Deathly Hallows Deluxe Edition Cover Art

I think it is “baby” Norbert… we haven’t know anything about that dragon since they got him with charly

Why does Ron have blonde (yellow) hair? Is that Ron on the back of the dragon? All of M.G.P. illustrations have been of what she believes are important parts of the book but not pivital scenes. (see book six deluxe cover) I am very excited about the dragon can’t wait until 7-21…

It’s just gorgeous! I was kind of “eh…” on the deluxe edition for Half-Blood Prince, but this is beautiful. And dragons?! AWESOME! JKR clearly copied Christopher Paolini…just kidding! Anyways, things I notice…it could be Norbert, but he doesn’t look quite ridge-y enough for a Norweigan Ridgeback. Perhaps an Opal Eye? Also looks like an older dragon from its tattered wings. Perhaps it is a Gringotts dragon? Hermione looks either ill or scared but Harry looks very confident and Ron is just kind of hanging on. Do we know any towns that are in a valley by a river with some farm land? Michael, good call on the robes. Harry seems to be wearing something similar to what he is wearing on the main cover. I’d say they are going to the final battle. I think I may just have to spring for the deluxe edition!

We’ve got another view, hi-res of the actual box set:

http://www.hpana.com/news.19964.html

Well, that was unexpected! I definitely didn’t think Harry was going to ride a dragon in Book 7.

From the location, nestled at the foot of a mountain, I would guess that the village is Godric’s Hollow.

Wow! This was definitely worth waiting for. I’ve been looking for this since the beginning of May, the Deluxe cover art for HBP was released on May 11.

Hmm, a DRAGON! I just can’t believe it. No way did I see that coming. Michael, can you imperius a dragon? or would that be illegal?

Prefiera de Gryfalco wrote: “Do we know any towns that are in a valley by a river with some farm land?” My immediate thought was Ottery St. Catchpole. But who knows.

Tattered robes. Strange. Harry has tattered clothing on the UK cover, but Ron and Hermione don’t. But riding a dragon might be a good way to get cut up the way they are on that cover. So, they ride the dragon and it takes them to the place where the treasure room is, but before they enter the treasure room, something happens that requires Ron and Hermione to don dress robes. They have to dress up as someone else to fool the Gringott’s goblins? Their own clothes are even more ruined than Harry’s are and they find two sets of dress robes so they switch for modesty’s sake? They stop off at a wedding and want to look the part?

I think it’s clear I’m beyond being able to figure any of this out.

So, this scene happens before the scene on the regular Scholastic cover, right? Are we agreed on that?

I think it is possible that Norbert will be back (suffering from a Concunctivitis curse?) We also haven’t seen Charlie in the last 2 books, who is a member of the Order, still working with dragons in Romania and “trying to make contacts on his days off”. Maybe the trio has to go to Romania or Charlie comes back to Scotland with Norbert. Imagine how happy Hagrid would be if he saw him again and Norbert recognized “his mommy”!

It looks like a Chinese Fireball to me- definately an oriental looking dragon. It cannot be Norbert- where’s his horny tail? Supposed to have a double row of spikes isn’t it?
Matthew

Looking carefully at the dragon’s head and noticing the “goatee” on its chin, does anyone other than me think it might be Aberforth as an animagus dragon? I never thought Dumbledore was serious when he commented on Aberforth’s intelligence, just acting like an older (?) brother.

Absolutely amazing! It’s beautiful, and curious, and I can’t wait for the book. Apparently Arthur Levine (Scholastic) asked for this particular scene on the deluxe cover because he liked the scene so much. Levine said that this scene is at sunset, but I don’t think that particularly tells us anything.

I was looking in Fantastic Beasts, which is where the quote about the Opaleye comes from. This seems to be the only dragon that wouldn’t readily devour humans.

And I agree with others–could be Ottery St. Catchpole (and they are fleeing from a disastrous wedding at the Burrow), Godric’s Hollow, Little Hangleton, or just the countryside as they leave the castle.

That last could have something that ties back to the school motto, which was never in the books, beyond a stray comment or two (that Harry would rather poke a dragon in the eye than to get caught stealing supplies from Snape’s stores). The general translation, since I can’t remember the Latin, is “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”. And then I thought of the title of the second book–Chamber of Secrets”. As others have pointed out on numerous forums, we only saw one secret, and if the basilisk was the only secret, then why was it plural? I’ve always wondered if one of the other secrets was a dragon.

