Hogwarts Herald

Chapter Nineteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Elf Tails.” The chapter opens with Fred and George coming to see Ron in the hospital wing. They had been in Hogsmeade checking into buying Zonko’s. The discussion turns to how Ron was poisoned. The theory that Slughorn slipped the poison in and that Harry could have been the target arises. Then they think perhaps someone wanted to kill Slughorn because he refused to become a Death Eater. Then Ginny brings up the point about Harry saying Slughorn meant to give it to Dumbledore and that he might have been the target. Hermione thinks that it is the same person that the necklace that harmed Katie Bell involved in the poisoning and the same target was meant, although both times the items did not reach the intended victims.

After leaving the Weasleys in the hospital wing with Ron, Harry and Hermione talk with Hagrid. He tells them that Dumbledore is worried and the school is at risk of closure with the attempted murders happening against the students. He also lets it slip that Dumbledore is angry with Snape. Hagrid had heard the two arguing about something that Snape not wanting to do something anymore.

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Chapter Eighteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Birthday Surprises.” Harry tells Ron and Herminoe separately (Hermione continues to avoid Ron) about his task of getting the real memory about the Horcruxes from Slughorn. Ron thinks Harry will have not trouble because Harry is Slughorn’s favorite. Hermione thinks that Slughorn is determined to hide the truth since Dumbledore could not get the truth out of Slughorn.

In Potions class Slughorn has each take a vial of potion. They have to identify the potion and determine the antidote. Hermione tells Harry the Prince cannot help him on this task. The Prince seems to be failing to help him as he struggles to figure out the reveal ingredient spell. Harry then reads the list of antidotes and finds mention of a bezoar stone, which Harry’s remembers from Snape’s class that it protects against most poisons.

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Chapter Seventeen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “A Sluggish Memory.” The chapter starts with Harry, Ron, and Ginny in the kitchen at the Burrow getting ready to return to Hogwarts using floo powder through a special connection made to safely return the students to school. The three try to get into Gryffindor’s common room, but they do not know the new password. Hermione then arrives and tells them the new password (abstinence) and says she has something for Harry.

The note is from Dumbledore scheduling their next meeting for the next night. Harry is happy because he has a lot to tell him. He also has lots to tell Hermione, as he had not yet told her about the incident of Snape and Draco. Hermione also thinks that Snape might have just been trying to figure out what Draco was up to. She also is not so sure Draco is working and the your master reference could be his father.

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Chapter sixteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “A Very Frosty Christmas.” While peeling sprouts in the kitchen at the Burrow, Ron keeps asking if Snape was offering to help Draco to make sure he got the story right. Harry asks Ron about what an Unbreakable Vow really is. Ron tells him that if you break the vow you die. Fred and George then come in and give Ron a hard time about having to peel the sprouts with knives and not magic because he is not yet 17. They also tease him about Lavender Brown. Ron gets mad and throws the knife at Fred, who turns it into a paper airplane, right as Mrs. Weasley enters the kitchen.

Back to discussing the situation between Snape and Draco, Ron mentions that he thinks that everyone else will think Snape was not really trying to help Draco, but just find out what he was up to. On Christmas Eve Harry finally gets a chance to tell Mr. Weasley about the incident he oversaw. Mr. Weasley and Lupin both think that Snape was doing as Ron suggested and they trust him because Dumbledore does, although Lupin does not exactly like him because of the past between James and Sirius and Snape.

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Chapter Fifteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The Unbreakable Vow.” This chapter begins by describing Christmas approaching and the Great Hall being decorated with twelve trees. The decorations around the castle include mistletoe. Harry began to have to negotiate mistletoe free routes as groups of girls hung out by the mistletoe as Harry approached trying to get a kiss. Ron laughs at the girls trying to get a kiss from Harry, as he is now in a laughing mood since he has been going out with Lavender Brown. Harry continues to find him stuck between his two friends that are not talking.

