The book opens with Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy going to see Severus Snape about Draco whom the Dark Lord has asked to do something dangerous that could get him killed. Narcissa asks him to make the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco with his life and to complete Draco's task if he can't complete it himself. Snape makes the Vow which is quite binding and breaking the vow carries lethal consequences.
Draco's attitude and the way he wanted to hide his arm when he was getting dress robes and he was acting mysteriously in Borgin and Burkes demanding that something is fixed and that he held something for him. When Hermione goes in to find out what it might be she gets nowhere. But on the train to Hogwarts Harry uses his invisibility cloak to hide inside Draco's compartment and overhear what he has to say which is that he has no plans to go to school next year and barely sees the reason for going this year. But Draco knows that Harry is there and freezes him while no one is on the train hoping that he will stay on the train until it reaches its final destination, but Tonks is watching for him and saves him.
Over the summer Dumbledore asked Harry to come with him to Budleigh Babberton to visit Horace Slughorn a man he hopes to convince to teach Potions at Hogwarts. He has no interest, but Slughorn was always one to "collect" students who went on to become famous and powerful wizards and witches and Harry would be quite a "get" for his collection so he agrees to come back to Hogwarts. On the train ride back to Hogwarts he asks certain witches and wizards to come to his compartment. These are students who have family who is connected or in Ginny's case performed a particularly good hex. And thus, the Slug Club is formed. Hermione will be asked to join due to her brilliance in class. Ron, of course, is jealous of this, though Harry would rather not go at all himself and plans Quidditch practices around meetings so he doesn't have to go, as he is Team Captain this year.
Since Harry did not think he would be taking Potions this year since Snape insists on Outstanding on O.W.L.S. for his students Harry didn't buy any Potions materials or books not knowing that he would be taking the class. Slughorn tells him and Ron, who is also taking the class now too, to take two textbooks from the secondhand supply closet. In Harry's copy, it is written: "This is the property of the Half-Blood Prince". Also, in the margins of the book are improvements to the potions recipes that makes his results better than even Hermione's, which means that she thinks he needs to get rid of the book and of course he doesn't want to.
Meanwhile, he is spending time with Dumbledore in the pensive, looking at memories he has managed to procure concerning Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort. They visit a memory of a Ministry of Magic employee and his interaction with Tom Riddle's mother, uncle, and grandfather. His grandfather had a ring and his mother had a necklace that had belonged to Salazar Slytherin. In the next memory, Dumbledore is coming to the orphanage to where Tom Riddle ended up after his mother died and his father left his mother after the love enchantment was lifted. There he finds a kid who has discovered that he can hurt people and therefore convince them to do what he wants them to do.
The memory that is really disturbing Dumbledore is Slughorn's memory of Tom Riddle where Tom asks him about Horcruxes and Slughorn refuses to tell him anything, but the memory has been tampered with. Dumbledore believes that Slughorn answered his questions and he needs Harry to get the memory from Slughorn. Harry, however, is obsessed with following around Malfoy, especially after Katie Bell is hit with the Imperius Curse and given a cursed necklace that she accidentally touches before giving it to who she was supposed to which was Dumbledore. Katie is injured greatly but lives.
Hermione and Ron circle each other as though they like each other and Hermione is about to ask Ron to the Slug Club Christmas party until Ron acts like a jerk. Then Ron does well at the first Quidditch match against Slytherin and suddenly Lavender Brown is interested in him and the two start kissing all over the place, much to Hermione's heartbreak. But she's not the only one experiencing heartbreak. Harry has finally noticed Ginny and she's dating Dean Thomas. Not to mention the fact that she's his best friend's sister and Ron might not like him dating her. He certainly hasn't liked any of the guys dating her so far.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Malfoy is trying to kill Dumbledore. Harry even suspects that he's behind the necklace attack somehow. In this book, Harry becomes so obsessed with what Malfoy is up to he ignores what Dumbledore has asked him to do which is to get the Horcrux memory which Dumbledore says is very important. Instead, he's chasing after Malfoy on the Maurader's Map and having no success there because he is disappearing off of the map for periods of time. Where is he going? What is he doing?
This book is excellent in that you wonder who the Half-Blood Prince is because you know it has to be something important. Also, you wonder if Malfoy will succeed in killing Dumbledore and if he doesn't what that means for Snape. This is an important book in that Harry is being asked to do something difficult from Dumbledore. Also, he is trusting a book that he knows nothing about that can be quite dangerous. And while his obsession with Malfoy would be well founded, it interfered with something important that Dumbledore needed from him and that could have proved detrimental. This was an exciting book that really kept you turning the pages. Harry grows a lot in this book. By the end, he becomes the young man who needs to face what he needs to face. Ron also grows up a great deal. Hermione is as ever grown up and the adult of the three. But then girls mature faster than boys. Ginny's matured herself into quite the wise young woman. I really loved this book and give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
I enjoyed the meetings too. It was like having friends.-J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince p 138)
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ReplyDeleteConfession - I threw this book while reading it in my lab at work (where apparently I read many many books at work). A co-worker knew instantly which book I was reading as his daughter had thrown her copy against her bedroom door
ReplyDeleteThis book is one of my favorites of the series. Though it is sad at the end. I didn't throw it. I just quietly closed it and cried on the inside.
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