And why are Ron and Hermione wearing robes, as they would at school, but Harry is not? Harry also seems to be looking straight ahead, with a determined, concentrated expression, while Hermione is looking up and is fearful. Of course, that could be because she doesn’t like flying, as well as whatever they are fleeing. At first, I thought that Ron also was looking up, but then I couldn’t tell.

Or instead of fleeing, they could be going towards something–though the tattered robes look more like leaving a bad situation.

I know that Rowling has recently tried to distance herself from C.S. Lewis, but I’m also reminded of the part of “Voyage of the Dawntreader”, where Eustace turns into a dragon and then sheds the scales in his transformation into a new person, getting rid of the things that made him so horrid to others.

And there is something about the face of the dragon, with the little beard that also makes me think of the movie my girls loved when they were younger–the one where they ride on a large dog-like creature, whose face looks very much like this dragon, minus the horns. (Drat–I can’t think of the name, and we were just talking about it on Wednesday night.)

Rowling has done such a good job of always setting up characters and beasts and events, so I imagine that the clue for this one has been right in front of us, and we’ve apparently all missed, or dismissed it, as one of those charming details that makes the story more interesting but isn’t something we need to think about much.

Pat

All I can say is wow. A dragon in DH would be logical since the first book and the middle book in the series also feature dragons and we all know that JKR repeats things along the way. I’m not sure if it is Norbert but all this discussion is fascinating. And to think there are only 41 days till DH’s release. Like you guys, I can’t wait.

Johnny, you beat me to it. I thought of the 12 uses of dragon’s blood last night as I was going to bed–which was very late. Also, there was the dragon’s blood that Slughorn spattered on his walls when he was hiding at the beginning of HBP. Clearly, Rowling hasn’t wanted us to forget about dragons, but all the comments have been so random and seemingly unimportant.

Was there also dragon’s blood in one of the crystal vials in the cabinet they were cleaning at twelve, Grimmauld Place?

I think it’s everywhere. I can’t see how this fits in though, from a Christian pov, as dragons are usually associated with serpents. Not a particularly positive rescuer, if that’s what the dragon is doing. So maybe it’s not, and the dragon is strictly from the mythic themes of the books.

Oh, one more thing–Draco means dragon. Hmmm–a transformed Draco, helping the trio to get somewhere? Not likely, but…..

Pat

Although I have to agree that the dragon doesn’t look like a Ridgeback, I think it would make perfect sense that Norbert would turn up again and play a key role in Book 7… Think about it: every single dangerous creature that Hagrid came up with has played a key role. Buckbeak, Thestrals, Aragog, Grawp, Fluffy… They were all ‘bridges’ from one place in the story to another. Norbert is the only one who vanished from the scene quite abruptly without playing a prominent role. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t return in book 7…

Eeyore, Draco being the dragon could bring up comparisons with Eustace in Dawn Treader like you mentioned earlier. Not likely but it could be interesting if Rowling chooses to go there. The text that NCMcGonagall brought up doesn’t say it was dragon blood but given that dragon’s blood has 12 different uses, making it valuable, we can’t rule out that possibility. NCMcGonagall, thanks for bringing up the PS/SS quote regarding dragon’s blood. You certainly could be on to something regarding Regulus and the locket horcrux. This is fascinating stuff.

I looked up the symptoms of conjunctivitis, because that curse was mentioned in book 4 and it came into my mind immediately, when I first saw the cover. But, being an inflammation, it does make the eye look red, not milky. And Norbert’s eyes were described as being orange when he was a baby. So, either this dragon isn’t Norbert (rather the Antipodean Opaleye), or something else happened to his eye. But still – Anton, you are right with your observations about Hagrid’s “harmless” monsters. I just can’t forget sweet little Norbert.

Eeyore, if the Scholastic description is correct and the sun is setting (not rising), we can at least draw the conclusion that the dragon is heading northward.

Johnny, there seem to be different sorts of dragon blood, probably depending on the breed. The blood from the dragon steak Hagrid slaps on his face in book 5 is “greenish” and “it helps with the stingin’”. The blood Slughorn uses for faking a Death Eater massacre is red. This might be interesting because we meet the complementary colours red and green once again.

Doesn’t Harry’s jacket look as if it were made of dragon skin? It could be “tattered” like Ron’s and Hermione’s cloaks, but to me it rather looks patterned.

does anyone else think that the dragon’s two front feet look oddly like human hands?