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 for Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, while trying to understand the effect it is having on his friends. Yet while life at Hogwarts continues, the deaths also continue, with someone trying to bring it into Hogwarts. 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 explore Lord Voldemort's past, to 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.

Plot
The first chapter of the book focuses on a number of visits Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge had made to the Muggle Prime Minister over the years, relating to events in the wizarding world: Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban, the Quidditch World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament and the 1995 Azkaban mass breakout. Fudge then reveals that a number of incidents in the muggle world; a bridge collapsing and a hurricane in the West Country, have been caused by Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters and their Giant allies. In short, the Second Wizarding War has begun. Fudge also reveals that he has been replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour as Minister for Magic.

Meanwhile, Narcissa Malfoy and her sister, Bellatrix Lestrange head to Spinner's End. Narcissa wishes for Severus Snape to help her, against the advice of Bellatrix, who distrusts Snape for not taking part in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, among other things. Snape explains his reasons to Bellatrix and turns to Narcissa, who explains that Voldemort has given her son, Draco Malfoy a mission as a Death Eater, which she and Snape feel is punishment against the Malfoys for Lucius Malfoy's failings at the Department of Mysteries. He makes an "Unbreakable Vow" to Narcissa, magically binding him to aid Draco in his first mission as a Death Eater. Failure to fullfil this "Unbreakable Vow" will result in Snape's death.

Albus Dumbledore comes to visit Harry Potter at 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey to give him Sirius's will: Harry inherits his deceased godfather's savings, Number 12, Grimmauld Place (which he lets the Order of the Phoenix continue to use as headquarters) and the House-elf Kreacher (whom Harry sends to work at Hogwarts). Harry notices Dumbledore has recieved a rather bad injury on his right hand, but he dismisses it as unimportant. He then requests help convincing an old Hogwarts teacher, Horace Slughorn to come out of retirement. They pay him a visit, but Slughorn is reluctant to return to the school, for fears it may connect him to The Order. Harry tells him that this won't be the case, and that no teachers have died since Dumbledore became Headmaster, except Professor Quirrell, who was working for Voldemort. This convinces him to return to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore then takes Harry to The Burrow, where his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, along with Ron's sister Ginny, the three of whom fought alongside him at the Ministry are staying, and tells him he will be taking private lessons with him during Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. The trio also recieve their O.W.L.'s there. Harry is dismayed to learn that he fell one grade short of the required grade to take N.E.W.T. potions. After spending the next few weeks at the Burrow, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione go to Diagon alley, along with Hagrid, to get school supplies. While there, Harry Ron and Hermione see Draco talking with Borgin, owner of a dark artifact shop, Borgin and Burkes, about reparing an object and keeping another one safe. He also shows Borgin something, which Harry suspects is a Dark Mark, the mark of a Death Eater.

On the Hogwarts Express, Harry meets up with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, two others who fought at the Department of Mysteries. Harry and Neville are then invited to Slughorn's compartment on the train, along with Ginny and a number of other students, who apart from Ginny, have been invited there due to connections with well known or influential people. While on the train, Harry begins to become attracted to Ginny, although she has supposedly long given up on her crush on Harry and is currently dating Dean Thomas. Suspicious of Malfoy, Harry sneaks into a compartment full of Slytherins, and hears Malfoy talking about his future, and how he may not come back to Hogwarts over the next year, stating that he may have "moved onto bigger and better things", and has been asked to do a job for Voldemort.

At the opening feast, Dumbledore announces that Professor Snape is taking over the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, while Slughorn will be taking Snape's vacated Potions Master job. This allows Harry and Ron to take the N.E.W.T. course, as Slughorn's entry requirements are lower than Snape's. However, neither of them had anticipated this and don't have the necessary equipment. Slughorn loans them old textbooks, and Harry discovers a large number of alternate instructions handwritten into his book. When he uses these methods, his potion making skills increase. At the end of his first lesson, Harry wins a bottle of Felix Felicis, liquid luck. He finds out later that the book was last owned by someone called "The Half-Blood Prince".

