Heres the latest from Bloomsbury! The full cover for the British Kiddie HBP!

And lemme tell you what....ooooo Im so hyper just seeing it! Hope to see comments...

Full Kiddie British Cover

Sofa-Chan

...*quietly hopes no one has mentioned this yet*

Is that thing on the back the same thing that's on the American front cover? If it is I don't think it's a pensieve, as whatever it is, it looks like it's inside a cave (see the wee boat?) and that seems an awfully awkward way to travell to see a pensieve. So, I'm presuming Harry sails in there somehow and finds this bowl of whatever. It was said that they didn't want to show the back cover as it would give to much away, so what can this mean?

As for those hands, I'm assuming they're Harry and Dumbledore, but we all know that when we assume, we make an ASS of U and ME, so, who else could it be? Harry and Draco perhaps, showing house unity (perhaps something to do with his detour, although I don't think so), Harry and Ron maybe? Whoever it is it seems important that they have joined due to all the firey things.

Reading it back, this post seems rather spammy, I'll come back later when I'm not so excitable to neaten it up a bit and make it more coherant.

I just saw the cover through mugglenet and was coming here to post about it!

It is very exciting, isn't it. I agree, that is definitely not a pensieve (I think!) I think it is referring to the same that is on the front of the US edition. It does indeed appear to be in some sort of cave.
However, I think the linked hands are Harry and SIRIUS!! The hand/arm seem 'older' than the other (if that is possible) but not Dumbledore old, and I see no purple on the sleeve....

I hope it's Sirius' hand!

Spello

Could it be a shrine or an oracle? For some reason these were my first impressions. I do think it is the same as what some perceived as the pensieve.

As for the hands, I think it will be either Harry and the HBP or Harry and LV. Remember the golden cage around them on GoF when they tried to duel.

This just makes me wish July 16th was here even sooner. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe the Goblet again??? I am so clueless, I was so very excited by the cover I have lost all sense of reason! How many days?????????

I still think it's a pensieve, placed on a pillar, much like Mary Grand Pre's cover art. I find the claw at the bottom of the pillar very amusing. It's remincent of the troll leg umbrella stand at the Black family home.

Annasmum, it's funny that you should mention an oracle. The famous Oracle of Delphi in pagan Greece was a reference to the woman - the Sybil - who made the predictions, and she was seated on a chair next to a cauldron. What we think of as a cauldron today - something deep like a kettle, was not what the Greeks and Romans used. Their cauldrons were quite shallow, resting on tripods, rather like our illustrations of the pensieves. I don't know how many of you realize that the Oracle was making her odd pronouncements and noises because she was stoned out of her gourd - the chamber for the Oracle was discovered to be over a fissure that leaked a sort of natural gas that had a halleucinagenic effect on people who were exposed to it for long periods of time. The Oracles themselves could only be in the room for a limited amount of time, some were described as having convulsed or died. At the time, no one really knew of the gas - it didn't have an odor or make any leaking sound. It's only in the past twenty or so years that an archeologist in tandem with a geologist made the find on the site of the old Temple to Apollo.

The hands tied together is interesting. That made me think of West Side Story and old school gang fighting where the guys would be tied together by the left wrist and fight with knives in their right hands. I also thought of a pronouncement that Dumbledore made with one of his odd devices, something to the effect of "two in essence one..." can't remember the exact quote, but I also think this might refer to the tie between Harry and V. They were already tied together literally at the end of GoF when their wands created a sort of magnetic effect with the priori incantatum. I'm not sure if it's a hint that V and Harry will be tied together by a magical lasso (oops - Phantom of the Opera) during a fight or what. I'm sure it will all make sense by July 18th...lol.

I'm feeling rather quizzy tonight, so here goes..

No matter the pensieve/pillar thing.. what about the golden boat behind it?
If you take that and mix it with the image of the holding hands, it made me think of 'Crossing the Stix'. I have no idea why, it's just something about it. If you look at the two hands, assuming that one of the two is Harry's.. then who's the other guy? It's definitely an older man, so, um, could he be Sirius? I mean, Lily and James appeared in GoF, so why couldn't Sirius do the same? Is it Dumbledore. His hands should be a bit shabbier, right? And yet, with all the fire.. Mhh.

