BOOK DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[cmere]

“Why are you worrying about YOU-KNOW-WHO, when you should be worrying about YOU-NO-POO? The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation!”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published in 2005. Clocking in at slightly shorter than its predecessor, the book nevertheless contained a wealth of new information for fans. Book Six included new

Comments

[cmere]

In your opinion, what were the most memorable scenes in the book?

[philstar22]

For me the most memorable scenes were the ones with Harry and Dumbledore. Easily the best parts of the book. The pensieve scenes, the cave scene, and the end scene with Dumbledore's death.

[aome]

The Pensieve scenes where we learned more about Tom Riddle's past and about Horcruxes. I. Loved. Those. Best part of the whole book, IMO.

Of course, the scene in the cave with Dumbledore is very memorable, as was Dumbledore's death and funeral. And the bit where Harry took the Felix Felicis.

[drinkingcocoa]

Sectumsempra bathroom. Snape almost singing as he spelled Draco's wounds shut so expertly that there wouldn't even be a scar. The tortured look on his face as he burst into that bathroom where the two scared boys were accidentally almost killing each other.

[woldy]

I found this scene really powerful too, although more for the shock it gives Harry about what he's capable of than for the impact on Snape. For me, this is the moment where he starts to see morality in greyscale rather than a Manichean binary.

[drinkingcocoa]

He didn't even know what it would do, just like Draco didn't know what it would mean when he took the Dark Mark...they're just kids... and that feeling of horror when they see the results and they realize they didn't mean to cause so much harm... I'm just glad both boys have consciences and they have Snape helping them realize that they will set limits from now on about how much they will hurt other people. It's just a blockbuster of a scene and it gets my heart going every time. It's so human of all of them. The vulnerability and the fear and the regret, from all three of them.

[portkey]

This is an awesome insight into how that scene both affects each of those three and highlights aspects of their characters. Nice.

[cmere]

TOTALLY. I remember being just utterly shocked that Harry had done something so horrendously violent to him when before the two had such a stupid schoolboy rivalry in general (pretty nasty but yeah). Obviously Harry didn't know what he was doing but good god.

[drinkingcocoa]

And Draco was about to do even worse. Harry was countering a Crucio from Draco! They didn't know what Sectumsempra would do, but they both knew that Draco had nearly won himself a life sentence in Azkaban!

[moreteadk]

Yes, this. I was shocked at the results of the spell. I was also surprised that this doesn't seem to be causing Harry much trouble with his conscience afterwards, but I suppose he had a lot of other things on his mind.

[drinkingcocoa]

I thought JKR showed the effects on Harry's conscience pretty thoroughly, actually. He was immediately flooded with horror and remorse, so great that not even Snape doubted his sincerity. And then Snape confronted him with absolute knowledge, dragging the image of the HBP's textbook out of his mind, stating starkly that Sectumsempra is Dark Magic, and unlike every other confrontation with Snape, Harry never even dreams of disobeying when Snape says to stay in the bathroom until Snape returns for punishment -- he completely agrees that he did something out of control and is grateful Snape was there to fix things. Plus, this was combined with the sickening feeling of empathy for terrified, weeping Draco that he glimpsed right before Draco tried to cast that equally ill-considered Crucio at Harry. It all just seemed really genuine to me, and then Snape helped Harry by giving him detention every single Saturday so he could neither date Ginny nor play Quidditch. The final assurance that Harry would never use this spell again was when

[kate34books]

The pensieve Scenes and learning about the horcruxes. It was like the puzzle fitted into place and it was great

The Cave Scene

Ron being awesome in quidditch

'Er-My-Oh-Nee'

Remus&Tonks reveal