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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Discussion *Spoiler Alert*

I seem to have finished at last.What have I missed here?

Am I the only one to think that her next book wont be the last ?? How is Harry suppose to find the remaining four horcruxes in a short-time span?

The twist,snape killing DD,was not satisfactory. Dumbledore,the great wizrd.The only one Vold. fears of'must have had his reason to belive in Snape so much.And As Pro.McGonagall said : "Would'nt hear a word against him".Its just , undigestble.

All in all,another great one from Rowling.
 
Snape is one of the few characters I like in this book and I don't really think he is a bad guy. I think Dumbledore was seing that he couldn't do much good anymore because he was getting weak and made a plan with Snape in order to get Snape into the complete trust of the Death Eaters. This could be to find out where the last Horcruxes are and what Voldemort is up to.

Why does Voldemort hide the very important Horcruxes in very obvious places, why shouldn't he just throw it somewhere at random almost? Why not place a trap that will let him know if someone tries to take one of them?

I thought at some point that Dumbledore was trying to say that Harry was one of the Horcruxes, made by accident when he tried to kill him. Does really fit in the story, but it would have been fun since it would require the death of both Harry and Voldemort.

What happens if two people competing use a luck potion at the same time?

I think there seems to be a lot of holes in the story and things that doesn't seem to fit. I can't really remember the previous 5 books very well since it's a long time since I've read them, but I think she needs to read them before she writes the next one.
Was I the only one to whom it seemed that the children had actually backtracked in growing up? They seemed to be younger now that in the last one.
It also seemed to be more like two different stories. One about the Half-blood prince which didn't seem very important, and one about Voldemort's past.

I think it would be completely ridiculous if Harry is able to defeat Voldemort by himself in the next book. He couldn't even make Snape break a sweat. And if the end theme is going to be something like "love conquers all" then I think I'll find JKR and kick her ass.
 
hay82 said:
What happens if two people competing use a luck potion at the same time?
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I thought that the idea of a luck potion was pretty dodge too.. when i was reading it I was rolling my eyes because it's so unlikely that something this useful was not mentioned /at all/ until now. Why did the Death Eaters not use this when they were fighting in Hogwarts too? I mean if they are going in to find and kill Dumbledore - who's only the greatest wizard alive - they are going to need all the luck they can get.

hay82 said:
I think there seems to be a lot of holes in the story and things that doesn't seem to fit. I can't really remember the previous 5 books very well since it's a long time since I've read them, but I think she needs to read them before she writes the next one.
Was I the only one to whom it seemed that the children had actually backtracked in growing up? They seemed to be younger now that in the last one.
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Yeah I thought this too, but I wasn't /that/ dissapointed. I actually found Harry to be very annoying in the last one because of his whining, and although I know it helps enhance the "believeability" of the characters, I can't say that I miss it.
 
[hay82 said:
Why does Voldemort hide the very important Horcruxes in very obvious places, why shouldn't he just throw it somewhere at random almost? Why not place a trap that will let him know if someone tries to take one of them?
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What horcruxe did he hid in an obvious place? Dumbledore was spending a lot of time trying to find them all and only managed to find two.

[hay82 said:
I think there seems to be a lot of holes in the story and things that doesn't seem to fit. I can't really remember the previous 5 books very well since it's a long time since I've read them, but I think she needs to read them before she writes the next one.
Was I the only one to whom it seemed that the children had actually backtracked in growing up? They seemed to be younger now that in the last one.
It also seemed to be more like two different stories. One about the Half-blood prince which didn't seem very important, and one about Voldemort's past.
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You're not the first person to say this. This would make an interesting discussion if you care to expound.
 
I nearly cried when Dumbledore died: This is the first Harry Potter book that has affected me in such a way. I actually found myself getting nervous towards the end of the book; either JKR was writing exceptionally well or I have become pathetic. I was shocked that Snape actually killed Dumbledore, I was still expecting Malfoy to do it, but I did guess at the beginning that Dumbledore would die.

I expected the Half-Blood Prince to be Voldemort. That showed me :p

The Harry Potter books have become a guilty pleasure for me now.
 
I thought this book was truly excellent! By far my favourite so far...

Just a few things.. When Hermione was listing the wizards she had found with the initials R.A.B. she didn't mention Regulus Black, which is strange being as they lived with the guy's brother for a whole summer. I mean, wouldn't that be the first one to spring to mind? So I'm guessing it is him...

And Dumbledore's death - my God! I truly didn't think she'd be able to do it. She's mentioned a couple of times that she had difficulty killing off these characters that she's become so close to. Very shocking and very moving.

I don't think Snape's evil. The Unbreakable Vow was enough for me to start wondering.

Did anyone else actually kind of like the fact Draco Malfoy was struggling with his task? I would like to see more of that moment of....mercy? cowardice? What do you think was the motivation?

Didn't even think about the Vanishing Cabinets as a method for getting in the school! Love the fact that Rowling brought back an element from an earlier book to explain it.

