Harry and the Half-Blood Prince, Part One

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 142017

Julie:
> This has got me to thinking exactly how the Half-Blood Prince
> plot fit into book Two originally. The time seems wrong to reveal
> an unexpected communion between Harry and the HBP, as 
> Harry and Snape haven't yet built up the *truly* antagonistic 
> relationship that is in full bloom by the beginning of HBP. <snip>

> I think the HPB must have figured very differently in Book 2, 
> though I'm not sure how. As it is in Book 6, it doesn't fit.  I 
> have considered whether *Tom Riddle* might have originally been
> the Half-Blood Prince, considering his ancestry is very similar
> to Snape's. Additionally, Tom thinks he's *that* much better than
> everyone else, and he could consider his direct descendancy
> from Salazar Slytherin to indicate a sort of royal status. 

Jen: I do have a theory about this, one that keeps growing in the 
telling. Some of this is speculative, yet grounded in the canon we 
have so far. 

If the HBP storyline had remained in COS, I think the story would 
have contained at least cursory information about Snape's 
background, his family and possibly his reasons for joining the 
DE's/defecting from Voldemort (that part could have waited though, 
and only clues to Snape's family were the important part). Basically 
I'm saying JKR wouldn't have used the potion book so extensively in 
COS, but as a parallel to, or even a red herring for, the Diary.

"Fifty years ago" so far means the general time Riddle was at 
Hogwarts, and the theory starts there. Hermione guessed the potion 
book belonged to Eileen Prince 50 years prior, which would make 
Eileen a Slytherin student during the time Riddle & Hagrid were in 
school (and a couple of years after McGonagall started). I say she 
was in Slytherin based on the family connection, but also because 
the theory works better that way :).

So Eileen and Riddle had at least a passing knowledge of each other, 
but Eileen didn't share Riddle's pure-blood fanaticism or join his 
gang, the forerunners to the DE's (A Sluggish Memory). Eileen went 
on her way to marry Tobias Snape and have Severus, and Tom went on 
his quest for immortality. 

Now here's where we move into most of the 'guesswork and 
speculation' as DD would call it. Suppose when LV started gaining 
power in the first war, Eileen remembered Riddle was known as Lord 
Voldemort at Hogwarts. She remembered his interest in dark arts, the 
strange events during her years at Hogwarts and even warned Severus 
about LV. Perhaps a young & rebellious Snape idealized the idea of 
Voldemort though, as the most proficient dark arts expert in the 
world, and he was one of those people who didn't realize "what 
{Voldemort} was prepared to do to get power." (OOTP chap.6, p.112, 
scholastic) Snape, halfway seriously/halfway cynically, chose the 
HBP title, mainly because of his interest in Voldemort's dark magic 
expertise. A bit of hero-worship in other words.

Now we know Draco was recruited as punishment for Lucius' failure, 
and that Fenrir bites children to punish the parents, so it's 
certainly *possible* Snape was recruited as punishment to Eileen-the-
pureblood for marrying a Muggle. (Not only Voldemort, but the DE's 
from his school gang could have remembered her, and it was public 
knowledge she married Tobias). Once Snape was an official DE though, 
Voldemort decided to go a step further expecting Severus wouldn't 
disobey him once he received the Dark Mark. Either Severus was asked 
to kill one or both parents, or he knew of the plot to kill them, 
but that's the point at which Snape turned and asked Dumbledore for 
help in exchange for saving at least his mom.

So Eileen could be Irma Pince, as people have speculated, the 
witness protection participant we're waiting to see after DD offered 
to hide Draco and Narcissa. Or perhaps Snape turned to Dumbledore 
too late, and his parents were killed, leading him to be completely 
anti-Voldemort if not quite pro-Dumbledore yet. Both ideas have some 
long-run difficulties, as in once Eileen was either safe or dead, 
why would that keep Snape attached to Dumbledore? Overall though, I 
think this theory can provide some clues for why Snape entered, then 
left, Voldemort's service.

So what do yout think Julie, or anyone else? 

Jen, wondering if this JKR sentence was a little poke at 
fandom: "..but the mouth organ was only ever a mouth organ." (The 
Secret Riddle)