"Prince" in HBP

[coderaspberry77]

No: HPFGUIDX 106421

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "angellslin" <angellslin at y...> 
wrote:
> When everyone is guessing which boy/man the "Half Blood Prince" is 
> referring, my question is - how come a prince emerges? 
> 
> As far as we know, wizarding world is ruled by Ministry of Magic. 
> There're no king, queen, prince or princess. So what kind of 
prince 
> is this character? How should we understand the term "prince"? 
Should 
> we take it literally as a boy born to a royal family or what 
exactly 
> does it mean? 
> 
> 
> Angel

Hi and all the general introductions, happy to be part of the group!

I've thought a bit about this myself since hearing the title, and my 
speculations go in two directions:

1)  The HB "Prince" is not a prince in the sense that they rule over 
an established dominion or succeed from a line of royalty, but is 
viewed, by one or more groups in the WW, as a "prince" - a 
protector, a leader, a visible, admirable authority figure in whom 
they can place their trust and hopes for the future.  If looked at 
that way, it could be a few people, and there are already a glut of 
posts theorizing that topic :).

2)  The WW used to be run differently, parallel to how the Muggle 
world works/worked - that is, there used to be many more regencies 
around, but that as time went on and the marvels (or lack thereof, 
depending on your leanings) of democracy and other political systems 
were discovered, the whole "King, queen, prince, etc. thing was 
discarded in favor of a government of appointed leaders.  When 
looked at that way, you'd have to go ahead and assume that the HBP 
is someone in the past, and then you get leanings more toward Godric 
Gryffindor, since the MoM has been around for quite some time (I'm 
too lazy to check the wonderful resources here and at HPL for actual 
dates, but I'm sure about the veracity of the statement, anyway).

Of course, it could be someone from a country where there are still 
wizarding kingdoms.  Some wizard from Monaco or something.  Who 
knows?  I'm also not adverse to it not being a half-blood wizard, 
but a half-blood...something.  OK, maybe I have more than two 
theories.  Meh.