But wait! Wasn't Quirrell there for at least a few years?

I vaguely recall something about him only just have gotten the job, which was why Snape was freshly mad at him.

R.A.B. -- Regulus Black, Sirius' brother.

A nice theory and probably the one she'll go with but we'll see.

Since there was so much mention of casting unspoken spells, what are the chances that Snape fired off one of those to negate the killing curse that he zapped Dumbledore with? Yet another way to work out a NotDeadYet!Dumbledore.

Why would Grimmauld Place still be in Sirius' name? I would have thought the Ministry would seize it when he was sent to Azkaban.

I have a hard time believing DD is alive, although it is possible. For one thing, Hagrid carried the body. Hagrid can't keep a secret to save his life. But it's also really easy to fool him. Secondly, Harry unfroze at the moment of DD's "death". But DD could have just released the spell. And thirdly, the portrait appeared in the headmaster/mistress office. But that could also have been pre-arranged, although McGonagall would have probably been in on it.

And JK in her interview was very dodgy on the subject of DD and HP7. Very. Dodgy.

Okay, now I've switched camps, and he is alive. Or is he?

DD may have intervened in the distribution of Sirius' stuff/house as it would have gone to Harry, which would have been a bad.

I don't think DD is alive. I'm not sure what the payoff for the unspoken spells.

I think there's going to be a limited number of new things and people she can introduce in 7, which it why I'm firmly in the Regulus is RAB camp. With so much to pay off, I don't see a lot of new stuff (that hasn't been at least hinted at) coming into play.

think there's going to b a limited number of new things and people she can introduce in 7,

wrod. Harry becomes of age before the next book, right? I wonder if he'll move into Grimmauld Place, though Kreacher would probably pull a Home Alone scenario that would have Harry's blood painted on the walls. "Kreacher didn't hurt Harry Potter! Kreacher just braced paint cans on half-open doors."

I'm glad JKR has broken with only using Harry's POV. There's just too much happening that we need to know for that to work, and she can't everyone conveniently dumping memories into the Penseive.

I do think that D is dead, but that we haven't seen the last of him. Wolfram makes good arguments - on both sides - but the portrait is the clincher for me.

In this book, I was actually starting to feel sorry for Draco; I do think we may see a change of heart on his part, although I don't think he'll ever get to the point of liking HP. Ew. Now I'm getting a picture of the two of them buddies, and it's kind of creepy.

I have a hard time believing that D would have been set up to so vehemently make such a serious mistake as getting Snape wrong. I think I spy the mother of all plot twists in our future. I also fear that the next book may have to be 1500 pages long to tie things up satisfactorily. But I'll still get through it in a day and a half.

JKR did say in her Mugglenet/Leaky Cauldron interview that, after Book 7 is finished, she is considering doing an encyclopedia of the HPverse, so she can fill in all the interesting backstory and details on everyone, no matter how minor.

the portrait is the clincher for me.

True, but the portrait wasn't moving, was it?