Alright, don't know if this is entirely on topic, but I'll give it a shot.

I just checked MuggleNet, and they've got this little painting that was in a Bloomsbury screensaver. It's got the ring in the forefront (nice and big...obviously they have more sophisticated software than "Paint." ) and in the background are the two hands linked...I'm starting to think that the ring, though I still think it's a signet ring of some sort, is a sort of promise. Like wedding rings, only different, ya know? Why would it be in this picture? Why is it on the cover?

I'm also thinking that all these new developments are changing my theory on the HBP from GG of old to someone alive, what with all the hands and such.

I agree with tewkes_ape, this is not a pensieve. But there is also a different twist that could be taken: Isn't a basilisk born from a snakes egg under/around a chicken or something like that? I remember it had something to do with snakes and chickens, and if you look at the pedestool, it's got the three clawed foot, which everyone has noticed. But it also has an odd, bulging, sectioned thing before the basin itself.

Personally, I like the idea of GG better, but if my information on basilisks is right.....

Look at the ring on the spine (and the one on Mugglenet.com).... I was reading the OoTP and I found an interesting page (page 117 of the paperback american edition) It says "When Sirius wrested a LARGE GOLDEN RING BEARING THE BLACK CREST form his grip Kreacher actually burst into furious tears"
Could the crack be the fall of the house of Black? I dunno!


(P.S. the basalisk is a chicken egg hatched under a frog.... )

I'm so excited over the release of this cover, I've gone all crazed-fangirl

On the back it looks like a stone platform in the middle of a cavern of water... could there be a person carrying a lantern in an invisibility cloak in that boat? Do people in invisibility cloaks reflect in water?

The ring is very interesting... I like SiriusLives' interpretation of that as the Black's ring, but it looks more like a jewel than a crest of any sort.

IMO the children's cover just looks cool, but the adult's rouses theorie and questions...

Ah, thanks for clearing up my mistake on the basilisk. I had gone and got myself all excited, too.

Anyways, If we want to make sure this is the Black Family Crest, we should look through OotP and see if it is described. It's probable that it is described, but I doubt it's a lightning bolt. I don't think the Black family plays an all too important role in the story.

Also, I doubt people in invisibility cloaks reflect in water; after all, Harry doesn't in a mirror, and that's just another form of reflection. But it is somebody. I think someone mentioned the disillusion charm that was placed on Harry, but since that actually changes the persons coloring, that probably wouldn't change in a reflection.

It's got to be some sort of spell that we haven't heard of....interesting.

Can anyone give me a link to where I can see all of the full british covers. I want to see if theres a pattern. I notice that Mary Grandpre seems to use them a lot in her illustations. Anyhow, I am noticing more letters in the fence/cave thing. To the bottom left of it, is a clear W. Is anyone else seeing these letters? BTW- I'm almost positive that is not a pensieve. It isn't silver, and nothing would make it green. So theres that. Aren't potions usually green? Could it be one of the potions used by Voldemort for his transformations? I'm almost sure thats under the school also.

If you read up the posts a bit, I already mentioned that I saw some letters, and when I looked really closely, I definitely found the words "As Salazar." I also saw the letters "a," "w," and "a" in close proximity, though i don't know if they are supposed to be together, because I couldn't anything after that. I think it might all spell out "As Salazar Awaits" or maybe "As Salazar Awakes" or something like that.

Hmmm...are you sure you can see "As Salazar"? All I can make out is a nice 'S' and what looks to be a shadow in the shape of a snake.

Of course, I'm happy, because that ties in nicely to my belief that the Chamber of Secrets itself is going to be the discovery that Harry made in CoS and is going to come in handy in this book.

There's definitely something funky about that fence/wall. At first glance, I thought it looked like those old, cheap wooden picket fences; you know, with the wire holding it together and stuff. I thought this because it seems to be leaning backwards slightly, but if you look at the base of the wall where it meets the water, it seems to be solid stone.

