Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Half-Blood Prince/Chapter 12
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Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Silver and Opals
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[edit] Synopsis
Harry wonders where Professor Dumbledore is. Despite telling Harry that the lessons would be the most important thing Harry did, he is often away, and there are no additional lessons before the first Hogsmeade weekend in mid-October. On the morning of the Hogsmeade weekend, Harry lies in bed reading the Half-Blood Prince's textbook, which contains some interesting spells. Harry casts a non-verbal one, Levicorpus, and mistakenly levitates a sleeping Ron by his ankle. Harry frantically invokes the counterspell, and Ron falls back into his bed.
When Ron laughingly recounts the levitation experience, Hermione is unamused. This Prince may be a dodgy character, and here is Harry invoking his spells without knowing their effect. Harry recognizes the spell from Snape's memory in the Pensieve as the same one his father once used on Snape. Harry briefly considers that his father was the Half-Blood Prince, but discounts this because James was a pure-blood wizard. Meanwhile, Ginny delivers a note to Harry from Dumbledore, scheduling another lesson for Monday evening. Ginny mentions she is going with Dean and may see them there.
Having been scanned by Filch with Secrecy Sensors, the Trio embark to Hogsmeade. Finding Zonko's joke shop boarded up, Ron suggests Honeyduke's where they run into Professor Slughorn buying his favorite crystallized pineapple. Slughorn extends yet another dinner invitation to Harry and Hermione, for next Monday, which Harry is grateful he can decline due to Dumbledore's lesson.
Ron, disgruntled over being excluded from Slughorn's dinner, is unwilling to suggest where to go next, but agrees to The Three Broomsticks. On the way, Harry encounters Mundungus Fletcher, who is talking to the Hog's Head Inn barman. Harry calls out to Mundungus, who, startled, drops an ancient suitcase that bursts open, spilling its contents. When Ron recognizes a silver goblet bearing the Black family crest, Harry seizes Mundungus by the throat, and accuses him of looting Sirius Black's house. Mundungus blasts Harry away and Disapparates. Tonks appears and says it is useless to hunt for him, but Harry intends to report Mundungus to Dumbledore.
After one Butterbeer apiece in The Three Broomsticks, Hermione suggests heading back to Hogwarts. Ron and Harry agree - this has been an unpleasant outing. They follow Katie Bell and her friend Leanne, who are arguing over a package. Leanne tries to take the package from Katie, but it rips open. Katie, suddenly deathly still, rises six feet into the air, then falls to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain. Harry runs for help. Hagrid arrives and carries Katie back to the school. Harry prevents Ron from touching the package, recognizing a necklace inside as the same one he saw at Borgin & Burkes in Knockturn Alley that bore a label reading, 'Cursed.' Leanne says that Katie was behaving strangely after returning from the toilet carrying a package she insisted she must deliver to someone at Hogwarts. Leanne was trying to take the package away from her when it tore open, and Katie touched it. Leanne suspects Katie was under the Imperius Curse. Harry believes Draco knew about the necklace; he saw it at Borgin & Burkes. Ron says that many people probably saw it, and besides, Katie had been in the washroom. Harry carefully wraps the necklace in his scarf and carries it back to Hogwarts.
Professor McGonagall meets them at the gate. Harry hands the necklace to McGonagall, who orders Filch take it to Professor Snape. In Professor McGonagall's office, Leanne relates what happened, then is sent to the hospital wing. Harry suspects Malfoy was involved, but McGonagall says Draco was doing detention with her. Dismissed, Harry, Ron, and Hermione wonder who the necklace was intended for. With Filch and his Secrecy Sensor, it was unlikely that a package containing anything harmful could be brought into the school that way. They conclude it was a poorly thought-out plan.
