Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry and Ron leave the hospital wing, completely healed and on good terms with Hermione again. Hermione tells them that Ginny and Dean have been fighting, which pleases Harry. Ron and Lavender, too, seem to be experiencing some friction, to Hermione’s delight.

At Harry’s next lesson with Dumbledore, the Headmaster is disappointed to find that Harry has not procured the real memory from Slughorn. Feeling terrible, Harry promises Dumbledore that he will try harder. Dumbledore then recounts the details of Voldemort’s life after he left Hogwarts: After securing top grades in every examination, Voldemort surprises everyone by taking a job as an assistant at Borgin and Burkes, where he helps persuade rich wizards and witches to part with valuable collectibles. He had first approached then-Headmaster Armando Dippet for a job as the DADA teacher but had been asked to reapply when he was older. Dumbledore, uneasy at this request, had advised Dippet against the appointment.

Dumbledore then proceeds to show Harry two more memories, one of a house-elf named Hokey and the second his own. In the first memory, Hokey helps her mistress, Hepzibah Smith, get ready to meet Voldemort. A handsome, young Voldemort is welcomed in shortly after; when he begins to talk shop with Hepzibah, she shushes him and shows him two of her most treasured possessions instead, making Voldemort promise he won’t tell his bosses. The first is a cup that belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four founders of Hogwarts to whom Hepzibah is distantly related; the second is Slytherin’s locket, which she had bought from Borgin and Burkes some years ago. Voldemort recognizes both, a red gleam in his eyes. The memory ends, and Dumbledore tells Harry that two days after this, Hepzibah was found dead, supposedly accidentally poisoned by Hokey. As with Morfin, Dumbledore was able to extract this real memory from Hokey before she died. After Hepzibah’s death, her relatives discovered that the cup and the locket were missing; Voldemort, in turn, had resigned from Borgin and Burkes and disappeared.

The second memory takes place ten years after Voldemort’s disappearance, during which time he was practically untraceable. He arrives at Hogwarts, where Dumbledore is now Headmaster, to reapply for a teaching position; his physical features are greatly changed, now distorted and snake-like. Voldemort is irked that Dumbledore still insists on calling him Tom and surprised and displeased that Dumbledore knows of the existence of the Death Eaters. Dumbledore refuses Voldemort’s request, and the latter leaves, visibly incensed. Although Voldemort never mentioned it, Dumbledore is sure he wanted the DADA post, for ever since he refused Voldemort the job, it has been jinxed: No teacher has lasted more than a year.

Kreacher and Dobby give Harry their reports on Draco’s activities, revealing that Draco has been using the Room of Requirement, a magical room that transforms into anything the user needs and does not turn up on maps, hence explaining Draco’s disappearances. Harry also realizes that all the girls he has seen with Draco are Crabbe and Goyle, disguised as other people through Polyjuice Potion, which allows the user to change their appearance. Harry attempts to enter the Room of Requirement as it presents itself to Draco but is unsuccessful.

Aragog passes away, and Hagrid invites Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the funeral. Harry considers attending, but Hermione convinces him not to; Hagrid holds it after sunset, after which time students are not allowed to leave the castle as per the new security measures. Hermione urges Harry to focus on obtaining the memory from Slughorn instead. Harry has not had any luck yet, so Ron suggests Harry use Felix Felicis to do so.

After dinner, Harry takes some of the potion and is filled with “an exhilarating sense of infinite opportunity” (467). Harry decides to go down to Hagrid’s instead of visiting Slughorn, much to Ron and Hermione’s alarm; however, Harry feels confident about his choice. As he leaves under the Invisibility Cloak, he witnesses Lavender and Ron, as well as Ginny and Dean, beginning to fight.

Harry slips out of the castle easily as the front door has been left unlocked. He spots Slughorn on the grounds and decides to reveal himself. Harry tells Slughorn he is heading to Hagrid’s for Aragog’s funeral; tempted by the possibility of collecting Acromantula venom, which is rare and expensive, Slughorn takes Harry up on his invitation to join them. After the burial, Slughorn and Hagrid drink copious amounts of wine; Hagrid falls asleep, and Harry talks about his dead parents to a very drunk Slughorn. He uses the memory of Lily’s death to play on Slughorn’s emotions. Sure that Slughorn will not remember anything in the morning, Harry confesses to Slughorn that he is the “Chosen One” and needs the real memory to defeat Voldemort. Slughorn finally gives it to Harry.

Harry rushes up to Dumbledore’s office with Slughorn’s memory; together, they revisit the scene where Voldemort asks Slughorn about Horcruxes. Slughorn tells Voldemort that Horcruxes are objects used to encase one’s soul after splitting it by committing murder, “the supreme act of evil” (487), protecting one from death even if one’s body is attacked. Voldemort questions whether a single Horcrux would suffice as protection, suggesting seven, the magical number, might be more powerful. However, splitting one’s soul even once is unnatural, and Slughorn reiterates that few would want such an existence. He is also unaware of the spell used to create a Horcrux and tells Voldemort that even discussing the Dark subject has been banned at Hogwarts. Voldemort’s interest unsettles Slughorn, though Voldemort reassures his teacher that his curiosity is purely academic.