Just a few thoughts to kick me off. I'm getting ready for a re-read this weekend - read it first time through far too fast.
 
First of all, I hope people are aware that Scout, not IceBlueWater, was the one to state:
I believe that the arguement between DD and Snapes that Hagrid overheard was Snape telling DD that he didn't want to kill him and DD telling him he had to. Also, when DD was pleading with Snape at the end, it was to kill him. Plus, Snape at the end didn't hurt Harry in their fight until he lost his temper for being called a coward. He only blocked Harrys spells and basicallytold him how to defeat Voldemort. Close your mind, etc. I think he was giving him instructions.
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I think this is significant evidence that Snape is continuing to be the most extraordinary character in fantasy since Gollum. Indeed, it makes sense of the way he fought Harry. Snape has never given Harry a reason to like him because his role of ultimate Mole wouldn't allow it and enough real and personal reasons have also arisen in their relationship to support this. One of the sore points of OOTP for me was Harry's lack of sympathy for Snape's treatment at the hands of his father.

OTOH, Harry has seen Malfoy's weakness and felt pity for him, so perhaps there's still a chance that he can come around to seeing Snape's true role in the matter.

Agree with the RAB theory and that alone is why it was important for DD and H to have gone to recover the fake horcrux.

Loved this book, the economy in Jo's storytelling was refreshing and the humor was excellent. Not sure she's done with Hogwarts, either.
 
One thing I've been thinking about the title. While the Half Blood Prince itself doesn't seem like a large part of the story, the Half Blood Prince is Snape who has been the focus of a lot of debate and speculation. It isn't like she could have named the book Harry Potter and Snape, but that is essentially what the book is about. I know Dumbledore factors in greatly, but I think the reaction to his death is mostly about how he died, not the fact that he died and we are back to Snape.
 
I think that it is interesting how Rowling led to Dumbledore's death, what it came down to was would Snape allow for himself to die or Dumbledore?

As strange as it may sound, I think that Snape is still on Dumbledore's side. By killing Dumbledore he kept the unbreakable vow which would have killed Snape himself, had he not killed Dumbledore. I think that Snape was struggling greatly with what to do when he was ultimately faced with the task of killing Dumbledore. Snape kept himself alive over Dumbledore so he could continue to work as a double agent (possibly). Snape realized that if he didn't kill Dumbledore, the onlooking Death Eaters would, and then Snape would also die still because he would have broken the third part of the unbreakable vow. Snape shows that he is remorsful for killing Dumbledore (again, this is all my opinion) by only blocking Harry's spells and not retaliating against Harry. Snape loses his temper when Harry calls him a coward. I wonder why he reacts so strongly? Maybe because he realizes, that by killing Dumbledore he acted cowardly because he was not willing to die in Dumbledore's place.

Is the sole reason for Dumbledore's trust in Snape because he showed remorse for James and Lily's death? I think there must be more to it than that. Dumbledore is not foolish enough to trust Snape on that alone, but maybe again, it is just an old man's mistake.

I wonder who stole the true horacrox? and if Harry will truely not return to school next year accompanied by Hermione and Ron. In the end, I think that Snape will turn back again and come to their (Hermione, Ron and Harry's) aid when they need him.
 
h_carnahan said:
Is the sole reason for Dumbledore's trust in Snape because he showed remorse for James and Lily's death? I think there must be more to it than that. Dumbledore is not foolish enough to trust Snape on that alone, but maybe again, it is just an old man's mistake.
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I agree with this. I think there has to be much more than just Snape's remorse behind the reason that Dumbledore trusted him again. Harry may think he knows the whole reason, but I don't think I do.
 
on mugglenet.com it had said of the things that we would find out in book 6 is why it is important that Harry has Lily's eyes. was it soley to remind Slughorn of Lily, and to make it easier for Harry to obtain the untampered memory? If Slughorn knew the importance of the untampered memory I don't understand why he didn't come forth with it. Why wait for Dumbledore to track him down?

One thing that I think Rowling did poorly in the HBP was show Dumbledore's aging. It seemed that in the past books he was aging but not acting old or feeling it, until this book. I mean, Voldermort has been back for 2 (maybe 3 depending how you count) years, and Dumbledore doesn't start to have problems until this year? that doesn't make sense.
 
h_carnahan said:
on mugglenet.com it had said of the things that we would find out in book 6 is why it is important that Harry has Lily's eyes.
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Everything I have seen on Lily's eyes have pointed to the answer appearing in book 7. But I do think that JKR has started working Lily in a little more in this book.
 
Worm said:
but how is harry gonna find those four things in one title ??
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Good question, Worm. I don't think he's smart enough to find them all on his own. One of the reasons I believe he won't go at it alone.
 
Robert said:
One of the reasons I believe he won't go at it alone.
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Obviously he wont.Hadnt he had help in all the previous encounters.But now,without Dumbledore,how would he manage to get to them? And how much Dumbledore's potrait could help him ?If he goes to hogwarts.
 
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