In Dumbledore's first lesson, Dumbledore shows Harry the first of a number of memories he has collected concerning Voldemort's past. It shows a ministry official, Bob Ogden, attempting to arrest a man called Morfin Gaunt for attacking a muggle, Tom Riddle Sr., but fails. Dumbledore reveals later that following Ogden's visit, Morfin's sister, Merope Gaunt had given Riddle Sr. love potion, because she was in love with him, and they had later conceived Tom Marvolo Riddle, the young Voldemort.

Harry wants to investigate Malfoy, but has other concerns on his hand; keeping up with his immense workload, training the house Quidditch team having been made Gryffindor Quidditch captain, putting up with the attractions of numerous girls and the fact that Hagrid's pet Acromantula, Aragog, is dying. Three times, Slughorn attempts to invite Harry to one of his "Slug Club" parties, but Harry avoids them, in order to avoid leaving Ron out. During a trip to Hogsmeade, a student and member of Harry's Quidditch team, Katie Bell is imperiused and cursed by a mysterious necklace. Remembering seeing the necklace in Borgin's shop, Harry voices his suspicions of Malfoy to Professor McGonagall, but she states that Malfoy wasn't in Hogsmeade, and that there is no proof that he bought the necklace.

In his next lesson with Dumbledore, Harry first sees Caractacus Burke talking about a locket of Salazhar Slytherin's a pregnant and desperate Merope had sold him, then goes into a memory of Dumbledore's to the orphanage that Riddle had grown up in. Harry learns that Merope had later died of childbirth, and that even at an early age, Riddle had developed his powers, which he used to punish people who annoyed him and had a sadistical and independent nature, just like the adult Voldemort.

During a Herbology lesson, Ron expresses his jealously of not being invited to Slughorn's upcoming Christmas party, to the point of teasing Hermione about it. When she tells him that she was planning to invite him, however, his attitude changes, and they begin to show signs of attraction to each other. Harry is unsure how he feels about this, remembering his unsuccessful relationship with Cho Chang during his fifth year. With Katie unable to play, Harry recruits Dean onto the Quidditch team, which continues to improve. On their way back from practice however, Harry and Ron come across Dean and Ginny kissing behind a tapestry. Harry gets a huge urge of jealousy, while Ron states that he doesn't want to see his sister snogging people in public. Ginny tells him that her love life is none of his buisness, and that he's only upset because he's never kissed anyone, referencing Harry and Cho's relationship and revealing that Hermione had once kissed Viktor Krum. This piece of information wrecks his relationship with Hermione, as well as his Quidditch skills, and badly alters his personality. Harry meanwhile tries to convince himself that his feelings for Ginny are entirely brotherly, but eventually realizes that he has fallen in love with Ginny.

In an effort to improve Ron's Quidditch and possibly mend his relationship with Hermione, Harry pretends to slip Ron some Felix Felices, the day of the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Feeling lucky, Ron goes on to save everything the Slytherin chasers throw at him, and Gryffindor hammer Slytherin. However, after the match, Ron accuses Hermione of not having faith in his Quidditch abilities, and starts going out with Lavender Brown to spite her. As Slughorn's Christmas party approaches, Hermione warns Harry that a number of girls, particularly Romilda Vane plan to slip him a love potion. Harry gets round this by going to the party with Luna Lovegood, while Hermione goes with Cormac McLaggen to get back at Ron (which she regrets very much later). During the party, Malfoy tries unsuccessfully to gatecrash, although Slughorn lets him off the hook. Snape however takes Malfoy out of the party and into a deserted classroom. Harry follows them both and overhears Snape offering to help Malfoy with his mission, which Malfoy flatly refuses.

