Matthew's Journal

Today, Scholastic released the back cover of the American edition of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Close examination will show that it doesn’t contain much that the fans haven’t already seen. However, this is the first time that we've seen the images in their proper context. This allows us to make inferences as that what this cover can tell us about the up coming book. The two people in the foreground are almost certainly Ron and Hermione. The most left had figure is female, but the exact identity cannot be know for sure. I'm betting my money that the figure is Ginny, Ron's sister. There is a fourth face in the far right. However, I don't think that there is enough detail to identify who the person may be. I think it's a Hogwart's student, but I can't narrow it down beyond that. In the background, you can see the shadowed outlines of other persons present, but beyond being able to deduce that they're people, identification is impossible.

All of the figures on the back cover are staring up towards the sky which contains the Dark Mark. This is the calling card of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The previous books have taught us that, the Dark Mark mostly appears over locations where there has been a Death Eater attack. What gives the back cover more chilling overtones lies quietly in the background of the picture almost unnoticed. Looking closely, you can see what is almost certainly the silhouette of a castle. The only castle that readers have been made familiar with through the course of the previous Harry Potter books is Hogwarts itself.

This raises some interesting questions. Do Death Eaters attack Hogwarts? Perhaps Death Eaters attack the village neighboring Hogwarts, Hogsmeade. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that an attack on Hogsmeade is much more likely. Regardless of where the Death Eaters attack, this signals that Voldemort may resume his reign of terror in the upcoming book. I think that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will finally show how frightening and evil a villain Voldemort is. This far, Voldemort has not been shown as a very terrifying figure. All the fear that surrounds Voldemort stems from his reputation that was established during the period before Harry’s birth. I’m hoping that we’ll finally get to see first hand how Voldemort became so frightening that people won’t even utter his name.

We have a week to go before we get the new book. Until then, happy waiting!

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