No further evidence to support the Ron-Is-Dumbledore from the future argument, then? Alas. God, I can't wait for Harry Potter to be done with. 13 years (ish) I've lived with the shadow of Harry Potter - roll on July. I don't care what happens or how, I just want it to be done with, in fact Harry Potter probably feels similarly about his relationship with Dobby.

I think you're overanalysing. Clearly what the cover art *actually* tells us is that Daniel Radcliffe has quit the Harry Potter series, and they're trying to prepare us for the fact that he's being replaced, in films 5-7, with Hugh Grant.

On a serious level, I actually find it mildly enraging that a) they've clearly changed the design of the cover art from the earlier books to make the characters look more like the actors, and b) they know that the book will sell by the billion, so they can't be bothered to put decent artwork on it. There are people cranking out fanart on DeviantArt who could do a better job and would *pay for the privilege* of having their art gracing the cover of the new book.

I'm less worried about the fact that they know the book will sell by the bazillion so they're skimping on the cover art than the fact that they know the book will sell by the bazillion and, therefore, not bother to edit it.

Oh, that's been the case since book 4. The rot has been slowly spreading and has now reached the production values. I predict that Book 7 will be printed on soggy cardboard, old newspapers and cheap toilet paper, and all the pages will fall out of your copy within an hour of purchase. But that will be okay, because they were put in in the wrong order anyway.

Makes me more and more glad that I don't read Harry Potter, really...