Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 11: Hermione’s Helping Hand

• “‘Oh, come on, Harry,’ said Hermione, suddenly impatient. ‘It’s not Quidditch that’s popular, it’s you! You’ve never been more interesting and, frankly, you’ve never been more fanciable.’ Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry.” – I just love this entire scene, where Hermione patiently explains Harry why he became so popular all of sudden, and Ron doesn’t even try to hide his jealousy. I regularly make my friends compliments, simply because I think it is a nice gesture (and they are awesome people), so I never saw this scene from a shipping point of view. I don’t think Hermione could have told Harry so casually why he is, in her words, ‘fanciable’ if she was actually into him. And Ron’s desperate attempt to prove to Hermione that he is fanciable as well is both cringy and cute.

• “‘I’ll give Slughorn back the new one. He can’t complain, it cost nine Galleons.’” – Nine Galleons for one schoolbook? Seriously? According to Rowling 1 Galleon is roughly about 5 pounds, so this book would cost 45 pounds! I mean Harry’s wand had costed only 7 Galleons. Also, Ron gets his own copy of “Advanced Potion-Making” as well, and it seems to be a new copy, not a second hand book. He also got a new robe at Madame Malkin before the school year started, so it is fair to assume that Mr. Weasley had a nice pay rise with his new job. (This and the fact that the Weasley have now only two children left who depend on them financially)

• Why are there first years at the Quidditch tryouts? I thought first years were not allowed to play Quidditch for their houses, with Harry being an exception. Did they change that rule?

• I’m still amazed that Harry had no idea who Cormag McLaggen was up until this year, despite the two of them being in the same house for 5 years now. Like if you are not in Harry’s year, not part of the Quidditch team or friends with one of the Weasleys Harry will have no idea who you are.

• “‘If you ask me,’ said Harry quietly, ‘McLaggen looks like he was Confunded. And he was standing right in front of where you were sitting.’ Hermione blushed. ‘Oh, all right then, I did it,’ she whispered. ‘But you should have heard the way he was talking about Ron and Ginny! Anyway, he’s got a nasty temper, you saw how he reacted when he didn’t get in – you wouldn’t have wanted someone like that on the team.’” – I like that Hermione’s excuse is McLaggen’s temper, though it is obvious that she wanted to avoid a situation where Harry had to choose somebody else as a keeper. And ironically I think the fact that McLaggen had messed up his final penalty is what gave Ron some extra confidence.