This has been discussed on my Yahoo group, and, wishful thinking aside, just about everyone agrees that Jo has been hitting us over the head with he's gone, he's not coming back, it's not a red herring, sorry, but it's true. There are at least three big reasons why He's Gone: 1) his portrait is already hanging in the head's office (there seems to be some sort of charm that automatically takes care of that after a person's death); Snape is not dead himself, implying that he did in fact either successfully carry out his part of the Unbreakable Vow or that Dumbledore died for some other reason (the potion in the cave, the fall from the tower)--but no matter how you look at it Snape is released from the vow because Dumbledore is dead; and 3) Harry was released from the spell keeping him from moving upon Dumbledore's death (the spell was being maintained by Dumbledore and without him being alive to keep it up he was freed).

Why should she bang away at this with so many things pointing to the death if it's just a ruse? There's no reason to believe that it is. Fawkes was mourning Dumbledore, and I believe we'll see him again when someone (probably Harry) voices his utmost loyalty in Dumbledore and needs help, but that's it.

And yeah, there were some definitely LOTR overtones in the episode where they went to the cave, Dumbledore came over all Galdalf-ish while looking for the entrance, and then the dead bodies under the water... But that doesn't mean he's coming back, I'm afraid. (Not to mention Kreacher is feeling more and more Gollum-like to me--I really DON'T like him, and I'm not even channeling Samwise Gamgee.)