Since I have only handful of hours left, I feel like I should record my predictions for tomorrow's book, albeit in shamefully borrowed format. I preordered by book several weeks ago, and will be picking it up at the store's midnight release party. I can't wait! I think I'm going to need a steaming cup of coffee and a box of Kleenex with me the entire time.

Who will die? I think Voldemort will die, and Snape, and sadly, Hagrid*. I'm up in the air about Harry. I suspect that a lot of the book will deal with that grey area in between the living and the dead inhabited by spirits and ghosts and all those headmaster portraits that still seem very much alive. Perhaps Harry, in his search for Voldemort and his family, will even spend time in both realms. Dumbledore said on a number of occasions that there were worse things in the world than death, and that Harry was superior to Voldemort in his ability to love. Can Harry defeat Voldemort by sparing him somehow?

Will Harry return to Hogwarts?
Yes! Perhaps not as a normal student, but its too much of a magical stronghold for him not to go back.

To what does "Deathly Hallows" refer?
The argument has been made that hallows are the Horcruxes, especially since one of the non-English book titles translates as Relics of Death. I hope the place behind the veil where Sirius disappeared in Book 5. I'd like to see whats back there. We also still have to learn whats so important about Harry having Lily's eyes that Rowling mentions it in almost every book so far, and I think it has something to do with this.

Is Snape good/bad/neither?
Snape is seriously messed up, and would benefit from being put out of his miserable existence in this book. But I don't think he betrayed Dumbledore in the way we were led to believe. I've heard theories that he's a sort of free agent who is working towards his own ends while playing both sides, which wouldn't surprise me.

* A wild conspiracy theory I read earlier today: The case has been made—along with drawing comparisons between the entire series and Egyptian mythology of Horus—that Harry's journey is a metaphor for the alchemy of the Philosophers stone with its three elements represented by black, white and red. He's already seen two of his most influential father-figures (Sirius Black and then Albus, latin for white, Dumbledore) fall defending him, and in order for him to reach his own immortality/enlightenment/destiny he must also lose red: Rubeus Hagrid. I stil don't know if that means Harry lives or dies, but its a fascinating theory. Interestingly, if you look at Mary Gran Pre's illustration on the back of the US hardcover, you'll see a snake that is equal parts black, white, and red.