Deathly Hallows book covers(Written 31st March, 2007)
When I first looked at the US children's' cover (right), I thought it was the worst cover ever. Honestly, who would have thought of using orange?! However, upon closer inspection of the full US jacket, I found it to be containing several clues.
[Before I launch into a full-blown analysis, take note that this is my own interpretation of the covers and I have never read any editorials or reviews before this to prevent other people from influencing my first impressions of the covers, but be assured that I will go read other reviews when they come out.]
The colours orange and red, are, to a certain extent, clashing horribly. Though the orangey red background didn't look to bad behind what I presumed to be voldemort(or a dementor) who was clad in a black hooded cloak. There are, what appears to be ruins, pieces of splintered wood and cracked stone, at his feet. His long-nailed fingers are facing toward Harry, suggesting that they are/were engaged in a violent duel which involved destruction of buildings. This supports mugglenet's hypothesis that there will be a final showdown between Voldemort and Harry. However, it is not clear in the book jacket who is winning the fight, so I guess we will eventually find out in DH. Harry also appears to be wearing a kind of locket or pendant, which may well be the missing horcrux that R.A.B stole from voldemort. Knowing jkr, it may not be a horcrux at all, but a charm of some kind, but it is highly unlikely that a simple charm would show up on a book cover. In the background, there are tall stone arches surrounding Voldemort and Harry, with what seems like tombstones at the bottom of these arches. This might be the graveyard Voldemort took Harry to at the end of GoF (I forgot its' name!) as it is the only wizard graveyard jkr has introduced us to in the series, and Voldemort or Harry might find connections to the past at their parent's graves. The orange skies may suggest that they are fighting at sunrise or sunset, instead of at night when Voldemort fought Harry in GoF. Taken less literally, it may mean that the fight was passionate and fiery and that there was a lot of magical energy in the air.
In the UK adult version, there is a picture of a gold locket with with an "S" set in emerald jewels, and is what I presume is salazar slytherin's locket, the one which used to belong to the witch Hepzibah. [hbp] The importance of this locket is emphasised as it is shown on the cover, as opposed to any other horcrux. This might also be the locket Harry is wearing around his neck in the US children's cover.
