Raising Boys

A blow to the order July 18, 2005

WARNING: Major spoilers

I’ve just finished reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It’s shocking how it ended. A major character dies.

As to the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, it was only near the end when it was revealed. It’s not Harry or Voldemort but this Half-Blood Prince is responsible for the biggest blow delivered ever to Hogwarts or the Order of the Phoenix.

It was a little unsettling to finally learn that the Half-Blood Prince is Severus Snape, who finally got his wish to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts subject in Harry’s sixth year.

Harry got an old book in Potions at the start of class that belonged to the Half-Blood Prince. The instructions written by the Half-Blood Prince on the pages of the book helped Harry become the best in his Potions class, taught by Horace Slughorn.

Harry only knew that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince when he fought his professor at the school grounds. The confrontation happened after Snape killed Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore with the Avada Kedavra curse. Harry, immobilized by Dumbledore and under his invisibility cloak, witnessed everything.

Draco Malfoy played a part in the incident; he let into the school some of Voldemort’s followers, Death Eaters they are called, and they conjured the dark mark over the school as a trap for Dumbledore.

Dumbledore, weakened after an excursion with Harry to find a part of Voldemort’s soul, was killed by Snape after Draco Malfoy, who was tasked to do it, could not go through with it.

I think Snape was forced to do it because he made an Unbreakable Vow with Draco’s mother that he would carry out the deed if Draco failed in the attempt.

Harry said he would not be going back to Hogwarts for his seventh year but would be tracking down all of the split parts of Voldemort’s souls. Harry destroyed one part and Dumbledore another. One other was destroyed by someone known only with the initials R.A.B. One split part remained with Voldemort. Harry has to find and destroy the other three parts before he could hope to kill Voldemort. Ron and Hermione said they would go with him on his mission.