Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 14: Felix Felicis

• Teenagers! Hormones! Heartbreak! Welcome to a new episode of Riverdale… I mean a new chapter of “Half Blood Prince”. And to be clear here: I do love all those teenage romances. This is exactly my jam.

• “It was not as though he was really surprised, thought Harry, as he wrestled with a thorny vine intent upon throttling him; he had had an inkling that this might happen sooner or later. But he was not sure how he felt about it … he and Cho were now too embarrassed to look at each other, let alone talk to each other; what if Ron and Hermione started going out together, then split up? Could their friendship survive it? Harry remembered the few weeks when they had not been talking to each other in the third year; he had not enjoyed trying to bridge the distance between them. And then, what if they didn’t split up? What if they became like Bill and Fleur, and it became excruciatingly embarrassing to be in their presence, so that he was shut out for good?” – I love that entire scene where Harry desperately tries not to overhear his friends and their awkward conversation. But also Harry, Captain Oblivious himself, acts like he was obviously aware of the fact that Ron and Hermione like each other quite a lot. Like everyone and their mother knows, but that usually means Harry doesn’t. Like he doesn’t even know yet that he has a thing for Ginny, despite Slughorn’s love potion smelling like her and it needs some serious jealousy attack in this chapter for him to realize. But I also get Harry’s concern and how a romance between Hermione and Ron would affect his friendship with the two of them. We never actually get to see Ron and Hermione as a couple for reasons, and by the time they get together Harry is with Ginny and they no longer attend school together. But I guess their relationship is as wonderful complicated as their friendship.

• That is to say, I know there are some people out there who never quite understood how Ron and Hermione got together, as it seems that they are fighting the whole time and that they are quite different. But I never doubted that they belong together. Every relationship works different and I always believed that the reason why they fight so much is because they genuinely care about each other. They wouldn’t bother that much if it wasn’t. And you can be super annoyed by someone and still like them, those things don’t exclude each other.

• “As Harry had endured much worse mutterings than this in his school career, he was not particularly bothered, but all the same, the pressure was increasing to provide a win in the upcoming match against Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, Harry knew that the whole house would forget that they had criticised him and swear that they had always known it was a great team. If they lost … well, Harry thought wryly, he had still endured worse mutterings …” – It is interesting that Harry’s function as captain of the team also makes him the coach. (As it was with Oliver and Angelina.. and it just took me six books to notice this.. nevermind) And the golden rule when it comes to sportballs is that every team has an entire nation, or in this case house, as a coach. Everyone has an opinion and everyone knows better.

• “‘Yeah, it is!’ said Ron, just as angrily. ‘D’you think I want people saying my sister’s a –’ ‘A what?’ shouted Ginny, drawing her wand. ‘A what, exactly?’” – I’m glad we never find out what word exactly Ron wanted to use (probably ‘scarlet woman’), but just as Fred and George what he does is basically slutshaming. Like I guess it is normal to tease your siblings over their first boyfriend/girlfriend, as the twins will later do with Ron after they found out about Lavender, and of course as older brothers they are protective of their baby sister. Still, the way both the twins and Ron speak to Ginny is not okay. Ron doesn’t tease Ginny, he is angry at her, and I don’t think it is because he is jealous she found someone to snog and he didn’t. He generally dislikes the idea of her being with a boy, of her becoming a woman, of her (sooner or later) becoming sexual active. He patronise her in the worst way, thinking he as a man owns the right to control what she does with her body and with whom.

• “‘Harry’s snogged Cho Chang!’ shouted Ginny, who sounded close to tears now. ‘And Hermione snogged Viktor Krum, it’s only you who acts like it’s something disgusting, Ron, and that’s because you’ve got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!’” – I always felt as a teenager (and even now as an adult), that there is this pressure that you need to have a certain experience at a certain age. Like there might be something wrong with you if you are sixteen and never kissed someone. Which is obviously stupid. But it also hits a nerve with Ron, who has always compared himself with his brothers, with Harry, with everyone. And of course the fact that Hermione kissed Krum, which we only learn about now. For obvious reasons she only shared this kind of information with Ginny, and it shows how hurt Ginny is by Ron’s accusation that she lets that bomb drop now.

• “She’s Ron’s sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds. He would not risk his friendship with Ron for anything.” – The thing is however that Harry shouldn’t feel like he has to decide between Ron or Ginny, that Ron should simply accept if his sister and his best friend want to be together.

• The whole Felix Felicis trick only works because Harry knows his two best friends so well. He knew that Hermione would call him out for it, and he also knew that Ron doesn’t like it when Hermione is “bossing him around” and would drink his pumpkin juice anyway. What Harry did not know was how horrible his plan would backfire.