HBP: Chapter Sixteen

[amanuensis1]

Warning: Do not post any comments here if you have read beyond chapter 16 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

This is the discussion post for Chapter 16 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and for all chapters prior to chapter 16). SPOILERS are expected to be contained in these comments for all of these chapters--though not for

Comments

[nosinabook]

Couldn't Snape have picked up the book second-hand? After all, he seemed not to come from money, judging from the scenes of his childhood in the Pensieve. So the book, despite it's publication date, could still have been Snape's.

Yay for the puppy-shippers!! And could Tonks' new patronus be a large black dog???

[smaragdgrun]

The only other student we know from that time is Hagrid... ?!?!?!?! But he never made it to 6th year Potions...

[isiscolo]

I think the book is even older. I now think the HBP is Dumbledore, which also fits with the speculation that the cover always shows something relevant to the title.

[garillama]

Ooo, that's quite the theory. . .wow. . .that hit my mind in a good way. . .

[isiscolo]

Oh, I just hit the 'fifty years' bit. There goes that theory.

[kerrypolka]

I had a moment of "Oooh, what about LUCIUS MALFOY?", but then I remembered, oh, half-blood.

[elfflame]

Couldn't Snape have picked up the book second-hand? After all, he seemed not to come from money, judging from the scenes of his childhood in the Pensieve. So the book, despite it's publication date, could still have been Snape's.
Works for me.

Does anyone else get the impression that Slug-man gave Harry that specific book on purpose?

[slythwolf]

I totally agree! It's all part of his master plan to add Harry to his collection. Or his evil master plan to gain Harry's trust of the book and then teach him to make a potion or do a spell that kills him instantly. You know, depending.

[elfflame]

Oh my! The information in this chapter!! Another hint for us Sirius/Remus shippers. Background information on Remus.
Oh, I know... Seeing him looking sadly into the fire? How is he not mourning for Sirius? And we have the name of the wolf who bit him. And he wasn't bitten on accident. O_O

[fitchersvogel]

My votes are on Slughorn. We don't know anything about his writing style, and he gave Harry the book - it can't have been coincidence!
Well, we'll see...

[slythwolf]

But didn't Slughorn start teaching at the same time as Dumbledore? Which, wouldn't that mean he was a teacher fifty years ago, and therefore not a student?

But if I misread something back in chapter, what, three, I think this is a definite possibility.

[e_dork]

I don't necessarily think the book was Slughorn's but if you want an explaination for how it could be...don't teachers need copies of the books they're teaching from too?

[whitealchemist]

I'm still voting for Snape, because we DO know his writing style, and it matches... during the OWL exam Harry saw in the Pensieve he's watching Snape write his essay and notices that he's written so much more than anyone else even though his writing is "small and cramped"...