One more thing.. the ring. Each book's symbol, if I can call it that, is something important for the book at hand, lik the dog for PoA, feather for OotP etc, so if we have a ring, do we get an actual prince and not a noble-hearted person how some of us had speculated?

What do you guys think?

---------An actual prince and not a noble-hearted person how some of us had speculated?-------


Ahh but can you not be a prince and be noble hearted?


The Hands.

Intertwined as they are make me feel that there is a bond between two people. With the fire-wire *dies* it also gives it an even stronger feel almost.

As I have seen from the rest of you I am guessing that we are right in it being to Male hands. Harry’s and another’s. As much as I wish it were Sirius' I have to say I think it is Dumbledore’s. Not just from the way the limb is old looking but from the front of the cover even. The two are surrounded in fire, and two hands here are surrounded in fire.

The Dock or area behind the boat.

I called it the dock only because it looks like land and the boat is by it...dock just seemed to fit. Anywho!

As we all can tell the area there seems to be filled with bush or tall grass of some sort. It also seems like there is a wire fence look almost to it.

The Boat.

To start the boat being green is just odd to start with but we can draw the conclusion that if there’s a boat there’s bound to be water. And we can see water so that might mean that we are somewhere that requires travel by a boat. And when you travel by a boat there are two main reasons, the waters to deep or the distance is to vast to walk around. Yes you can travel by a boat for fun.

Now I am assuming that since there is water and a boat that we could be near the Lake by the school, the lake in the forest, or some other lake...

The Pedestal.

Ah yes the pedestal. Pensive, oracle, shrine, pillar thing, umbrella stand, cauldron...or what ever you perceive it as. We should keep in mind the look of Ms. Grandpre's American cover. On there some assumed it was a pensive and to be honest the two look very similar. I rest my case for that point(which are never strong).

But if we look at the picture as a whole why would a pensive be in the middle of a lake? Hard to get to, yes but...it makes little sense, unless there’s a strong power protecting it.

As I study the 'claw' closer it does give a nice creative touch to the piece, but I think it was partly ment more than creativeness. What if it were a dragons claw, or another magical creature, what role does that play for the memories inside the pensive?

As for the green hue that has yet again appeared on a cover concerning this basin it makes me thing that perhaps the memories within the basin are filled with horror, evil or just bad gore films.

The Ring(not to be confused with the movie).

Royalty, family heir looms, quarter machine prize? The band itself appears to be gold and the stone is a grey crystal it appears. Perhaps a Dimand?

If we look carefully at the stone itself there looks as thou there is a crack in the stone, or perhaps an embellishment. It is remarkably, snake/scar like. But as we all well know the HBP is neither Harry or LV.



I believe that is all I can supply from my thoughts that is understandable. Oh how I want the American Full cover, Regular and Deluxe!!
Sofa-Chan

Boy, I love how we are seeking clues with surgical skill, even so close to the release date!

The hands - DDs hand does look different than the "older" hand. But you can assume the smoother hand is Harry's and the other an older man's (due to the muscle tone appearance) OR you can assume Harry's hand is on the right, and a female's is on the left. (Luna?) Or, it could even be Harry and Neville, having to join together for some goal. Or Harry and the new DADA.

Regarding the basin - I don't know about this artist, but Mary Grand Pre combines elements from throughout the book on her works. The boat and the basin may not be in the same scene.

I'm guessing that with Harry and DD on two covers, though, that DD has gotten over his refusal to interact with Harry.

I was on the pensieve bandwagon, but now I'm unsure. In fact, I'm mostly convinced it isn't a pensieve.

Now that July 16th draws nearer, speculating just becomes more and more exciting! It's true that in 35 days, we'll get all the answers anyway, but speculating makes the waiting more bearable.

I never thought that the pillar was a pensieve and it always surprised me that people were so convinced that it was a Pensieve. I always pictured a Pensieve rather flat and shallow. Of course, the Pensieve could be put on a pillar, but why put it on a pillar in the first place? I always thought a Pensieve was something to lock away and store your private memories in, and not something to put on a conspicious pillar which attracts everyone's attention. Unless it's the Pensieve of a very important, famous person who lived long ago and whose memories should be honored (Godric Gryffindor, anyone?). Anyway, in the new picture, it doesn't look at all at a Pensieve, and I'm sticking to that, even if I kind of like the Godric Gryffindor idea now.

