why they all joined up in the first place.
• Speaking of Regulus... That's who I think "RAB" is. We don't know his middle name, we just know he joined the DEs and was killed when he wanted to leave, after discovering the lengths Voldie was willing to go to in order to attain power. Sirius thought his brother was "soft" for believing his parents' ideas that pure-bloods were so superior, but that doesn't mean Regulus was stupid. We don't know just what "lengths" Regulus discovered Voldemort would try. If he'd discovered about the Horcruxes, he may have wanted to back out. Obviously, they're not viewed as very good. Slughorn got very nervous while telling Riddle about them in the memory... It doesn't seem like something "respectable" pure-bloods (or any wizard, really) would aspire to; "tearing your soul" must just seem a little too far to go, like drinking unicorn blood to stay alive - sure, you're alive, but you'll be cursed forever. Even Sirius's parents didn't approve of Voldemort's methods, and that's saying something considering the state of their house. Something I didn't think about initially: Regulus may have been wanting to leave when he discovered about the Horcruxes... If he'd been reconsidering joining up and then found out, it does seem like that would just solidify his wish to get out. And the Dark Lord probably does not know that the locket was already gone. For one, he wouldn't have wanted to leave a note proving that he is/could be fallible. From the note it's also obvious that the Dark Lord should know who R.A.B. is, and that he/she is someone Voldemort wouldn't have expected to discover and/or destroy a Horcrux, which also points to a Death Eater. Also, Voldemort might not visit the Horcruxes often, for fear of being followed (by a traitorous Death Eater?). And I got this one right as well! :-D

Theories That Got Slayed

• NIXED BY JK ROWLING:Albus Dumbledore is actually Ron Weasley.

Ron/Hermione Shippiness

Although this is not really needed after book 7, I will keep up my list of reasons I think Ron and Hermione are perfect together, as well as possible ways to get them together if they hadn't shaped up and realized they're in love.

• Ron's jealous of Viktor Krum
• They fight - you can feel the tension!
• Hermione knits
• There is a constant comparison to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley
• Hermione was jealous of Fleur in book 4 and 6
• Hermione was jealous of Lavender in book 6
• R/H is just PERFECT! ^_^
• Hermione and Harry are just friends
• Ron and Harry are just friends (we hope! ::snicker::)
• Cuteness!! Aaaawwwww!!
• Hermione TOLD Ron to ask her out after the Yule Ball (but, being a typical guy, Ron is utterly clueless! ^_^)

• Shove them in a broom closet for a few hours - evil, but funny!
• Ask Gred and Forge for help - potentially dangerous!
• Let them figure it out on their own - 9_9 - like that'll happen in their lifetime!
• Get Ginny and Harry and Luna and Neville to help - much less dangerous than Gred and Forge, and more likely to work
• Get them jealous of eachother for no reason - wait - it's been done and didn't work!
• Introduce a character to nag them 'til they go out!
• Get Hermione to fake a deathly illness, forcing Ron to confess his feelings - romantic, but highly unlikely
• Fix a "Secret Santa" so they pick eachother - overdone?
• Set them up on blind dates - with eachother!
• Force feed them truth potion so they'll admit they like eachother!! - another one that's evil, but funny!