During the Christmas holidays at the Burrow, Harry tells Ron, his father Arthur Weasley and Remus Lupin what he overheard, but they believe that Snape was trying to find out Malfoy's plan so he could tell Dumbledore. Later, Scrimgeour visits the Burrow, and requests that Harry appear to work alongside the Ministry, to boost the morale of the public. Harry turns him down, knowing that the Ministry is arresting and imprisoning innocent people and remembering how they persecuted him last year.

On their return to Hogwarts, Harry notices Ginny is not enthusiastic about meeting Dean, and tells Hermione about what he heard between Malfoy and Snape, but she also believes Snape was working on Dumbledore's orders. When Harry mentions Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf Lupin had told him about during the holidays, she recalls Malfoy threatening Borgin with him, and Harry states that this proves Malfoy's a Death Eater. In his next lesson with Dumbledore, Harry learns that during his time at Hogwarts, Voldemort had gathered a mixture of friends who became the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and researched his family. Dumbledore and Harry then go into Morfin Gaunt's memory, where he reveals to Voldemort how he was conceived. After hearing this, Voldermort went on to murder his Muggle ancestors, stealing Morfin's father's ring and framing Morfin for the murders.

In the next memory, Voldemort asks Slughorn about Horcruxes, which results in Slughorn yelling that he knows nothing about them. Dumbledore is confident that the memory has been tampered with, however, and asks Harry to retrieve the true memory. Realising Harry is on to him, after a botched attempt to get the memory, Slughorn starts avoiding him, and Harry instead chooses to focus on investigating Malfoy, using the Marauder's Map, noticing that Malfoy disappears off it at certain times. On Ron's seventeenth birthday, Ron consumes a number of chocolate cauldrons with love potion in them (courtesy of Romilda and intended for Harry). Harry takes him down to Slughorn for an antidote, and the three of them decide to have some of Rosmerta's Mulled Mead, originally meant for Dumbledore. Ron discovers, upon drinking it, that it's poisoned, but Harry manages to save him with a Bezoar.

As a result of being poisoned, Ron reconciles with Hermione and Ginny. Some time afterwards, Harry sends Kreacher and Dobby, another house-elf to tail Malfoy. In their next lesson, Dumbledore is disappointed Harry failed to show him the memory, and shows him two new ones; one of Voldemort being shown Salazar Slytherin's Locket and Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, both of which he later stole, the other of Voldemort applying for Defence against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts, which Dumbledore feels was an attempt to further search the school for secrets and recruit followers.

Harry learns from Kreacher and Dobby that Malfoy is regularly visiting the Room of Requirement (which isn't mentioned on the map), and spends the next few days trying to get inside it. Not knowing what Malfoy is using it for, he has no success, and makes similar progress with Slughorn, until Ron suggests he use the Felix Felicis. As a result, Harry is able to get the memory with ease, and shows it to Dumbledore. It turns out that in reality, Slughorn had told Riddle everything he wanted to know about Horcruxes; they are objects that a person has concealed part of their soul in, which explains how Voldemort was able to survive his rebounding killing curse. Dumbledore believes that Voldemort had made six Horcruxes: his diary (which Harry had destroyed four years ago), the Gaunts Ring (which Dumbledore had destroyed last year, getting his injured hand in the process), the locket, the cup, an object of Rowena Ravenclaw's and the snake Nagini.

Harry learns the next day that following his exploits last night, Ginny and Dean have split up. He is unwilling to ask her out though, fearing Ron's reaction. Meanwhile, a recovered Katie has returned to the school, and Harry asks her who gave her the necklace. She states that someone Imperiused her in the girl's bathroom in Rosmerta's Pub in Hogsmeade. Shortly before the final Quidditch match of the year, Harry finds Malfoy crying over how his mission is failing. When he sees Harry, he attacks him. During the ensuing duel, Harry uses a spell written in The Half Blood Prince's book, which badly injures Malfoy. As a result, Harry is given a large number of detentions by Snape, causing him to miss the match. Upon returning to the Gryffindor common room after his first detention, he discovers that the team had won the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he and Ginny then kiss, to the suprise of nearly everyone in the room. The two of them then start dating, which makes Harry happier than he has ever been in a long time.