I like the idea of the basin being an oracle of some sort, annasmum. I think both the boat and the pillar are in the same place, because of the eerie green light surrounding both the boat and the pillar. To me, it looks very much like a cave with a lake in it, which has to be crossed to get to the pillar. I think Harry will go there and discover something very important about the past (Godric Gryffindor, his parents) or the future (how to vanquish the Dark Lord) towards the end of the book. He'll possibly be accompanied by Ron and Hermion, maybe even Neville, Luna and Ginny. I still think the green light has something to do with death, so maybe he'll find out more about his parents' deaths there.

As for the hands, one of them is definitely Harry's. I don't think the other one is Ron's, because then there'd have to be three hands, and Hermione's would have to be there too. The three of them are so closely connected, I don't think Ron and Harry would do anything that important without Hermione. I'm still not sure if it's Dumbledore's hand... On the one hand (lol, no pun intended), it doesn't look as old as Dumbledore's, on the other hand, the fire-wire looks very similar to the one circling round Dumbledore and Harry on the front cover, and Dumbledore's hand seems pretty strong there too. All the covers are leaning towards a stronger bond between Harry and Dumbledore, and I think the hands suggest that too. I think the age of the hand is just artistic licence.

I have absolutely no ideas about the ring. I didn't even notice it the first time I looked at the picture! But somehow I don't think it belongs to the HBP. I have absolutely no idea why though. *shrugs*

EDIT: Tree, I'm really sorry to have posted this in the wrong place... Sorry.

Now Dang it, why is there a new topic for this! We have a cover art topic and I just posted in it and now I have to go and move my post!

WORK WITH ME, PEOPLE! USE THE EXISTING TOPICS IF THEY APPLY! As the release date approaches, we're apt to get more excited about our theories and ideas and tempted to start new threads for them, but we're a little shorthanded while the mod hiring process goes on and we can't afford to have a jillion topics for each exciting idea. I'm sure you can fit your thoughts about Trevor the Toad as HBP into one of the existing threads.

*grumbles and stomps off to find post*

EDIT:

This new cover is SO much more interesting than what we had seen before...

I had always thought the thing on the US cover was the pensieve, but the column did throw me off. It normally just sat on a desk, on a shelf, wherever. Hmmmm. I think this vessel is not, in fact, the pensieve. In the UK version, the vessel looks very much more like a goblet than a bowl (I don't think it's the GOF, though-- doesn't match the descriptions). AND it appears to be in some secret locale in an underground cavern, hidden on a little island which requires the little green boat to approach it-- why would the pensieve suddenly be so well protected? I mean, I'm sure they're valuable like invisibility cloaks, but I don't think the pensieve is a one-of-a-kind thing. It sort of reminds me of the HP & TPS... like you'd have to figure something out or know the secret to find the cavern and then the boat and get it to work for you. Mayhap the water is very unwholesome due to enchantment or nasty critters and not something you could wade or swim in...

Also WHAT is with the glowing green boat!? Or is it golden? Is the light coming out of the UK vessel actually golden and not green? It's golden turning into green...

WHAT is with the clasped hands with the bolt of magic swirling around them. The hand whose wrist is exposed to us DOES look older than the other to me. Definitely male hands, too. Both of them. I don't think they're tied, though-- it's more like... a spell swirling around them. Whether it happened spontaneously when these two people touched (sparks flew when we touched! ooo la la!), or whether it's something that one or both purposefully caused to happen, who can say. I agree that it's DD. I'm going on record as saying that hand is DD's.

I've always said the HBP is a new character... but for some reason, when I looked at the complete Bloomsbury I suddenly started having serious doubts. Maybe we have an Occam's Razor thing going on-- the simplest solution is the best: the book is called HP & the HBP and so on its cover is HP & the HBP (Dumbledore). I may be a DD as HBP convert! I will go so far as to say that IF the HBP is not a new person, I definitely think it's DD.

Oh, so tantalizing! Glowing green boats! Claw footed goblets that are not pensieves... I CAN'T wait!!

EDIT 2: Holy cow-- I just had to go back and restudy to find the ring Amy mentioned! Hmmmmmm! The stone in it looks quite cracked to me. Cracked in HALF? *makes Dr. Evil pinky-to-the-mouth face*
And it does sort of resemble HP's scar, BUT not exactly, the scar has 2 less little crooks in it.