The reason this is important is the first one would point to this location being outside, which also ties into the deluxe cover, whereas the stone would make it seem to be inside, which ties into the American version.

I'm wondering if there is another hidden chamber somewhere inside the Forbidden Forest? Perhaps the graveyard that JK said would have some importance in upcoming books?

So many questions, and zero answers. 34 days to go.

It was difficult to see, but I did see "As Salazar." I had to zoom in with Photoshop, but i can see the definite outlines of the letters. It was easier when I tipped my laptop screen back (its an LCD screen, so dark shading and such stands out). But even if I am stretching this a bit too far, I still see all the snakes, so Slytherin is probably involved somehow. This is why I think that they are behind the part of the Chamber that Harry was in, behind the statue of Slytherin himself, where the basilisk came out, though why the boat is there is beyond me, unless the boat isn't used to get there, but to navigate while down there...

I still think that the basin is a Pensieve, but excellent points have been raised about the possibilities of it being a potion or something along those lines.

Looking carefully at the new full cover released recently by Bloomsbury I noticed something on the rocks or cliff behind the boat. The pattern is inconsistent. In the middle it looks as though there is a formation of words. However I have not been able to determine if they spell anything. I eventually thought it was nothing but at a distance it really looks like words. It does not seem to belong.

I think that the ring would most probably belong to the blacks. Like it was mentioned before, there was a scene in Ootp where Sirius had to wrestle a golden ring away from Sirius.

We all know that the Blacks have a family crest. But the crest was never described. I'm thinking that Jk might have had a reason to not describe it just yet.

Maybe the Blacks would play more of an important role in the next book. Maybe the HBP could be one of those that were related to the Blacks but was taken off the family tree.

I think I have heard someone saying that they think that Sirius might be the HBP although he's dead.

Yes but when you look at the HBP screensaver download from Bloomsbury it shows a larger version of the ring from the spine. In that picture it looks like the ring has the Hogwarts seal on it with a crack dividing the seal in half. Could it be foreshadowing of the fall of Hogwarts? I think that's the Hogwarts seal not the Black Family Seal, but hey who knows.

Interesting points. I am still not seeing the letters (of any kind) on the wall in the photo, but maybe I'm blind. People have said they see other words, but I dunno. Not really going to worry about it for the time being because it will just lead up to more questions! Haha....

EDIT: I took the image and inverted it, now I definatly see letters, here is the pic.

Tell me what you see! I most definatly see 'Sa' too tired to make out the rest. (I just contradicted myself didn't I?)

You can see a full version of the ring here I still say its the Black family crest, but then again it might be something else. It does kinda look like an 'S' I guess.

Gah! Just too many questions! Can't wait 33 days for the book to come out! The anticipation is killing me!

I'm not seeing any words either, but if you look long enough, you can see what look like faces on the cave wall. I'm not saying there are faces though - it's called simulcra, for those of you who've read the Fortean Times... It's the human brain trying to see familiar shapes in unfamiliar things - like when people see the Virgin Mary in a cheese sandwich and things like that...

I'm not seeing any letters or anything like that and I think that might be analysing just a wee bit too much, to be honest, but I love the idea of the ring being something to do with Sirius' family. I was going to come on here this morning and mention that I remembered the ring with the Black family crest on it, but someone beat me to it!! Darnit!! Seriously though, there is a possibility that Fred and George took it from that sack when they took that powder stuff and a few other bits and pieces from the sack that Sirius threw them in. If you think back, there was lots of talk about how Sirius' mother believed they were 'practically royalty', then there's the 'Nature's Nobility' book...there are a lot of royal references there...maybe the ring having a connection to Sirius isn't all that far fetched at all. Not that I think a lightning bolt is the family crest - I'm sure someone would have noticed the similarity between that and Harry's scar before now - but it still might be connected in some way.

