Nothing new

So instead of posting my normal boring what-I-did-today crap, I though I would mix it up a bit.

With Burger starting the one month count down (almost! This Thursday :)) to the Half Blood Prince, it got me thinking about what will happen to Harry next.

I did some browsing last night on the net (went to JKR's website, but dissappointingly, there is nothing new), so I went off to browse the fan sites. I found a new one I had never heard of before HPANA.net, or something like that. They had a forum that had some really interesting conversations going on about who the half blood prince is, and what (if anything) the book cover art means. For those of you who haven't seen the cover yet, here is the link http://www.bloomsbury.com/media/hbp_large.jpg. So the biggest question mark on the cover art had to do with the black ring on the spine. What does it mean? Whose is it?

So someone with WAY too much time on their hands noticed that in the Order of the Pheonix there is a chapter called "The Ancient and NOBLE house of Black" in which they mention a black ring. Coincidence? likely not. JK always gives hints about what is to come in her books. Especially since she has known now for close to 10 years how the books are going to end. So me being a big Harry Potter fan (not huge as some people, but I would say I'm a pretty big fan - I'm on my 5th time through the books right now) want to know what the deal is. And I CANNOT wait another month :)

So here are my thoughts. A while ago on JKs website she talked about two things that may be important. 1) the whole half blood prince thing was originally meant for the 2nd book, but that it was too long and complicated to fit in there, so she took it out. Note: the original title of the Chamber of Secrets was the Half Blood Prince. 2) the Weasly's were originally supposed to have a cousin, I believe in the second book as well, but that she was taken out because she made it too complicated, and she didn't really fit (possibly because the HBP stuff got taken out???). So I linked this with 3) for those that have read the 5th book, you remember the family tapestry, all members that showed too much fondness for Muggles/Mudbloods were taken off. Like Black himself, and also the weasleys. Ah... blacks family is related to the weasley's, so could they not also be related to this unknown character that was taken out of the 2nd book? And could that person be the half blood prince with the black ring? Too much speculation I know, but I'm soooooo excited for the next book, I can't wait.

Does anyone else have any other crackpot ideas of what's to come?