Upon exiting the memory, Dumbledore expresses that it confirms his theory: Voldemort has made multiple Horcruxes in his attempts at achieving immortality. The first time this possibility occurred to Dumbledore was when he encountered Voldemort’s diary in Harry’s second year. A fragment of Voldemort’s soul was encased in it and possessed Ginny through the diary, making her open the Chamber of Secrets (a secret Chamber created by Slytherin for his heir to one day return and reopen) and setting a basilisk loose upon Muggle-borns. The diary was eventually destroyed, and the fact that Voldemort had not better protected it suggested to Dumbledore that more Horcruxes existed.

Based on the various revelations presented through the memories they have revisited, Dumbledore concludes that Voldemort has created six Horcruxes, the seventh part of his soul remaining inside his body. The diary was one of them, and Dumbledore reveals that Marvolo’s ring was another; Dumbledore succeeded in finding and destroying it at great peril, thus explaining his withered right hand. Hufflepuff’s cup and Slytherin’s locket were made the third and fourth Horcruxes. An object of Rowena Ravenclaw’s, another founder of Hogwarts, is possibly a fifth; however, the only known relic of Godric Gryffindor is a silver sword that is safely in Dumbledore’s possession. Thus, Dumbledore believes that Nagini, Voldemort’s pet snake, has been made the sixth and final Horcrux. Dumbledore is close to discovering the location of one of the four remaining Horcruxes and agrees to let Harry come along when he finds it.

Harry and Dumbledore discuss the prophecy, with the latter confirming that the power Harry has that will help defeat Voldemort is the capacity to love. Love already served Harry some degree of protection in the past: Lily’s act of dying to save her son invoked ancient magic such that Voldemort could not touch Harry as long as her blood flowed through his veins. While Voldemort overcame this barrier by using Harry’s blood to revive himself, the same enchantment still keeps Harry safe at the Dursleys, where his mother’s blood lives on in her sister.

Harry is skeptical about how his capacity for love will protect him in the face of Voldemort’s magical prowess; Dumbledore explains how this ability has kept Harry “pure of heart” despite all the suffering and temptation he has encountered so far. Voldemort set the prophecy into action by singling Harry out and attempting to kill him as a baby; while doing so, he transferred some of his abilities onto Harry and forged a connection between their minds. Despite always having had this glimpse into Voldemort’s world, Harry has never been “been seduced by the Dark Arts” (500). Furthermore, Dumbledore highlights that, in dying to save Harry, his mother’s love proved a far more powerful force than Voldemort ever acknowledges and also reiterates that Harry’s choice to eventually kill Voldemort is not just because of the prophecy. The many terrible things Voldemort has done, including killing so many of Harry’s loved ones, is enough for Harry to want him finished, irrespective of the prophecy. Harry finally understands that he will go after Voldemort not because the prophecy says he must, but because he truly wants to: It is “the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high” (501).

Harry fills in Ron and Hermione on his lesson with Dumbledore from the previous night; they, in turn, tell him that Ron and Lavender have broken up, as have Ginny and Dean. Harry feels conflicted at the news of the latter, wanting to ask Ginny out but fearing Ron’s reaction.

Katie Bell is healed and returns to the Quidditch team; she tells the trio that she does not remember who gave her the necklace, just that it was someone in the ladies’ washroom at Three Broomsticks. The Gryffindor team is flying particularly well, and if they win their upcoming match against Ravenclaw by more than 300 points, they will take home the championship.

Harry continues to keep an eye out for Draco on the map. A few days before the match, he spots Draco and Moaning Myrtle, one of the Hogwarts ghosts, together in a boys’ bathroom. Curious, he approaches them and is stunned to see Draco crying; Draco tells Myrtle that no one can help him, and if he doesn’t complete something soon, he will be killed.

Draco spots Harry watching them and immediately attempts to hex him. The two duel; in an attempt to stop Draco from cursing him, Harry uses a spell he had seen scribbled in his Potions book with a note, “For enemies,” penned by the Half-Blood Prince. Draco crumples to the floor, bleeding profusely, and Harry is horrified. Snape appears at Myrtle’s cries and manages to heal Draco while Harry stands by helplessly. After taking Draco to the hospital wing, Snape demands where Harry learned such Dark magic; reading Harry’s mind, Snape asks him to bring all his schoolbooks.

Harry rushes back to the dormitory and borrows Ron’s copy of the Potions textbook; he visits the Room of Requirement to hide the Half-Blood Prince’s copy and is astonished to find the place transformed into a large cathedral filled with innumerable other lost or hidden objects. Harry passes a broken Vanishing Cabinet and stores the book in a cupboard, marking the place with a dusty tiara. He returns to Snape, who goes through his books and knows that Harry has not brought him his actual Potions textbook. Snape gives Harry detention every Saturday morning for the rest of the term, effectively meaning that Harry cannot play in the upcoming Quidditch match.

Over the next few days, Harry endures the anger of his fellow Gryffindors in addition to the taunts of the Slytherins, McGonagall’s fury at his actions toward Draco, and Hermione’s reprimands about how dangerous the Half-Blood Prince is. Thoroughly dejected, he proceeds to Snape’s office for detention on Saturday. However, when he returns to the Gryffindor common room, he finds that Gryffindor has won after all, securing the Quidditch Cup. Ginny runs toward him in celebration, and he kisses her in full view of the entire common room; following an initially thunderstruck Ron’s nod of approval, the two leave for a long walk.