Harry takes to going to the library in the evenings to be able to spend time with Hermione. One evening she warns Harry about some girls trying to slip him a love potion. Hermione had heard them talking in the girl’s room. The girls want him to invite one of them to the Slughorn Christmas party the next night. The conversation ends up at Harry’s suspicions about Malfoy when Hermione tells him the Weasley love potions are being snuck disguised as perfumes and cough potions. As Hermione convinces him it is impossible that Malfoy snuck the necklace in, Madam Pince, the librarian, scolds Harry for the writing in his potions book.

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Chapter fourteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Felix Felicis.” On the way to Herbology Harry tells Hermione and Ron about the last lesson with Dumbledore and the latest he had learned about Voldemort’s past. Hermione then shares about Slughorn’s latest Slug Club party, where she met Gwenog Jones (Captain of the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team). Hermione tells Harry that Slughorn is having a special Christmas party for the Slug Club and Harry must attend because Slughorn is awaiting word of what night Harry is available. Hermione says they can bring guests and asks Ron to go with her and Harry thinks about what would happen if the two began to be a couple.

With Katie Bell still at St. Mungo’s Harry must choose a replacement Chaser. He ends up asking Dean Thomas, who did well in the try outs. The whole house thinks he is playing favorites since Dean is in his class. This puts the pressure on for them to win against Slytherin in the upcoming match to prove that he put together a good team. The team seemed to be coming together well, except for Ron, who’s nerves seemed to be getting the better of him.

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Chapter thirteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The Secret Riddle.” Monday night arrives and Harry goes to another lesson with Dumbledore. They briefly discuss the incident with Katie. It turns out she was only minorly cursed because she had a hole in her glove, but she would have died if more of her skin touched it or she had worn the necklace. She was transferred to St. Mungo’s to recover.

In the lesson Dumbledore shows Harry a memory belonging to Caractacus Burke (co-owner of Borkins and Burkes) about giving a woman (Voldemort’s mother) ten Galleons for the Slytherin necklace because the woman was desperate for money with her baby about to be born and did not realize the priceless worth of the necklace. Dumbledore then shares that he thinks Merope used no more magic after Tom Riddle left her and not even to save her own life.

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Chapter twelve of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Silver and Opals.” This chapter opens with Harry reading Advanced Potion Making in his bed waiting for it to be time for the first Hogsmeade trip. In the book he has find many jinxes and hexes that were probably made up by the Half-Blood Prince. One he used on Crabbe to cause his toenails to grow fast. The most useful one Harry had discovered was Muffliato, which made those nearby hear only buzzing so conversations could not be overheard. Harry thinks of the Half-Blood Prince, as being a better teacher than Snape, which ends up being kind of funny when he does end up learning who the Half-Blood Prince really is. He tries the nonverbal spell Levicorpus and ends up making Ron hang upside down as if being held by a hook.

At breakfast Hermione is not pleased to hear that Harry is doing the specials in the book since he does not even know what they do until after he does them. Hermione thinks the Prince was a budding Death Eater, but Harry does not think so because of the half-blood part. Hermione counters with the fact that many of the Death Eaters are half-bloods pretending to be pure because there is not that many pure-bloods left.

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The eleventh chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Hermione’s Helping Hand.” Lessons in their sixth year are proving demanding and challenging even for Hermione. They are struggling to learn to do nonverbal spells. Because they have been busy they have not had time to go see Hagrid, thus they decide to go see him after Quidditch try outs.

While still at breakfast the owls arrive with mail and Harry receives his copy of the potions textbook. He switches the covers to keep the Half-Blood Prince one as his own and to give the new one to Slughorn as the borrowed book. Hermione gets a copy of the Daily Prophet in the mail and the news includes Stan Shunpike, conductor of the Knight Bus, being arrested on suspicion of being a Death Eater.

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The tenth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The House of Gaunt.” Potions classes continue with Harry following the Half-Blood Prince’s instructions and his supposed new talent irritating Ron and Hermione. Harry wonders who the Half-Blood Prince is, but he homework keeps him from thinking about it much. He does however notice that the book also has some spells in the margin that appear to have been made up by the Prince.

