Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth novel in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, Voldemort is definitely back and with a vengeance. Harry finds his world is again changing. Wizards and Muggles are dying despite the efforts of the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix to stop them. The war is back on. Despite the danger, Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, reunite and return to the familiar life of Hogwarts for their sixth year. They find yet another Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, they begin their N.E.W.T. classes in preparation for life after Hogwarts, and Harry gets some much needed Potions help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Quidditch is as popular as ever, and Harry finds himself reforming his team and leading the Gryffindors. And then there is the ever popular Slug Club with the new Potions teacher. Romance again comes to Hogwarts, and is a welcome balance to the grim happenings elsewhere. Harry deeply questions his own feelings while trying to understand the effect it is having on his friends. And yet while life at Hogwarts continues, the deaths also continue, and someone is trying to bring it into Hogwart's. Danger seems to lurk around every corner, and Harry is as determined as ever to unmask it. Dumbledore takes Harry under his guidance and together they try to unlock the secret of what is Voldemort and find a way to stop him before it is too late. Ultimately, Harry finds he must accept what he must do as The Chosen One against Voldemort ... and choose between what is right, and what is easy.

When it was released on July 16, 2005, it was the first book in the United Kingdom to have a simultaneous standard print, large print, and Braille edition release. Within the first twenty four hours, the book sold 6.9 million copies in the United States alone, roughly moving 250,000 an hour, making it the fastest selling book in history. It generated over $100 million in sales out of the gate, outpacing even the combined take of the top movies at the box office. Bookseller Barnes and Noble reported sales averaging 105 copies per second in the first hour of sales.

Editions

 * Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada etc)
 * ISBN 0747581088 Hardcover
 * ISBN 074758110X Hardcover (adult edition)
 * Raincoast (Canada etc)
 * ISBN 155192756X Hardcover
 * ISBN 1551927608 Hardcover (adult edition)
 * ISBN 0747581525 Hardcover (large print edition)
 * Scholastic (United States etc)
 * ISBN 0439784549 US Hardcover
 * ISBN 0439791324 Deluxe Edition

Before and after the release of the book, the environmental organizations Greenpeace and the National Wildlife Federation urged consumers in the United States who planned to buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to do so from the book's Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, which published on 100% recycled, chlorine-free, ancient forest-free paper. The American edition of the book, published by Scholastic Press, was printed with a percentage of recycled paper that Scholastic declined to make public.

Translations
Various publishers have announced release dates for local translations of the book :

Dedication
Rowling became pregnant with her third child during the writing of this book, and often joked about them racing each other into the world. For this reason, the book was dedicated to her:


 * To Mackenzie,
 * My beautiful daughter,
 * I dedicate
 * Her ink-and-paper twin

Plot overview
Rufus Scrimgeour replaces Cornelius Fudge as Minister for Magic, the latter having lost the position due to his refusal to acknowledge Lord Voldemort's return (OotP). Voldemort and his allies begin to act openly, causing widespread chaos, paranoia, and depression in Britain. Severus Snape makes an "Unbreakable Vow" to Draco Malfoy's mother magically binding him to aid Draco in his first mission as a Death Eater: to kill Professor Dumbledore. Failure to fulfil this "Unbreakable Vow" will result in Snape's death.

Security measures have been increased at Hogwarts. Snape is given his coveted Defence Against the Dark Arts post while Horace Slughorn returns from retirement to take his Potions post. Slughorn lends the unprepared Harry an old textbook marked as the Half-Blood Prince's. Its handwritten notes help Harry to outdo anyone, even Hermione, in Potions.

With Slughorn's reluctant help, Dumbledore shows Harry details of Voldemort's past. While two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed (Tom Riddle's diary by Harry (CoS) and Salazar Slytherin's ring by Dumbledore), Dumbledore believes that Voldemort has four more that must be destroyed before Voldemort can die. Dumbledore and Harry set off to retrieve one (Salazar Slytherin's locket), but Dumbledore is heavily weakened by a potion he is forced to drink to reach it.

They return to find the Dark Mark over Hogwarts and Death Eaters attacking students and teachers. As they investigate, they are surprised by Draco. Dumbledore paralyses Harry, who is invisibly cloaked. Draco reveals how he let the Death Eaters in. Other Death Eaters soon arrive and urge Draco to fulfill his mission, but he hesitates. Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore with Avada Kedavra. Harry pursues Snape, who identifies himself as the Half-Blood Prince before escaping.

Professor McGonagall succeeds Dumbledore as head teacher, but she and the other teachers fear that Hogwarts may have to be closed because of the Death Eaters' attack. After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry decides not to return to school so that he can devote his time to destroy the remaining Horcruxes and to kill Voldemort.

Controversies
In May, 2005, bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where, it was believed, the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened.

In early July, The Real Canadian Superstore, a big-box grocery chain in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fifteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction (PDF copy) from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or of discussing the contents. Purchasers were offered a Harry Potter T-shirt and an autographed copy of the book if they returned their copies before 16 July.

On 15 July, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the anti-reading injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles questioning the injuction's restriction on fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist has posted commentary on his weblog. Richard Stallman has posted on his weblog calling for a boycott until the publisher issues an apology. The Globe and Mail published a review from two UK-based writers in its 16 July edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9 am that morning.

In the same week, a Chicago Walgreens mistakenly sold a copy of the book. When the purchaser read about the Canadian incident on the Internet she said she would not turn herself in, but that she would not read the novel until the U.S. release date.

Dumbledore's Death
Many people believe that Dumbledore is not actually dead. There are many variations of the tale, some say he took the Draught of living Death, others say a non-verbal spell was used by Snape. It is most widely believed though that both happenend, Dumbledore took the Draught of Living Death and Snape used a non-verbal spell to put Dumbledore safley on the ground. The book also says "His arms and legs were in such a position that Harry thought he could have been sleeping.

However, it's possible that such an action would have violated the Unbreakable Vow that Snape took to help Draco Malfoy kill Dumbledore, which would have killed Snape; this would serve to confirm that Dumbledore is, indeed, quite dead, because Snape is obviously still alive.