Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 1: The Other Minister

• “Half-Blood Prince” is unusual because it starts not with one but two chapters written from an outsider perspective. Rowling already did this in the first and fourth book, and continues it in the seventh as well. It is interesting how often those chapters are written from the perspectives of Muggles – book 1 starts with the Dursleys, the fourth book starts with Frank Bryce and book 6 now starts with the (unnamed) Prime Minister of the Muggles. And despite the fact that the readers themselves are in fact Muggles we read those chapters from the perspective of outsiders, because unlike them we are familiar with the Wizarding World. I always enjoyed those chapters, because they make the world this story takes place in a little bit broader and complex. Harry’s perspective is after all limited and I think it also gave Rowling a little exercise as a writer in doing those chapters.

• “‘But then,’ bleated the Prime Minister, ‘why hasn’t a former Prime Minister warned me –?’ At this, Fudge had actually laughed. ‘My dear Prime Minister, are you ever going to tell anybody?’” – I like to believe there is club full of former Prime Ministers, where they do nothing but talking about their respective experiences with the Ministry of Magic.

• The Prime Minster tries to ignore his knowledge about the Wizarding World as best as he can, but boy I would have wanted to know everything there is if somebody told me magic is real.

• “‘Yes, alive,’ said Fudge. ‘That is – I don’t know – is a man alive if he can’t be killed? I don’t really understand it, and Dumbledore won’t explain properly – but anyway, he’s certainly got a body and is walking and talking and killing, so I suppose, for the purposes of our discussion, yes, he’s alive.’” – That is indeed a very important question – is someone alive if they can’t be killed? Can you only be truly alive if you can die? And therefore Voldemort, who so desperately clings to life, who tries to become immortal, misses the true meaning of what it means to be alive. But also Dumbledore did not explain to Fudge (and properly not to Scrimgeour as well) what he will teach Harry: the knowledge he has gained about Voldemort, why he could not die and how he can become mortal again. The only people as it seems who are aware of it are Dumbledore himself, Snape and Harry (and later on Ron and Hermione). Would it have been wiser to inform the Ministry? To let Aurors find and destroy the Horcruxes instead of 3 teenagers? Or the Order of the Phoenix? Dumbledore has always been a secret keeper and very selective about who had access to which information.

• “The Prime Minister did not know what to say to this, but a persistent habit of wishing to appear well-informed on any subject that came up made him cast around for any details he could remember of their previous conversations.” – We don’t learn a lot about the Prime Minister, but the fact that he likes to be well informed on any kind of subject that might be important speaks for him. Like that should be the standard for any politician, but unfortunately there are enough people in power who are not informed about the things they are supposed to make decisions about.

• Both giants and Dementors joined their forces with Voldemort, which is exactly the thing Dumbledore warned Fudge would happen. That is one messed up “I told you so”.

• I wonder why exactly the Death Eaters choose to kill Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance. Amelia Bones was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so she was probably responsible for the fate of a lot of the Death Eaters, at least those who were in Azkaban, so she was perhaps killed out of revenge. Emmeline Vance was a member of the Order of The Phoenix, so her murder might have happened to hurt Dumbledore personally? I don’t think she was a great danger to Voldemort and his followers, no more at least than any other member of the Order. Of course both women had been briefly mentioned in book 5 – Harry met Madam Bones during his hearing at the Ministry and Emmeline Vance was part of his Advance Guard from Privet Drive to Grimmauld Place. We (and Harry) know who they are, though we have no personal connection to them. But it further illustrates what Fudge is trying to tell the Prime Minister – that the Wizarding World is currently at war and good people are going to die.

• “‘That’s right. And they’re breeding. That’s what’s causing all this mist.’” – I really really don’t want to know how Dementors procreate.

• “‘I wish him luck,’ said Fudge, sounding bitter for the first time. ‘I’ve been writing to Dumbledore twice a day for the past fortnight, but he won’t budge. If he’d just been prepared to persuade the boy, I might still be … well, maybe Scrimgeour will have more success.’” – After you called Harry an attention seeking liar and lunatic for almost a year? Fat chance.

• “‘Er – yes,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’d rather that door remained unlocked.’ ‘I’d rather not be interrupted,’ said Scrimgeour shortly, ‘or watched,’ he added, pointing his wand at the windows so that the curtains swept across them.” – Interesting that those are the first actions of Scrimgeour, things that did not occur to Fudge. And just like that you can already tell that Scrimgeour used to be an Auror.

• “‘But for heaven’s sake – you’re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out – well – anything!’ Scrimgeour turned slowly on the spot and exchanged an incredulous look with Fudge, who really did manage a smile this time as he said kindly, ‘The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.’” – I always loved that line. Magic in the Potter world is not infinite. There are rules, there are things you can’t do, and there is a balance of power. The difference between the good guys and the bad guys, to put it simply, is their morality. There are things Dumbledore could do, because he is certainly powerful enough, but won’t do because he won’t cross certain lines. One could argue though that in the end Dumbledore’s plan is crossing such a line – it is built on Harry sacrificing himself. Dumbledore is willing to sacrifice one life so that thousand others can live. He did the very thing Voldemort thought he could never do – giving up Harry.