EDIT 3: There's something wonky about the reflection of the boat. The reflection almost looks as if there's a golden person inside the boat. And then there's a glowing golden spot that you can't account for, too....

treeling75 wrote:

EDIT 3: There's something wonky about the reflection of the boat. The reflection almost looks as if there's a golden person inside the boat. And then there's a glowing golden spot that you can't account for, too....

Meep, I thought it was only my imagination getting the best of me. *nods* Person in boat, brain agrees, and yet, what the.. ?!

- Sorry about the spammy post. I'm just glad that I'm not going 'totally' loony.

EDIT: Oh, goody, I do have something to say after all. Just went to Mugglenet, only to find this.. 'Extra art found in screensaver' as news for today. This extra art, viewable > here <, is to me quite a puzzle. So, we see the ring more closely.. and in it Slytherin's symbol and Harry's scar. So, does it represent the bond between the two? I tend to think so.. and therefore we could speculate that this bond'll play an important role in HBP. Hmm.. not actually a moment of enlightenment. Any ideas?

I have to agree about the boat's reflection appearing as if there are one or two beings in the boat. I don't get the glow behind the thicket or whatever that is in the background of the boat and water. It reminds me a little bit of a crudely drawn version of a grape-stake fence that you sometimes see in photographs of country landscaping. The real thing is meant to look very primative.

I still have a problem thinking that the shallow basin upon a pedistel is a goblet. Just for the hell of it, I went to one of my reference books - there are drinking vesels called kylex (singular) that date to the Greek archaic period (900 BCE) that were basin-like and quite shallow in the cup part, usually decorated with a painting in the bottom of the cup itself. The stem part however, was not as in tall in proportion to the cup itself. I don't know why the illustration itself was making me think of a birdbath today. Maybe it's just because I just came from checking out what was going on in our backyard and caught a glimpse of our own two birdbaths... Anyway, a kylex was something reserved for company. You put your good wine in the kylex for your nice dinner parties. It was meant to be held with two hands, so oftentimes there were handles on the outer edges of the basin part. The guest would get the benefit of a surprise once enough wine had been drunk, by seeing the pretty picture of a boat, a god, a mythological scene - whatever, at the bottom of the cup. Unlike drinks of today, wine back in the ancient days was somewhat cloudy and had more sediment than is common today - sort of like Harry's tea leaves... So let's say that this object is some sort of goblet, it could have a reference point back to ceremonial vessels of the past, could be something that wizards use for solemn occassions or a ceremonial drink before a group divination session...seeing a painted picture in the bottom of the kylex is several steps removed from Nostrodomos "skryeing" in his basin or Dumbledore seeing things in his pensieve. Going back to the claw at the foot - what about the objects in the cabinet at #12 Grimmauld? I remember there being reference to "sinister" looking objects (there are boxes that need to be unpacked blocking my access to the particular bookcase with HP at the moment). What if the cracked ring that seems to reveal a portion of a snake along with the goblet/pensieve are objects from the Black household that have been given over by Kreacher to Narcissa and the rest of the Death Eaters??? Didn't Sirius wrest a signet ring away from Kreacher???

Well, those are my confused musings for the afternoon...

Is that thing really a ring? I thought it looked like a watch.
Anyway, there's not much I can say that hasn't been said already.
Every new tidbit about the books makes me want to skip time and get to 16/7 already. >_<

I definately think that is a pensieve and this is why.
Do you all remember in the second book, Harry, for the first time goes back in time and witnesses events of which he cannot change. They were memories. (maybe false ones down the road, but the science of the event is the same none the less)
A direct tie between the second book/movie and the new book, just as JK said.

Also... The hands. I think it may actually be Dumbledore.
This is why. For the past five years, Harry has with or without Dumbledore, faced LV and to some extents conquered. He's pretty much proven his coming status of becoming a powerful wizard potentially to the heights of DD himself. The united hands with the "fire" around it, well, that shows (due to lack of a better word), unity. Almost as if they become an official force, or perhaps, Harry is inducted into the Order?
I think something of that nature is possible.

To be fair to my own mind, I suppose it's possible that it's Sirius, but when you think about all the covers we've seen so far, Dumbledore and Harry make all of them with the exception of this one... So... yeah. That's my two cents.