Some time later, Dumbledore asks Harry to come to his office. On the way, he runs into his old Divination teacher Professor Trelawney, who was trying to hide sherry bottles in the Room of Requirement before being thrown out. She tells Harry that she heard a male voice (which Harry suspects to be Malfoy's) laughing before she was ejected, and also reveals that Snape had told Voldemort about the prophecy concerning him and Harry, which caused him to murder Harry's parents. Harry expresses outrage that Dumbledore later gave Snape a job at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore states that Snape felt great remorse for what he had done. He then asks Harry to join him in finding a Horcrux, which Harry agrees to. Before leaving, Harry tells Ron and Hermione that Malfoy's almost certainly going to try something tonight, and gives them the remainder of the Felix Felicis.

Dumbledore and Harry travel to a cave in which Voldemort had tortured two children in his youth. They proceed through the cave, coming to an island in the middle of a lake. On the island, they find a basin of emerald green potion, with the locket at the bottom. On Dumbledore's orders, Harry reluctantly force-feeds him the potion, which badly weakens him and causes extreme thirst. In an attempt to save him, Harry gives him water from the lake, awakening dozens of Inferi Voldemort had placed to guard his Horcrux. Harry attempts to fight, but there are too many of them. Just as he is about to be overwhelmed, Dumbledore creates a ring of fire around them, which fends off the Inferi. and allows them to escape to Hogsmeade, where they discover the Dark Mark above the astronomy tower at Hogwarts.

Borrowing broomsticks, the pair fly to the tower. Upon hearing someone approaching them, Dumbledore paralyses Harry and hides him under his invisibility cloak, before being disarmed by Malfoy. He reveals that he had let Death Eaters into the school, through the objects he was questioning Borgin about, a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, and that he had been behind the necklace and mead incidents, which were really assassination attempts on Dumbledore. Dumbledore persuades Malfoy not to kill him, but they are later joined by other Death Eaters, who urge Malfoy to finish his mission. Snape then appears, and because of Dumbledore's pleading, Snape murders him.

Released from his paralysis after Dumbledore's death, Harry pursues Snape as teachers and Order members battle the Death Eaters, ending up near the entrance to Hogwarts. Harry attempts to curse Snape, who repels his attacks with ease. When Harry attempts to use some of the Half-Blood Prince's spells, a now enraged Snape reveals that he was the the Half-Blood Prince, before being attacked by Buckbeak the Hippogriff and escaping with Malfoy.

After the battle, Ginny accompanies Harry to the hospital wing, where he learns that the only person who died was a Death Eater. None of Harry's friends are badly hurt, apart from Bill Weasley, the Weasleys oldest child who was attacked by an untransformed Greyback, although the only side effects are permanent scars across his face and a liking for rare steaks. Professor McGonagall questions Harry about what he and Dumbledore were doing, but Harry, under orders from Dumbledore not to tell anyone except Ron and Hermione, refuses. The teachers then discuss the future of Hogwarts, and plans for Dumbledore's funeral.

The funeral is attended by many witches and wizards, including a number of minor characters in the series. During the funeral, Harry ends his relationship with Ginny to protect her from Voldemort. She reveals that she had never given up on him; she had gone out with other people so she could relax around Harry, as previously she had trouble talking to him and trouble talking to anyone when Harry was in the room. As a result, he fell in love with her upon seeing who she really was, and regrets not asking her out sooner. Harry then meets Scrimgeour, who again makes the offer he'd made to Harry at Christmas, which Harry again turns down. He then tells Ron and Hermione of his intention to leave Hogwarts to destroy the Horcruxes and then Voldemort himself. His two lifelong friends agree to travel with him on his quest, and Harry happily acknowledges that there is "still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione".

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.

