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Harry Potter And the Half-Blood Prince...

Who Is the Half-Blood Prince?
Which Character Dies in Book 6?
Who is RAB?

The newest addition to JK Rowling's Harry Potter series...Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, arrived at the stroke of midnight, of course...the witching hour on Saturday, July 16th. The American version of the sixth book weighed in at a healthy 652 pages. The first printing in the US ran 10.8 million copies and 1.2 were printed for Canadian book stores.

6.9 million books were sold in the US on the first day they were available. That beat the slightly more than 5 million copies of the Order of the Phoenix that flew of the shelves when the fifth book was released.

J.K. Rowling was in Scotland for the big event and read from the book at the stroke of midnight July 16, in Edinburgh Castle. At 12:01 AM (GMT), she bewitched 70 cub reporters from all over the world who won contests to be there. The "Harry Potter Children's Press Conference" was broadcast around the world on television and radio. There were huge HBP Release Parties all over the world.

Bloomsbury, the book publisher, released the back cover with a short summary of the beginning of the book. It didn't reveal who the Half Blood Price was - or which characters died, but did contain some spoilers. If you still haven't read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, be forewarned that if you don't want to spoil the fun, STOP HERE.

• Who dies in book 6? (SPOILER ALERT)

• Who is RAB? (This is more clarification than spoiler, since RAB did appear in the Order of the Phoenix and remember the locket at 12 Grimmauld Place which no one could open. Where did that rubbish bag that it was thrown into wind up?)

Before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hit the bookstores, rumors swirled and everyone had a theory - or theories - and a favorite pick. There were some clues to the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. Macleans in Canada offered some thoughts, and a poll on who would die in book 6. The BBC poll showed who were the most likely candidates before the Half-Blood prince was available.

It was not even certain that only one person would die. What was certain was that it wouldn't be Harry - he still has another adventure ahead of him in book 7.