Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 24: Sectumsempra

• Can you already smell all the angsty Draco/Harry-fics based on this chapter?

• “‘Well, it was a bad night for romance all round. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry.’” – As I mentioned in the previous chapter notes all the things that happened under the influence of Felix Felicis were things that were meant to happen anyway, it just needed the right circumstances. Ron wanted to break up with Lavender for a while now, Hermione says Ginny and Dean had been rocky for ages and Harry always had the ability to persuade Slughorn. But while getting the memory from Slughorn and Ginny breaking up with her boyfriend are both things Harry wanted, I found it interesting that Harry’s luck lead to Ron and Hermione’s luck as well, because they are obviously meant to be. Perhaps something like real luck is the one you can share. Or maybe things are just better for Harry if his two best friends aren’t fighting.

• Katie comes back from St. Mungos after months, having missed at least half a school year, and things just get back to business for her? Does she get private tutoring? I mean she is in her final year, how is she supposed to pass her N.E.W.T.s?

• “‘I think I’m going to take another swig of Felix,’ said Harry, ‘and have a go at the Room of Requirement again.’ ‘That would be a complete waste of potion,’ said Hermione flatly, putting down the copy of Spellman’s Syllabary she had just taken out of her bag. ‘Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him, you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn’t enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don’t go wasting the rest of that potion! You’ll need all the luck you can get if Dumbledore takes you along with him …’ She dropped her voice to a whisper.” – This exactly. Felix Felicis can alter the circumstances, create lucky coincidences, but nothing that was not meant to happen. If Ginny for example would be super with Dean, and had no interest whatsoever in Harry, nothing would have changed that. As Hermione said, luck can only get you so far.

• “All in all, the temptation to take another gulp of Felix Felicis was becoming stronger by the day, for surely this was a case for, as Hermione put it, ‘tweaking the circumstances’? The balmy days slid gently through May, and Ron seemed to be there at Harry’s shoulder every time he saw Ginny. Harry found himself longing for a stroke of luck that would somehow cause Ron to realise that nothing would make him happier than his best friend and his sister falling for each other and to leave them alone together for longer than a few seconds.” – So if Harry considers taking Felix Felicis to tweak the circumstances this must mean he is to a certain degree convinced that Ginny likes him back. Or maybe he hopes so, and knows that if this is the case the potion will help him to get closer to Ginny. If not it wasn’t meant to be.

• “‘No one can help me,’ said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. ‘I can’t do it … I can’t … it won’t work … and unless I do it soon … he says he’ll kill me …’ And Harry realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying – actually crying – tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin.” – The thing that always irritates me is that Harry saw Draco crying, heard him saying Voldemort will kill him, and yet he never thinks for even a moment about offering his help. Sure, Draco attacks him seconds later, but Harry never wastes a moment to think about what he has witnessed. Draco is at his lowest, he has a breakdown, it is obvious that he is forced to do whatever he does and fears for his life. And while Harry feels guilty for using Sectumsempra on him that’s it. He never tries to talk to Draco, he never tells Dumbledore what he heard. And that is the big difference to Dumbledore, who knows exactly what task Voldemort has given Draco, and who does offer to help Draco in the end, an act of kindness Draco had not expected.

• The moment Snape reads Harry’s mind he knows that Harry has his old potions book, perhaps he even suspected it the moment he saw Draco, recognizing the spell that had hurt him. Snape knows but he can’t say anything without revealing that he is the Half Blood Prince, and therefore the one who invented Sectumsempra, an obviously illegal very dangerous spell. He can’t accuse Harry without pointing in his own direction at the same time.

• “He felt stunned; it was as though a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage. What had the Prince been thinking to copy such a spell into his book? And what would happen when Snape saw it? Would he tell Slughorn – Harry’s stomach churned – how Harry had been achieving such good results in Potions all year? Would he confiscate or destroy the book that had taught Harry so much … the book that had become a kind of guide and friend? Harry could not let it happen … he could not …” – It doesn’t even cross Harry’s mind that the Prince had invented Sectumsempra himself, he assumes he had copied it from somewhere else (which would still be bad enough given what the spell does). And again I feel irritated that Harry’s biggest worry is that Slughorn could find out about the book or that Snape might destroy it. He still refuses to think bad about the Prince, despite the fact that he had almost killed someone because of him. (And obviously the blame is on Harry himself, because he should have known better than to use a spell whose result he doesn’t know)

• “[…]there were what looked like dragon-egg shells, corked bottles whose contents still shimmered evilly, several rusting swords and a heavy, blood-stained axe.” – Are those dragon-egg shells from Hagrid? And why the hell would there be a blood-stained axe hidden in a school? What the fuck had happened there?

• “He opened one of the cupboard’s creaking doors: it had already been used as a hiding place for something in a cage that had long-since died; its skeleton had five legs.” – Illegal pet or not, it is kind of cruel to just leave it in a cupboard to die (or perhaps it had already been dead and someone just needed a hiding place for the body? Again: Hagrid?).

• “Seizing the chipped bust of an ugly old warlock from on top of a nearby crate, he stood it on the cupboard where the book was now hidden, perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue’s head to make it more distinctive, then sprinted back through the alleyways of hidden junk as fast as he could go, back to the door, back out on to the corridor, where he slammed the door behind him and it turned at once back into stone.” – Oh look, you just found a Horcrux. But did Voldemort really assume nobody would find Ravenclaw’s diadem? In a room generations of Hogwarts students have used before? That no Ravenclaw would recognize the thing for what it is?

• “‘I don’t believe this,’ said Hermione. ‘You’re actually defending –’ ‘I’m not defending what I did!’ said Harry quickly. ‘I wish I hadn’t done it, and not just because I’ve got about a dozen detentions. You know I wouldn’t’ve used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but you can’t blame the Prince, he hadn’t written “Try this out, it’s really good” – he was just making notes for himself, wasn’t he, not for anyone else …’” – And yet Harry feels much more sorry for himself, not being able to be at the final Quidditch match, than he spends thinking about what he did to Draco and feeling guilty about that.

• “It was, as Harry had anticipated, useless, boring work, punctuated (as Snape had clearly planned) with the regular jolt in the stomach that meant he had just read his father or Sirius’s names, usually coupled together in various petty misdeeds, occasionally accompanied by those of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.” – There is a special kind of cruelty with this detention, reminding Harry again and again of the people he had lost. And Snape of course knows a thing or two about grief, he never got over losing Lily, and yet he forces Harry through this painful work.

• And I still can’t believe that Harry needed Ron’s approval, best friend or not, to date Ginny, like it is up to Ron to decide who is good enough for his little sister.