... maybe Malcom was fae and of Winter.  Is there anything definitive on how a changeling knows it's a changeling, especially if Mab doesn't want the changeling to know and has given a direct order for no one to tell? 

Malcolm seems too warm & loving.  Winterfae aren't.

But Eb met him, and iirc testifies as to both his goodness and his being pure-Mundane.
 

... I assumed it was some form of sanctioned mind magic.

Mind magic is Air magic in the Dresdenverse.

There may be other similar things, e.g. bodily magic is I think Water magic:  but if you crank up (bodily, hormonal) lust you mostly get someone who's hitting on everything that moves; if you hit the right cortisol & epinephrine notes, your target becomes fearful; etc.

You can likely suppress the hormonal states, calm the fear & lust &c.

These act like mind-control in many ways, but are bodily tweaks.

I haven't been following the ins and outs, the nuances, of this conversation but has anyone made the point that Maggie Sr. may have made a Rumpelstiltskin-like bargain with Lea/Mab? ...

My own WAG is that Mab/Lea dropped a few hints/clues about the "Starborn" situation.

Enough for Maggie Sr. to want to learn more... eventually, to believe she "figured it out, despite the faerie obfuscation."  Mab's the kind of long-planning master-manipulator who could pull off exactly that sort of thing, with an eye towards getting herself a Starborn Winterknight.

... Maybe Maggie Sr., knowing of the WC's involvement with the Outsiders and what their end-game was, bargained for help escaping and being protect from the White Court in exchange for help becoming impregnated and birthing Harry as a Starborn?  And maybe Maggie Sr.'s seemingly quick and short marriage to Harry's dad was all part of the bargain/plan?  And maybe the mother's death - and maybe the father's - is part and parcel of birthing a Starborn?  So maybe Harry has to come with grips with though loved by his parents, their union was more mercenary and wasn't 'just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her,' that he was intentionally created for a pre-planned purpose via a Maggie Sr./Mab scheme?  A lot of maybes but I think Jim wants something potentially soul crushing that Harry has to deal with and find some measure of peace with. 

That's a LOT of maybe's.  I'm pretty sure they're mistaken, though...

I can't go trawling through the archives right now, but I'm pretty sure there's WoJ that Margaret meeting Malcom while on the run was unplanned/serendipitous (by which I suspect Jim may mean "it was actually Uriel's doing").

If Mab is a "master-manipulator," Uriel has the strands of fate at his fingertips.
 

... I kind of remember that also from the book, however I find it odd that he wasn't aware that Margaret was about to give birth or had just given birth when he killed her ...

I don't think he knew where she was; if he had, he'd likely have killed her more-directly, and sooner.

I've got a theory that the curse that killed her had been lurking for a while:

Margaret made a deal (with the Leanansidhe) for the protection of her baby.  She died the moment Harry was born... "just like magic."

Harry inside Margaret, before birth, means Margaret herself was also protected; but the instant his life was no longer tied to her (I presume cutting the umbilicus) Lea's protections upon Harry no longer protected Margaret, and the entropy-curse killed her.

Which, in turn, implies that the curse was just lurking, waiting until the protective Veil was lifted (not cast then to kill then).

Though of course it's also possible that Lea had previously let Raith know that Margaret had an impenetrable protection, but that it would be ending "soon," and that she explicitly tattled to Raith when it did; far better for her twisted Faerie Godmother Complex to get rid of the parent(s)!

I'm pretty certain Lea was involved in either Margaret's death, or Malcolm's, or both.

I think the idea that there is a Fallen Angel trapped inside each Blackened Denarius was pretty well established by the end of Death Masks, which is what? Book five?

Yes, that's the seed planted.

That the Swords are the same thing -- being their exact opposite -- is (in retrospect) obviously-implied.

I never thought of Air Magic being the method of conveying his speech to everyone in the Council. I assumed it was some form of sanctioned mind magic.

It's per WoJ.
The transcription is reported as:

Basically the air magic folks are, uhh, they can do, depending on how much magical muscle they have, alot of things with wind. But they are also really good at communication type stuff. The Merlin is a fantastic air mage. And that's kind of the basis of his 'I can communicate with everybody at the speed of thought now everyone shut up and lets get this plan together'. And that's where that kinda comes from for him.

Reportedly from this AMA (video) recorded at a bookstore in Seattle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDJDn-ggqOo
(but I'm taking the reported quotation at face value:  the vid is almost 2H long, and I didn't listen through to find the precise quote)

We know that infection is not simple. Otherwise, why did the White Court vector (whatever it was) not go after Lara? They got to Justine and theoretically should have been a step closer to getting Lara. As far as we know, Lara is free from infection. It is not as simple as person to person because then Justine should have been able to infect Lara while serving as her personal assistant. I assume that at some point we will learn the whole story. My guess is that Harry/Lara will capture Justine and in the process of trying to cure her interrogate her to learn more and fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge.
...

I'll suggest that Nemesis hasn't taken Lara because it doesn't want Lara.

It wants Justine.

It wants the lover of the Starborn's brother -- Harry is (was) protective of Justine.  He saw her as fragile, helpless, and vitally-important to his only blood-relative.  That made Harry ripe for manipulation by Justine.

But Lara?  Please.  An apex-predator, direct threat/foe to Dresden, known manipulator.  Harry is maximally on-guard.  Lara has almost no value in this context.

...
We know the infection happened about the time that Justine started working for Lara. Therefore, sometime after Blood Rites...

No:  we only have the word of Nemesis that that's when it happened!
And... um... Nemesis probably isn't the most reliable informant; just sayin'

... We know from the Marcone story that Justine was sent as Mab's envoy to other accorded nations...

I think you mean Lara's envoy!  But yeah, about that:  Justine's revelation as Nemfected actually resolved an issue that had been nagging at me from that story...

Justine was too reliable, too focused, too competent -- in fact, hypercompetent -- in the scene with Marcone.  The Justine that Harry saw was only ever "focused" when she was with Thomas (and then focused mostly upon Thomas).  The Harry-visible Justine seemed incapable of the trip to Corb, or Marcone, let alone performing the negotiations she did.

We've never had the slightest hint that Justine might have the kind of training she'd need to perform at that level.  But if it was Nemesis acting?  Yeah, that tracks.  100%

Since it was Margaret's death curse that caused Papa Raith not to feed, I don't think it makes any difference whether Harry is alive or dead or only mostly dead, Papa Raith won't be able to feed.

IIRC, Papa thought that sacrificing Harry and/or Thomas was the way to escape Margaret's curse.

I presume he had some reason to think so... and he may even have been correct (or may not have been; I don't think anyone but Jim understands the Dresdenverse magical metaphysics well enough to know).

However, Harry's semideath -- years later, outside of Raith's careful ritual prep, and metaphysically as Harry's self-sacrifice (made for love) -- almost certainly wouldn't have fulfilled Raith's needs in this regard.