SSHARP OWW (was: Gryff the Half Blood Prince)

[boyd_smythe]

No: HPFGUIDX 103326

> Sophierom wrote:
> But maybe the Half Blood Prince is a historical figure,
> namely Godric Gryffindor?
> <lots of snip> <
> Another big problem: so what if Gryffindor is the HBP? What happens 
in
> Book 6 to make a dead founder become a major (or at least title)
> character? Ah, JKR, why won't you finish!!! :-)
> Sophierom

boyd:
My thoughts are heading down a somewhat similar path, Sophierom, with 
one major exception. We have the following information:
1) A Half Blood Prince, neither Harry nor LV, in Book 6
2) Tied to Book 2 (COS) somehow
3) Portions of this story were removed from COS because it was too 
soon to tell us
4) LV hates mixed-bloods
5) LV (Tom Riddle) is muggle-born himself

And one of the recurring threads around here is speculation about the 
Hogwarts Founders, particularly Slytherin and Gryffindor. They are so 
central to the backstory here, yet we know virtually nothing about 
them. To whit: Why did the once-friendly founders part ways? Did Slyth 
start evil or change, and why? Why build the Chamber of Secrets? Why 
did Gryff have a special sword and Phoenix? Why is Tom Riddle/LV 
apparently connected to Slyth (e.g. heir of, parseltongue)? Why is 
Harry apparently connected to Gryff (e.g. appearance of sword and 
Fawkes)?

There's certainly more to this, and I have a theory.

When the Founders established Hogwarts, they were the epitome of all 
that was wizarding in their age. Purebloods going back so many 
generations that they considered themselves a different species, as 
did all wizards of their age. Wizards considered themselves stronger. 
Smarter. Magical. Different and obviously *better*. They would no more 
mix with muggles than they would with apes. And they were equally 
unrelated.

Or so they thought. Then it was discovered that one of their fathers 
was, in fact, a bloody *muggle*. Imagine the horror! His pureblood 
mother not only touched a muggle, but ...! And out of this unspeakably 
unnatural union came Slytherin himself.

When Salazar found out, he was incensed with his mother, with the 
world. He killed her brutally, and much of the wizard world called it 
good. She consorted with vermin, after all, in their minds.

Yet that was not the end of Slytherin's fury. He was filled with 
self-hatred. He, Salazar, a half-blooded freak. He killed his father. 
He discovered that his mother was not the only wizard engaging in 
friendships with muggles, and was determined to eradicate any 
possiblility of such an unnatural union in the future. He became 
completely obsessed and sank into his anger. He killed more and built 
the Chamber of Secrets where he built his plans to cleanse the WW of 
its sins. And these plans included cleansing that must last forever.

Godric, meanwhile, looked at Salazar, remembered his friend as he had 
been, and realized that half bloods were just as powerful, just as 
human. He came to believe that such unions were not unnatural, after 
all. He became a champion for the muggles and half-bloods, and tried 
to save Salazar from himself. In the end, he was forced to wage war 
against Salazar to stop him from wreaking more havoc on the WW and the 
muggle world.

Overmatched by Godric, but still determined to eradicate the plague of 
blood mixing, Salazar launched an insane plan to bring an eventual 
victory. With ancient, dark magics he made himself virtually immortal, 
yet bodiless. To use his powers, he would have to take the body of 
another to use, and whose body would he take from its owner? That of a 
muggle-born, of course. And so he waited in the Chamber of Secrets for 
the one who would be his Heir--the one whose body he would take so he 
could return and cleanse the WW of its half-breed atrocities. One such 
as young Tom Riddle.

And that is why the Chamber of Secrets is so central, why the Founders 
parted ways, why Godric is on Harry's side, and why Salazar Slytherin 
himself is the Half Blood Prince.

Or, as I like to say, Salazar Slytherin Heaves Absolute Racial Purity 
On Wizard World (SSHARP OWW).

--boyd