Tell you what I found interesting though - I created a topic eons ago about Sirius' tattoos in PoA, especially the one on his chest - and I came across another reference to it the other day in a herbal book I was reading where that symbol on his chest (I think it was used with Neroli, or something like that) which symbolises unification - as in the four houses maybe? And JKR does have a say in the design of the films - so, if Sirius is representative or connected in some way to GG, or the four founders in some other way, and that ring *does* turn out to be his, then it could be an indication of why his death was important to the plot. Maybe *he* was a descendent of GG?

Quite a lot of stuff just from the image of one ring, eh? (Feel free to start calling me crazy, if you like... )

why should we call you crazy? . Anyway well done with the research on Sirius' tattoo. I was thinking about the cave wall. Can't it be just a way to let us know Harry will visit new places in Hogwarts? (as I remember JK said) I remember also her saying something about graveyard. Honestly the ring's stone seems broken to me.

I'm 100% positive that the ring is broken. But what is inside the ring is more interesting. It has a snake in the formation of an S. People usually put their last names instead of their first on rings. (John Doe would have a D on his, not a J). So I looked up people in Harry Potter with last names S, that have a connection with Snakes. Here it is:

Salazar Slytherin
Severus Snape

Now a question:
1. What power could this ring have?
2. Who is more likely to have a broken ring?

Remember: With great questions, comes even greater answers.

P.S. - Does anyone have a link to the British Full Covers? All of them.

You should find everything that is currently available in the 'Galleries' section of the main site. If it ain't there, it ain't been released...

OK so the two hands... well I think one would most likely belong to Harry and the other to Dumbledore, fighting together against you know who. The pensieve, well they could have taken that boat into a kind of cave that has a water trail so you can get into it and it could reside under Hogwarts. Maybe it's like this all seeing all know pensieve, and Harry needs to find something out about his father or mother or maybe Sirius. Or! maybe it's not a pensieve at all it could be an object we don't know of yet that let's you talk to the dead!!! It could act like Harry's mirror that Sirius gave to him but reaches further and can contact ANYONE, anywhere!

Eh, I have no clue about the hands. My guess would be Dumbledor and Harry, but for all we know it could be something totally random, like Lupin or Snape. It probably showing a union or bond most likely. As for the fire... well, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it's showing the strength of the bond. Maybe it's a contract? I haven't a clue.
I am also not sold on the penisive. I don't think it's a pensive but I have no idea what it could be. Other people say it's a potion, I think that is more likely than the pensive. Both sides have good arguments.
Looks like I am going to have to cut this short, we have some servere weather coming in. Kansas has the weirdest weather ever....

Hi! Everybody!
Quite a few people have mentioned the writing they see near the boat. I could make out the S, a, N and W. However, I can see writings all over the wall in the dark area. I'm not sure if it's because I have a LCD monitor, but I could definitely make out an S here, a B there, or a W somewhere else, and even a few numbers. In fact, about 1 1/2 inch from the top and 1 inch from the left, I could spell out the word "Griffin". I think the dark area is where the summary will be. If you look at the back cover of the UK version of OotP, it has similary writings like that, except they're letter-like symbols (runes?). I don't think there are sentences, but more like graffiti, more for decorations (like the OotP back cover).

The cover is well drawn and the ring I believe is central to saving Harry's life in the HBP.

I think it will keep him alive by protecting him somehow it has that glowing aura about it that makes it seem that way.

I also think that it could be his mothers ring to further add protection against Lord Voldemort. In fact it may have been the ring that saved his life. The scar on it is the same as the one on Harrys Head.

This makes it seem like more his mothers ring does anyone agree? Lily may have been wearing it given to her by Dumbledore on the night of the murder of Harry's Parents.

It may have been crafted by Dumbledore from the blood of Godric Gryffindor, by transfiguration, so his magic can flow through it? As Mr Crouch was transfigured into a bone in Gof.

I saw the adult's edition cover and I was thinking that maybe that book is a clue. What if it's there because Harry will get into Snape's NEWT Potions classes?? Whta do you think about that? Because that would mean Harry will be able to study to be an Auror.

The cover showing the Advanced Potions Book has got my attention because it shows that Harry is a future auror.