Book chapters

 * 1) The Other Minister
 * 2) Spinner's End
 * 3) Will and Won't
 * 4) Horace Slughorn
 * 5) An Excess of Phlegm
 * 6) Draco's Detour
 * 7) The Slug Club
 * 8) Snape Victorious
 * 9) The Half-Blood Prince
 * 10) The House of Gaunt
 * 11) Hermione's Helping Hand
 * 12) Silver and Opals
 * 13) The Secret Riddle
 * 14) Felix Felicis
 * 15) The Unbreakable Vow
 * 16) A Very Frosty Christmas
 * 17) A Sluggish Memory
 * 18) Birthday Surprises
 * 19) Elf Tails
 * 20) Lord Voldemort's Request
 * 21) The Unknowable Room
 * 22) After the Burial
 * 23) Horcruxes
 * 24) Sectumsempra
 * 25) The Seer Overheard
 * 26) The Cave
 * 27) The Lightning-Struck Tower
 * 28) Flight of the Prince
 * 29) The Phoenix Lament
 * 30) The White Tomb

Deaths
Many readers believe that Dumbledore is not actually dead. According to some, the potion he drank to reach the locket was in fact the Draught of Living Death, while others suggest that this potion somehow allowed the effects of a serruptitiously sipped Draught to be delayed until the proper moment of "death". An alternate theory is that Snape used a non-verbal spell to cause Dumbledore to drift safely to the ground.

Of course, there is little reason to assume that both did not occur — that Snape's non-verbal spell caused Dumbledore to drift over the battlements, while the Draught allowed him to appear quite dead both while he was more closely examined by Harry and others and during his funeral. According to the narration in this section, "Except for the awkward positions of his arms and legs were in such a position that Harry thought he could have been sleeping."

The chief evidence against any of these theories — other than Harry's witness to the apparent murder — is that if Snape had not, in fact, slain his headmaster, this would be a violation of the Unbreakable Vow, which clearly has not been broken as Snape remains alive. (Responses to this claim tend to focus on the particulars of the Vow to find a way in which Snape could have logically followed its commandments without carrying out the murder itself.)



J.K. Rowling later stated, "Dumbledore is definitely dead."

Later when The Deathly Hallows was published, the world found out that the death of Albus Dumbledore was intentional. He had planned his death with Severus Snape almost a year before.

Besides the death of Albus, the death of Aragog the Acromantula occurred in The Half-Blood Prince. His death came from the attack of his fellow Acromantulas, who believed he was weak. Hagrid held a funeral for the spider, in which Professor Slughorn stole Acromantula venom, and Harry received vivid information about Horcruxes.

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

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 :

Behind The Scenes

 * Before its release, a rumour circulated a chapter was to be entitled, "Lupin's Papers." Rowling responded that this was not the case, "nor will there be chapters entitled 'Pettigrew's Pamphlets,' 'Sirus' Circulars' or 'The Pocket Crosswords of Severus Snape'."


 * Between the release of Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, fans wondered who "R.A.B." could be; many people believed it to be Regulus Black. J.K. Rowling would not explicitly say it was Regulus, but commented that he was a "good guess."  Between the releases of the two books, she would drop hints about R.A.B.'s identity; one such hint was that the final book would introduce no new characters: this lead many fans to believe it had be a character introduced in a previous book.

Notes and references

 * 1) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-071805potter_lat,0,4363703.story?coll=la-home-headlines
 * 2) http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/07/12/Arts/potterrecycle050712.html
 * 3) http://www.veritaserum.com/books/book6/releasedates.shtml
 * 4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4578463.stm
 * 5) http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.html?id=9badf853-c1c3-4786-bf4f-75a5071e5c07
 * 6) http://michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=889
 * 7) http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html
 * 8) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20050716.POTTERNOTE16/TPStory.
 * 9) [HP2] Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (1998), UK ISBN 0747538492/US ISBN 0439064864
 * 10) [HP6] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (2005), UK ISBN 0747581088/US ISBN 0439784549