Two days!

Under the heading of things that really don't seem to matter much in the grander scheme of things: I wonder whether Harry will be named Head Boy. And if not him, who?

Malfoy's out of the running, for obvious reasons. And it doesn't seem to me that any of the other boys in Harry's year have distinguished themselves in a way to make them contenders -- although there could certainly be some backstory accomplishments that Jo just hasn't bothered to tell us about.

Harry wasn't a prefect, which is a normal step toward Head Boyhood. But neither was James, and he ended up Head Boy.

The reason that Harry was passed by for prefect still applies, but the decision-making process will be different this time around.

Hermione is, of course, a shoo-in for Head Girl. If she doesn't get it, I'll eat my hat. But who's going to be Head Boy?

I'm still using the future tense for events that take place in this book. Rumor has it that some intellectual property anarchist has already uploaded pdfs of the entire thing somewhere on the internet. I haven't gone looking for it yet, but it's tempting. If I didn't have other things to do between now and Friday...