Just thought of something and I'll have to go back and reread this again, but at the beginning of the book, doesn't Hermione say something about some potions not being irreversable (when she sees Dumbledore's hand)? It is obvious that whatever happened to Dumbledore's hand had to do with retreiving the first Horcrux. Then, there is a potion involved with the second Horcrux.

Anyone else seeing the connections between the emphasis on how great Lily was at potions, the potions book belonging to the HBP that helps Harry become better at potions, and Snape's "promotion" to DADA prof thus allowing Harry to take NEWT potions...and the horcruxes?

Hmmmmmmmmm... let me go back after the kids get in bed and reread that part with Hermione...

I think the whole potions/snape/lily thing is about the easiest part to figure out....
The rest, well we'll have to wait and see. But i think we can all figure snape & lily are connected somehow.
What i'm disappointed in and i think you of all can agree with me that we didn't hear ANYTHING about Sirius' mirror--i thought that was supposed to be brought up in this book? :(

I agree that lily's skill at potions is supposed to give us a clue about a connection between she and snape. I also think that dumbledore engineered bringing in a new potions master with the purpose in mind of getting harry into newt level potions.

Jenn...I read that the mirrors were supposed to come up in the next two books, but maybe she brings it up in the next one? I don't care for the way that Sirius was dropped completely in this book. I kinda found Harry's "recovery" from Sirius' death to be less than convincing. Didn't you?