(High geek content here. The Harry Potter kind. Tread carefully.)

Three days and counting. I hate to admit it, but I’m looking forward to the merciful release of the final tome in the Potter septology. We’re getting our copy on Saturday, though I won’t be getting my shot at the text until after Nikki finishes her read of it.

Around this time last year, I made a concerted effort to catch the hell up on my Potter reading. I’d dropped the series a few years previously, about a tenth of the way through Prisoner Of Azkaban. At the time, I just couldn’t deal with yet another horrible pre-school summer with the Dursley’s. But given the fact that I’m surrounded by Potter-philes at home, at work, in theatre and, well, just about everywhere, getting up to speed became absolutely necessary.

So over the course of a couple of months, I burned through Azkaban, Goblet Of Fire and Order Of The Phoenix. But after a few chapters of Half-Blood Prince, I had to take a break. I knew I’d come back to it, but after so much solid Rowling reading, I could tell exactly what she was trying to do. After keeping Albus Dumbledore so distant and cold toward Harry through most of Order, she opens Half-Blood Prince with a much kinder, friendlier headmaster. Restored was the Dumbledore that Harry had been missing, one of the few adults who’d ever treated him like family. And this time, they’d be working side-by-side. The reignited friendship suited the story, surely, but was also a massive emotional set up for the way the sixth book ended.

With the final book closing in, I decided a few weeks ago to finish Half-Blood Prince. I figured that life after Deathly Hallows would be unbearable without context, so it seemed the safest course of action. For the most part, I liked book six, though some of the reveals struck me as odd. Namely, the identity of the titular prince … that still doesn’t feel right to me.

And here’s another thing, something that maybe will be addressed in book seven. Throughout book six, Professor Slughorn keeps expressing his admiration for Harry’s “talents” in potions making (actually hints cribbed from the notes left in the Half-Blood Prince’s used textbook) by declaring how much Harry is just like his mother, Lily. He does this many times, so much so that I thought we were being somehow set up to learn that Lily was the previous owner of the text book. But this turns out to not be the case.

So what I’m wondering is … what’s with Lily? Why would Rowling have her brought up so often and so admiringly by Slughorn, only to not make anything more of it in book six? Does this mean that Harry’s late mother will be key to his success or failure in book seven?