Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 12: Silver and Opals

• “Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing? Harry caught sight of the Headmaster only twice over the next few weeks. He rarely appeared at meals any more, and Harry was sure Hermione was right in thinking that he was leaving the school for days at a time. Had Dumbledore forgotten the lessons he was supposed to be giving Harry? Dumbledore had said that the lessons were leading to something to do with the prophecy; Harry had felt bolstered, comforted, and now he felt slightly abandoned.” – Does that mean that Dumbledore is still trying to get new memories about Voldemort even now? Is the long period between the lessons to be explained by Dumbledore trying to get new information? Or did he had all the memories (with the exception of Slughorn’s) together before the school year started? Perhaps Dumbledore’s absence can simply explained with him doing business for the Order. Doing whatever he can to stop Voldemort. And of course, as we later learn, the curse Dumbledore felt victim to, gave him roughly a year left to live, so perhaps he also uses the time for some unfinished business or to say goodbye to friends.

• “He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behaviour, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way.”- I love that Hermione, in the boy’s eyes, has become their weird friend, who they love anyway.

• “On the other hand, the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.” – THE IRONY. (J.K. was cackling writing this one)

• “He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page; at last he located it and deciphered one cramped word underneath the spell: praying that this was the counter-jinx, Harry thought Liberacorpus! with all his might.” – Shouldn’t have a simply “Finite Incantatem” worked as well? Does every jinx has a specific counter-jinx?

• “‘So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?’ ‘Why does it matter if it’s handwritten?’ said Harry, preferring not to answer the rest of the question. ‘Because it’s probably not Ministry of Magic-approved,’ said Hermione. ‘And also,’ she added, as Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, ‘because I’m starting to think this Prince character was a bit dodgy.’” – Obviously Hermione is right here for telling Harry off, because anything could have happened (though of course if you know a bit of Latin you can usually tell what effect a spell will have). I also think it is interesting that spells need to be Ministry-approved. Is it therefore illegal to use a self-invented spell? Can you get a patent on a new spell you created? And of course Hermione turns out to be right in her thinking the Prince is a bit dodgy, especially after Harry had used ‘Sectumsempra’, which backfired horribly. Hermione believes the Prince is not trustworthy and Harry believes Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater, both are being laughed at for their beliefs, both turn out to be right after all.

• Hermione mentions that the spell Harry used on Ron, that made him fly up in the air, was also used by the Death Eaters during the Quidditch World Cup, to frighten Muggles. Ron says that it is different, that Harry only used the spell as a laugh, whereas the Death Eaters were abusing it. But that’s it: most spells are not evil or bad, it always depends how you use them, and with what intention. Even the most simple spell can be used to cause harm in the wrong hands.

• “Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.” – Not the kind of wall-slamming I want to see *coughs*.

• “‘It wasn’t a very slick attack, really, when you stop and think about it,’ said Ron, casually turfing a first-year out of one of the good armchairs by the fire, so that he could sit down. ‘The curse didn’t even make it into the castle. Not what you’d call foolproof.’” – I think in their final conversation this is something Dumbledore mentioned as well – that the attacks on him weren’t very well-thought. Dumbledore however doesn’t think this is a sign of lack of intelligence on Draco’s part but rather that Draco never really wanted his plan to succeed in the first place, that maybe he had even hoped to be caught.