J K Rowling said on a site that this book will show how Harry's parents made a lot of money and whethr or not this was by inheritance. They may have been aurors themselves, the potions book may reveal something about the Chamber Of secrets to Harry and may belong to Lord Voldemort.

It has happened before trust me.

If you'll look on the Half Blood Prince Thread, you'll see why I think its Snape. Another clue to that is the mysterious ring. Since there is a snake on it in the shape of an S, there are only two people that it could belong to:

Salazar Slytherin
Severus Snape

Since I don't think the HPB could be dead, I think the ring belongs to Snape. The question is what's important about that ring?

Mr. Cruciatus,

JK actually has said that they inherited their money, and that James didn't need a high paying job. That I know.

I also think, not sure, that she said they were too young to be Aurors.

Also, I don't see the snake resemblence in the shape on the ring. I mean, obviously you can see a snake out of just about any squiggly line, so we need to be careful when looking at clues and make sure we're not just playing tricks on ourselves. Dana had a scientific name for it, but I'm too lazy to scroll down and check it out.

But you've hit the nail on the head with your question: what is so important about that ring, and it's significance with the two hands. MuggleNet posted that art from the Bloomsbury screen saver, and it had the ring and the hands. Obviously they are going to be connected.

actually i believe the ring is the black family crest and does not even have an "S" on it..it is either cracked or their crest is a lightning bolt er something. and i dont think his mom and dad were too young seeing as they were most likely older than tonks is, and what is she? an auror.

Oh, I guess I should have been more clear, I'm sorry about that. its called simulcra btw, I read about it in The DaVinci Code (sound a little like Hermione there don't I, "I've read about it in Hogwarts A History" ). Its not the crack in the middle I'm talking about. I'm talking about whats engraved behind it. You can clearly see a snake. I can see its tongue right now. Thanks for the compliment though QQS, I am a firm believer in asking good questions will give you good answers.

Yeh, i think the adult cover most certainly forshadows that maybe Harry got into Snape's NEWT class, Poor Harry. Now what really interests me is the childrens cover, especially now that they released the art on the back, it does give us some insight on what we can expect.



The ring could belong to one of the founders but why than does it have Harry's lighting bolt shape. At least now we know that a pensieve on a pedestal will play a part in the book and some people have been saying that the wall opposite the boat has some writings, i still can't see anything written there, so beyond me.

I've got you, Picasso. I'll have to take another look at the ring...

I've had a look, and you're right. It seems that behind the (what I am almost sure of now) crack in the ring, there is some sort of tornado looking thing, with an 's' in it, and what looks like a head at the top. Also, in the top left corner of the ring there is wher looks like another snakes head. In the top right corner, there is something, looks like smoke, but I'm not sure about that.

Hat off to you, Picasso!

Luke, JK has said somewhere that his parents were definitely not Aurors. I'll try to find the quote somewhere, but I'm sure of it. And people have figured out the timeline of the things that happened, and Lily and James could not have been out of school for but three years, which is the same amount of time it takes to become an Auror. Tonks has been out of Hogwarts for four years, because she has been one for one year. She is, most likely, a year older than the Potter's were.

Otherwise, it could be the Blacks crest, though I don't think so. But there is not evidence either way, so I guess we just have to wait, eh?

You have to look behind the huge crack Luke, its really easy. I only saw one snake, but maybe theres something more. You have to get a closeup of it too. Its somewhere in this forum. To everyone who thinks Harry's parents were aurors I don't think thats it. Everyone assumes they are, so why wouldn't J.K. tell us. If she said they were Aurors, how would that affect the plot. It has to be something else.... but what? Wait a second! Didn't Rowling say there was a clue in the Career Advice Chapter? Maybe what they did was looked over by Harry, Ron, & Hermione. I'm gonna look. We really should move to a different forum for this though. Also does everyone agree that the "pensieve/potion" on the American Cover, is the same one as the "pensieve/potion" on the back of this cover?

I'm with emma_isHOTT, here. Where do you guys see all that? On the ring's stone or the rest of the ring? Because I can't seem to see them either. You've got a really good imagination, mates!