[edit] Analysis
The attack on Katie Bell certainly seems to bolster Harry's suspicions that Draco is directly involved in some sinister plot, although, as both Ron and Hermione point out, there is only circumstantial evidence linking Draco to the necklace, and he has an iron-clad alibi. Regardless, Harry remains positive that Draco was behind the attack. While readers can sympathize with Harry, knowing that Draco has been charged with some unknown mission for Voldemort and that it probably is linked to this incident, Harry lacks any objectivity whatsoever. He becomes so single-mindedly convinced that Draco is guilty that he stubbornly refuses to consider other possibilities. Also, the Trio's belief that the attack seemed poorly planned may be more significant than they realize.
Adding to Harry's concerns is Dumbledore's increasingly frequent and unexplained absences. These are disturbing not only for Harry, but also the entire school. Dumbledore is Hogwarts' symbol of authority and security, and his empty chair in the Great Hall may signal that there is greater turmoil in the wizarding world than anyone realized. Harry, in particular, is affected by his absence. Harry still deeply mourns his godfather Sirius' death, and Dumbledore has become even more a father figure to him. When a parent is away, a child often feels abandoned and unprotected, even when left in capable hands.
Harry physically attacking Mundungus shows a rare side to his personality. While Harry is often quick to anger, he normally maintains control and never reacts physically. Still grieving his godfather's death, he is so outraged that Sirius' possessions have been violated that he is overcome by rage. Only an extreme circumstance could have provoked such an outburst. And only Tonks' intervention prevents Harry from inflicting serious harm on Mundungus and possibly facing severe legal consequences.
Harry's hope that the clever Half-Blood Prince could actually be his father may indicate he is looking for even more redeeming qualities in him, although he is quickly forced to discount his own theory. Harry may still be conflicted over his father. Although he loves the man he never knew and knows he was a good and brave person, he was deeply disappointed when he accidentally learned (in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) that the youthful James was once a rather obnoxious bully. James, along with Sirius Black, often tormented and humiliated Severus Snape purely for their own amusement while they were students at Hogwarts. Although Harry now has a better understanding regarding the source of Snape's hostility toward him and his father, it has never lessened his own hatred for Snape.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- Who does Harry think might be the Half-Blood Prince? Why does he want to believe this and what finally makes him discount it?
- Who does Harry attack and why?
- Where has Harry seen the necklace before, and who does he connect with it? What does McGonagall have to say?
[edit] Extra Study
- Why would Harry use an unknown, and potentially lethal, spell on Ron without knowing its effects? What does Hermione have to say? Is she right?
- What might account for Dumbledore's frequent absences? How does it affect Harry?
- Who might have given Katie the package? Why?
- Why was Katie Bell (unknowingly) chosen to smuggle the necklace into Hogwarts if Filch was likely to detect it with his sensors? Was it a poorly though-out plan as Harry, Ron, and Hermione believe it was?
[edit] Greater Picture
Despite Hermione's warning, Harry will continue using the Prince's spells without knowing what they are. Although the one he used on Ron resulted in a humorous, and generally harmless, episode, a different spell that Harry later casts on Draco Malfoy will have a more devastating effect. Snape, who intervenes in time and recognizes the spell, saves Draco's life.
When Harry meets Mundungus Fletcher in Hogsmeade, the Hog's Head Inn barman has apparently just refused something and walked away. It is clear that, having ransacked Sirius/Harry's house, Mundungus is now attempting to sell his spoils and, confronted by Harry, drops a stolen goblet. While it is unknown if any transaction has occured, and the Hog's Head barman's walking away gives the impression that he was uninterested, it is possible that Mundungus had either sold or given him the twin to the two-way mirror that Sirius gave Harry in the previous book. This will turn out to be the case; Mundungus, in this transaction or another, sold the mirror to the barman, who is actually Aberforth Dumbledore, who was told the mirror's function by his brother, Albus. Late in the final book, Aberforth admits he periodically used the mirror to check on Harry. Harry will occasionally catch Aberforth's eye in the mirror, mistaking it for Albus Dumbledore's, which is apparently similar in shape and color.
