On A Lighter Note

Ok, I'm a geek, I admit it. So if you don't like or care about the Harry Potter books, don't bother reading this post.

The last book is due out in a week or two and I believe I have unravelled what happened at the end of Book Six to set up the finale.

Remember, you heard it here first.
Dumbledore is currently only MOSTLY dead, there's a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead.
He won't stay that way. He's only dead technically. I have a number of reasons for thinking that.
Firstly, JK grieved extravagantly when she killed Sirius (if you believe he's dead) and I don't think she's going to kill someone even more important, particularly before the last book.
Secondly, any literary character who's totem, if you will, is a phoenix is destined to rise again.
Thirdly, at the time he was blasted by Snape, it was impossible to kill him with the Killing Curse. I will explain.
When Harry and Dumbledore went into the cavern with the Horcrux, they were in an area where water could not exist (see Harry's efforts) but the island was in the middle of a lake. Filled with Inferi. Which are undead. What would be better to keep and preserve Inferi than a lake filled with not water but Draught of Living Death (this potion has the appearance of water, mentioned by Slughorn earlier in the book, also mentioned briefly in the first book). Therefore, to slake the agony of the poison he was consuming Dumbledore sucked down a few liters of said potion. Being who he is, he realized it. Cut to the battlements. He knows he is heading towards a period of zombiehood and when the fewmets hit the windmill he gets Harry out of the way because Harry is the vulnerable one. In comes Draco and what does Dumbledore do? He gets him talking, delays things, to give the potion time to reach full effect. Enter Snape. Snape and Dumbledore are both serious Legillimens/Occlumens, so without speech Snape is filled in and suddenly...he can fulfill his Unbreakable Oath and still not betray Dumbledore. He hits him with the curse and all it does is blow him off the battlements. I reiterate: you can't kill what's already dead. The fall smashed him up, but I have full faith in Madame Pomfrey to mend him and cure the poison in his system. Cut to the funeral. You never see the body. At the end, the Phoenix calls. Phoenix=rebirth. The death-like state is why the portrait is sleeping, I believe, I don't think it will wake in Book 7 unless he's got another trick up his sleeve.
Dumbledore is not dead, but yet JK can say he is without lying to her public because he will no longer be dead when the potion wears off.
This will not become immediately apparent, as Dumbledore will work from the shadows for much of the last book.
Watch out for Aberforth Dumbledore, the Professor's brother and owner of the Hogshead in Hogsmeade, he has some pivotal part to play yet in this.
At the end Harry will not die, but will be offered the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Instructor. After all, who could be better?
Those of us who care will find out in mere days...