If you amplify the picture of the ring, you can make out a lighting bolt just like Harry's. Behind the lighting bolt seems to be another drawing almost like Voldemorts shield. But until now i didn't see a letters or anything of the sort.

The symbol behind it looks exactly like Voldemorts Shield in the OoTP chapter picture. I don't see a thousand snakes and tornadoes though....

i thought the adult version said advance potion making, which means that harry still has a chance in becoming an aurora.

The following post was written by funkyfred.

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Harry and Dumbledore are in a forest, it may be the Forbidden Forest. (special edition cover) The discovery in the CoS might have been the discovery of Aragon.
The same spell that Dumbledore used against Voldermort in OoTP is curling around Harry and Dumbledore in the background, (UK cover) except Dumbledore has a look of fear in his eyes so it may have been used on them.

Old book which is weird because Harry can afford NEW books, (Adult cover) It is labeled ‘Advanced Potion Making’ which may mean that Harry has taking NEWT level potions OR that this book has something to do with Snape. If you look at the background where the book is laid on, it looks like it is either a desk or a trapdoor.

Also notice how Dumbledore is in almost all the covers!!

MOD EDIT : Please do not type in all caps. This is considered shouting in cyberspace. Use the bold/italics/underline instead. Your post has been edited.

I think that they are in the Forbidden Forest, a point I haven't yet mentioned!!! This would make perfect sense Dumbledore must be taking Harry there to speak to Aragog.

I think that Aragog is linked to the Half Blood Prince who maybe Hagrid, who gets his wand back fixed properly.

There is another cover which shows them looking at the dish? Then is they saw something important in this sort of potion or pensive they may be going bak to find something in the forest which Aragog may have?

The cover with the book on must be a trapdoor, that hides a hidden space probaly likned to CoS perhaps? The book is also very old which means that it may be a Portkey which takes them into the forest.

One thing is clear from all of this Harry and Dumbledore do a lot of searching for something. This may a lot of heart to heart in the books with Harry learning more about his parents and mother in particular. It may be the book in which Dumbledore passes away also and Harry becoming a fully fledged auror.

Hi Mr Cruciatus. Double Posting is not allowed (when you make one post directly after another in the same thread). I’ve deleted your second post and pasted it onto this on.

The covers also should play a greater role in what happens throughoput the book series as this is Book six we can ssume that the cover will be very important in the next book seven.

I think this shows that Harry does indeed defeat Voldemort as he is worthy enough to fight alongside Dumbledore in the Forbidden Forest against possible Voldemort's men the Death Eaters.

I think the children's cover is Dumbledore teaching Harry a denfensive or offensive spell. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what the adult cover means!

the pensieve in the us addition... it isn't dumbledores. dumbledore's pensive has rune symbols on it, and the pensieve in the drawing doesn't. in fact, it seems to be an old pensieve because it has cracks on it. i have a feeling the pensieve is godric gryffindor's. i think that harry is a desendant of gryffindor which is why he's a true one(godric's sword). his family might have used it as it was passed down from generation to generation. sirius, probably when he met hagrid, retrieved the pensieve and put harry's memory of what just happened in there. i don't think hagrid could have done it, which was why JK put sirius in the first book. for those of you who say that harry can't be a decendant of gryffindor because the sorting hat was going to put him in slytherin, the sorting hat put harry in slytherin because he had some of voldie's(heir of slytherin) powers(parseltounge). harry is kinda like, the person who will bring balance to the force..er..magic(star wars ) anyhow, the point is, the pensieve is godric gryffindor's and dumbledore and harry are looking at the night the voldemort lost his powers.

about the deluxe addition, everyone says that harry and dd(dumbledore) are in the forrbidden forest to talk to aragog, but what if they are going in there to talk to gwarp, who is supposed to be more controllable and seen more often in the HBP?