Harry goes to have his first lesson with Dumbledore, who informs him that he will serve the detention with Snape next Saturday. Dumbledore explains he is going into the realm of conjecture about what events led Voldemort to try and kill Harry when he was young. In this first lesson Harry and Dumbledore go into a memory of Bob Ogden, who worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

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The ninth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The Half-Blood Prince.” In the common room Harry tells Hermione about the incident with Malfoy on the train and she seems to agree that Malfoy might be a Death Eater or at least on his way to becoming one. Being a prefect she enforces the rules about Weasley joke items by confiscating a Fanged Frisbee.

In the Great Hall after breakfast the class schedules are distributed. Neville wants to take N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration, but his O.W.L. score is not high enough and he settles for Charms. When it is Harry’s turn he is surprised to learn that he can take Potions because Professor Slughorn allows students with Exceed Expectations to take the N.E.W.T. level, which reopens up the option of being an Auror. Ron ends up with all the same classes as Harry.

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The eighth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Snape Victorious.” This episode begins with Harry still on the floor of the train paralyzed under the Invisibility Cloak. He tries to mentally do a spell and summon his wand. The train begins to move and soon after wards Tonks find him and unparalyzes him. They quickly jump onto the platform as the train continues on its way. Tonks mends his nose and has him hide under the cloak as they go to the castle.

When they reach the gate to Hogwarts grounds they must wait for someone to come and let them in, as the protection had been majorly increased. Snape meets them at the gate, although Tonks meant for Hagrid to meet them. Snape takes away house points for Harry’s lateness and still being in Muggle clothing. Despite being late Harry joins his friends in the Great Hall for the feast, although he must deal with stares and whispers of him being the Chosen One.

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The seventh chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The Slug Club.” Harry is still obsessed with trying to figure out what Draco was up to in Knockturn Alley, although Ron and Hermione do not seem to care as much even when Harry comes to the conclusion that Draco must now be a Death Eater. The scenes quickly transition to it being the day to catch the Hogwarts Express.

Again they ride in Ministry of Magic cars. At the train station they are met by two Aurors including one trying to hold Harry’s arm as they go through the portal to Platform 9 3/4. Harry has to find his own place on the train, as Ron and Hermione go to the Prefects’ carriage. Before boarding the train Harry has a private conversation with Mr. Weasley to tell him about what the three saw when they followed Draco to Knockturn Alley.

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The sixth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “Draco’s Detour.” Harry spends the summer holidays at the Burrow playing two on two Quidditch with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. the holidays, especially his birther, have been mared by continued bad news about disappearances and deaths.

Harry learns he is now Gryffindor’s Quidditch Captain when he gets his book list. Mrs. Weasley decides it is time for a trip to Diagon Alley for their school supplies. Ministry of Magic cars charmed to be spacious inside take them to Diagon Alley. Hagrid meets them at the Leaky Cauldron as Harry’s protection. Harry, Ron, and Hermione go wtih him to Madam Malkin’s to get new robes.

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The fifth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “An Excess of Phlegm.” The chapter begins with Harry and Dumbledore being welcomed into the Burrow by Mrs. Weasley and Dumbledore noticing Nymphadora and Tonks in the kitchen. Tonks quickly excuses herself and Dumbledore soon leaves as well. After the took have apparated away Mrs. Weasley comments on how tall Harry is and begins making food for him. As she prepares him soup and bread Harry realizes Hermione is staying at the Burrow because her cat, Crookshanks jumps on his lap.

As he eats Mrs. Weasley tells him about Mr. Weasley getting promoted to head of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. Harry notices the special clock Mrs. Weasley has that points the status of each family member has everyone pointed at mortal danger. It soon changes to Mr. Weasley traveling and he soon arrives home and joins Harry at the table to eat the soup. Harry yawns and Mrs. Weasley sends him up to bed in Fred and George’s room, as they staying at their joke shop in Diagon Alley.

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