Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

• “He had never had a proper conversation with his headmaster outside Hogwarts before; there was usually a desk between them. The memory of their last face-to-face encounter kept intruding, too, and it rather heightened Harry’s sense of embarrassment; he had shouted a lot on that occasion, not to mention doing his best to smash several of Dumbledore’s most prized possessions.” – I think for that very reason it is hard to think of Dumbledore as a father-figure for Harry. Dumbledore always kept some distance, always made sure they would remain on student-teacher-level. He even explained to Harry why he thought it was important to keep that distance, so that he could remain objective and not get emotionally invested in Harry. Of course he failed and they will get closer in this book, though Dumbledore will function as a mentor rather than a parent. Perhaps Dumbledore always suspected the kind of role Harry had to play (given that he knew about the prophecy), always knew that he had to prepare Harry for the war that was to come one day, and by know we can be sure he already suspects that Harry himself is a Horcrux, and what that means for him. We can’t deny that Dumbledore is manipulative, but I think it would be a disservice to his character to accuse him that he does not care about Harry.

• “‘You have not, of course, passed your Apparition test?’ he said.” – Why would Dumbledore even ask this question? He already knows the answer. It feels like a rather inelegant way to inform us that you have to be 17 to pass your apparition test, even though we learn about that once the students start taking apparition classes.

• “My left, if you don’t mind – as you have noticed, my wand arm is a little fragile at the moment.” – The wand of course is the most important weapon for every wizard and witch, but it also requires a healthy hand to operate it. There are probably not many ways you can severely injure a hand in the Wizarding World, in the way Dumbledore did, without any chance for a cure, but if you do it will have consequences for the kind of magic you are able to perform (though Dumbledore obviously is very capable to perform wandless magic).

• “He shrugged and spread his hands wide, as though to say that age had its compensations, and Harry noticed a ring on his uninjured hand that he had never seen Dumbledore wear before: it was large, rather clumsily made of what looked like gold, and was set with a heavy black stone that had cracked down the middle. Slughorn’s eyes lingered for a moment on the ring, too, and Harry saw a tiny frown momentarily crease his wide forehead.” – Obviously Slughorn knows that this ring used to belong to Tom Riddle, who was highly interested in Horcruxes. All those years Slughorn might have been one of the very few who knew about Voldemort’s secret, how he had become ‘immortal’, but never shared this kind of information out of shame because he had been the one giving Riddle access to that information. By showing Slughorn the ring Dumbledore lets him know he knows about the secret as well, and given Dumbledore’s injured hand and the broken stone, Slughorn perhaps comes to the conclusion that the ring was a Horcrux and that Dumbledore has started to destroy them.

• Perhaps Dumbledore is right and the Death Eaters are after Slughorn because they want to use his talents for their own causes. But it is also possible that Voldemort ordered them to kill Slughorn because as far as he knows he is the only one who knows about his secret. Then again, they had plenty of chance to do so in the seventh year, but never did.

• I think Slughorn as a character is a perfect example for a Slytherin: he is not a bad or evil person. But he does whatever suits him best, whatever serves his own interests. He is afraid that teaching at Hogwarts will make him even more of a target for the Death Eaters, as it associates him with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. The reason why he eventually joins Hogwarts is again because he realizes that the Death Eaters already know he is not on their side (seeing that he is on the run) and that Hogwarts is perhaps the safest place you can be right now. Harry is still grieving Sirius, who gave his life in order to do what he thought was right. So naturally he can’t sympathize with someone like Slughorn who doesn’t want to take a side in order to survive.

• But also Slughorn is somehow the anti-Hufflepuff. I already wrote about my dislike about the housing system, how students are picked for certain abilities, except for Hufflepuff, who teaches everyone (which falsely left to the assumption that Hufflepuff is the house for ‘losers’; if you are not good enough for the other houses you end up here). Slughorn openly admits that he knows he should not have favourites as a teacher, but the whole concept of the Slug-Club operates on his favouritism. Instead of giving everyone the same chances he only promotes those he thinks are worthy of his time, and obviously to benefit from their success in the long run.

• “His eyes burned suddenly and he blinked. He felt stupid for admitting it, but the fact that he had had someone outside Hogwarts who cared what happened to him, almost like a parent, had been one of the best things about discovering his godfather … and now the post owls would never bring him that comfort again …” – I wish Harry would stop thinking that feeling a natural very human emotion is somehow ‘stupid’. He has a very unhealthy reaction to crying or what he considers to be weak, taking discomfort in spotting this reaction within himself or others (see the whole Cho Chang fiasco).

• Of course Dumbledore is right when he tells Harry he needs his friends, and that it is healthier to share the burden of the prophecy with them. But furthermore I also think that Dumbledore knows Harry can’t take the burden of completing the task of destroying the Horcruxes and ultimately killing Voldemort alone. Rather three frightening teenagers than one.