as for the children's adittion, it does seem like the one dd used against voldie, but i think theres more.
for a moment, it seemed dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinqueshed it's hold upon Voldemort at once and turned hiising furiously to face dumbldore
mabye the dd and harry are going to face voldemort again, and dd is going to use his flame rope attack, and voldemort is going to turn it into a snake and aim it at harry and dd. this makes me feel two things. one, dd will die, because he will take the full blow to protect harry, and two, dd is the HBP(unlike my first theory, nearly headless nick) because why else would dd and harry be facing voldie?

the adult version is kinda obvious. harry is taking newt classes with snape because it says "advance potion making" its so old and battered up because mabye the weaslys gave a hand-me-down version to him for his birthday. a long stretch but feesible. it could also mean that ron is not going for anything that needs newts jin potions, or he didn't make it, which means that he isn't going to be an auora. or it could be vice-versa and the book is actually ron's, not harry's, and ron made it to newt potions but harry didn't. i hope not. that would mean that harry couldn't be an auora.

I think that the cover in the adult's edition is related to what will happen to harry, not to ron, as it has happened in past covers, all of them having Harry on them.

About the theory of the pensieve being Gryffindor's I've got to say it is actually a really good one, django. How did you come up with something like that? Hats off to you! And I think it could actually be true. Seems like a good way to know what happened, checking Harry's memory of that night. However, since Harry wazs a bit older than a year, maybe he didn't have memory of that, even right after it happened. And do you think Hagrid would have let Sirius touch the kid or take a memory from him? And Harry does remember something from that night, the laugh and a green light, and then, because of the dementors, he also remembers his parent's voices. So I don't know if Sirius can have taken that memory as he stills remembers some things.

Bloomsbury released a new E-Card featuring a bigger picture of the ring, which is easier to see the design.

HERE is the thread its in...

~Esrb99~

i've tried to read most of the posts so if this has already been brought up...sorry
on the adult cover i started to look at the table becuase it looks like there's some carvings on it...i found one place that it looked like flip or something along that line...i blew it up and inverted the colors and it turned out to be either F:9T or Fi9T...i was wondering if anyone thought that has any significance or can make out more or different letters...

[COLOR=blue]Ok i know its been said before, but i also believe that it is a pensieve on the back of the cover and that it once belonged to Godric Gryffindor.

I think it was a way for him to store his memories for future use, but because they would contain a lot of sensitive infomation he had to stash it somewhere. Maybe somewhere you can only get to by boat, hence the boat on the back of the cover.

Maybe there is a cave somewhere around the lake!

I still haven't really got any idea yet about the linking hands and the ring though.

Foxhound - no problem, I've deleted your second post.

And to answer your question, the diffrence between adult version and children is only on the cover and nothing else.

You can check this page here from the main site that features all the covers for HBP. Just mouse over each page and it'll show what covers they are. But to make it easy for you, I'll summarize them here. From left: Americans, British, Adult British and lastly Scholastic deluxe edition.

Hope that helps! And please get back to topic now, thanks!

Aha! I just found something in CoS

page 205

There was an enormous, claw-footed desk..." J.K. Rowling describing Dumbledores Office.

DOesn't the pensieve have claw feet?

Could the pensieve on the back cover be DD>?

Did anybody else notice this?

I hadn't noticed that, but the Pensieve is not a desk, so what exactly is the relation you find between the Pensieve and that desk? And I don't imagine the pensieve as that big.

I honestly think that the american covers are better. I've thought this for every book of course. then there is the deluxe edition cover which shows harry and dumbledore in a woods... the forbidden forest? im glad it looks as though dumbledore will play a big role (he has in every book, but bigger in this one) since british and american editions feature him on the cover. he hasnt been on the cover since the first book! hes always been my favorite character. but i do think the adult british version is interesting. i wouldn't have expectected harry to get an outstanding on his potions owl. he did have a fairer examiner though. his weakness for potions probably has a lot to do with the teacher. i have a feeling harry has a good career in his future. maybe he wont take potions, but do some tricky potions-mixing on the side like in COS. tell me what you all think of the american covers!!