Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Ch 17-19

Harry Potter and the First Time Readers

Chapter 17 - A Sluggish Memory

Q1 - At the beginning of this chapter, Harry gives Hermione the details about what happened with Malfoy…do you have any other theories or thoughts on that?

• ‘He accused me of being “Dumbledore’s man through and through”.’ ‘How very rude of him.’ ‘I told him I was.’ Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Behind Harry, Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. To Harry’s intense embarrassment, he suddenly realized that Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knees. When Dumbledore spoke, however, his voice was quite steady. ‘I am very touched, Harry.’
• ‘So they still don’t know where you go?’ asked Harry, hoping for more information on this intriguing subject, but Dumbledore merely smiled over the top of his half-moon spectacles. ‘No, they don’t, and the time is not quite right for you to know, either. Now, I suggest we press on, unless there’s anything else –?’

Q2 - Where does Dumbledore go?

• Dumbledore listened to Harry’s story with an impassive face. When Harry had finished he did not speak for a few moments, then said, ‘Thank you for telling me this, Harry, but I suggest that you put it out of your mind. I do not think that it is of great importance.’ ‘Not of great importance?’ repeated Harry incredulously. ‘Professor, did you understand –?’ ‘Yes, Harry, blessed as I am with extraordinary brainpower, I understood everything you told me,’ said Dumbledore, a little sharply. ‘I think you might even consider the possibility that I understood more than you did. Again, I am glad that you have confided in me, but let me reassure you that you have not told me anything that causes me disquiet.’

Q3 - Why doesn’t this bother Dumbledore?

• I believe that it was then that he dropped the name for ever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother’s family – the woman whom, you will remember, he had thought could not be a witch if she had succumbed to the shameful human weakness of death.
• ‘We have no memories to show us this, but I think we can be fairly sure what happened. Voldemort Stupefied his uncle, took his wand, and proceeded across the valley to “the big house over the way”. There he murdered the Muggle man who had abandoned his witch mother, and, for good measure, his Muggle grandparents, thus obliterating the last of the unworthy Riddle line and revenging himself upon the father who never wanted him. Then he returned to the Gaunt hovel, performed the complex bit of magic that would implant a false memory in his uncle’s mind, laid Morfin’s wand beside its unconscious owner, pocketed the ancient ring he wore and departed.’
• They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish, gravitating towards a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts.

Q4 - What do you think about this memory and Voldermort’s power?

• Dumbledore took from an inside pocket another crystal phial and Harry fell silent at once, remembering that Dumbledore had said it was the most important one he had collected. Harry noticed that the contents proved difficult to empty into the Pensieve, as though they had congealed slightly; did memories go off?

Q5 - Do memories go bad?

• As several of the boys tittered, something very odd happened. The whole room was suddenly filled with a thick white fog, so that Harry could see nothing but the face of Dumbledore, who was standing beside him. Then Slughorn’s voice rang out through the mist, unnaturally loudly: ‘– you’ll go wrong, boy, mark my words.’

Q6 - What happened here?

• ‘Look sharp, Tom,’ said Slughorn, turning round and finding him still present. ‘You don’t want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and you a prefect …’ ‘Sir, I wanted to ask you something.’ ‘Ask away, then, m’boy, ask away …’ ‘Sir, I wondered what you know about … about Horcruxes?’ And it happened all over again: the dense fog filled the room so that Harry could not see Slughorn or Riddle at all; only Dumbledore, smiling serenely beside him. Then Slughorn’s voice boomed out again, just as it had done before. ‘I don’t know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn’t tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don’t let me catch you mentioning them again!’

Q7 - What are Horcruxes?

• ‘And so, for the first time, I am giving you homework, Harry. It will be your job to persuade Professor Slughorn to divulge the real memory, which will undoubtedly be our most crucial piece of information of all.’

Q8 - What is going on here? Why is this important?

Chapter 18 - Birthday Surprises

Q1 - Do you think Dumbledore doesn’t know what Horcruxes are?

• Harry dawdled behind, taking an inordinate amount of time to do up his bag. Neither Ron nor Hermione wished him luck as they left; both looked rather annoyed. At last Harry and Slughorn were the only two left in the room.

Q2 - This obviously doesn’t work, but how do you think Harry will get the memory?

• “of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction”

Q3 - What is this dark magic?

• The second attempt was no better than the first. The third was just as bad. Not until the fourth did anything exciting happen. There was a horrible screech of pain and everybody looked around, terrified, to see Susan Bones of Hufflepuff wobbling in her hoop with her left leg still standing five feet away where she had started.

Q4 - What would your preferred mode of wizard transportation be?

Q5 - Where is Malfoy going? Is he really going off campus?

• ‘Harry!’ said Ron suddenly. ‘What?’ ‘Harry, I can’t stand it!’ ‘You can’t stand what?’ asked Harry, now starting to feel definitely alarmed. Ron was rather pale and looked as though he was about to be sick. ‘I can’t stop thinking about her!’ said Ron hoarsely. Harry gaped at him. He had not expected this and was not sure he wanted to hear it. Friends they might be, but if Ron started calling Lavender ‘Lav-Lav’, he would have to put his foot down.

Q6 - What do you think of the whole love potion thing?

Q7 - Can you imagine if Ron died here?

Chapter 19 - Elf Tales

• ‘So, all in all, not one of Ron’s better birthdays?’ said Fred.
• Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened, she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny’s obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see him.

Q1 - What is Hermione feeling?

Q2 - What is the deal with these two failed attempts at danger?

• ‘I dunno, Harry, I shouldn’ta heard it at all! I – well, I was comin’ outta the Forest the other evenin’ an’ I overheard ’em talkin’ – well, arguin’. Didn’t like ter draw attention to meself, so I sorta skulked an’ tried not ter listen, but it was a – well, a heated discussion, an’ it wasn’ easy ter block it out.’ ‘Well?’ Harry urged him, as Hagrid shuffled his enormous feet uneasily. ‘Well – I jus’ heard Snape sayin’ Dumbledore took too much fer granted an’ maybe he – Snape – didn’ wan’ ter do it any more –’ ‘Do what?’ ‘I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin’ a bit overworked, tha’s all – anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he’d agreed ter do it an’ that was all there was to it. Pretty firm with him. An’ then he said summat abou’ Snape makin’ investigations in his house, in Slytherin. Well, there’s nothin’ strange abou’ that!’ Hagrid added hastily, as Harry and Hermione exchanged looks full of meaning. ‘All the Heads o’ House were asked ter look inter that necklace business –’

Q3 - What is this conversation about?

• Harry added, getting to his feet and picking up his Firebolt, ‘will you stop pretending to be asleep when Lavender comes to see you? She’s driving me mad as well.’ ‘Oh,’ said Ron, looking sheepish. ‘Yeah. All right.’ ‘If you don’t want to go out with her any more, just tell her,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah … well … it’s not that easy, is it?’ said Ron. He paused. ‘Hermione going to look in before the match?’ he added casually.
• He hurried down through the deserted corridors; the whole school was outside, either already seated in the stadium or heading down towards it. He was looking out of the windows he passed, trying to gauge how much wind they were facing, when a noise ahead made him glance up and he saw Malfoy walking towards him, accompanied by two girls, both of whom looked sulky and resentful.

Q4 - What is Draco up to?

Q5 - How do you like Luna’s coverage of the match?

• ‘Dobby is a free house-elf and he can obey anyone he likes and Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter wants him to do!’ said Dobby, tears now streaming down his shriveled little face on to his jumper.

Q6 - What do you think of Dobby now?