How HBP could have interwoven into CoS (Was: Re: Eileen Prince)

[abergoat]

No: HPFGUIDX 156352

Abergoat says:
Here is the address of JKRs comments about the link we are discussing:

http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=56

Dung wrote:
It's personal character information about what Snape
was like at school and his family, it's just not transferable to
another character, and neither is it an important enough plot point
that it doesn't matter who was the HBP, we just need an HBP,
somewhere.

Abergoat adds:
I originally brought up the topic of the HBP being the working title
of the CoS because of speculation that Eileen Prince was involved with
Hagrid's CoS story. I think Hagrid's story was almost completely
removed from the book so Eileen and her son, the half-blood Prince,
went too.

Dung wrote:
I also think that the HBP (since the book was 50 years old) would
have been a red herring suspect for the Heir of Slytherin, and was
replaced with the Draco Malfoy polyjuice escapade.

Abergoat adds:
Nice idea. I am still suspicious that Eileen was involved in finding
the opening to the Chamber of Secrets. As I mentioned earlier, I
imagine it is significant that it is in a girls bathroom. Also, If
Snape inherited his courage from his mother (possible given her
Gobstones notoriety) she may well have been the one to find Myrtle's
body and possibly talk to Myrtle's ghost. This would be how she is
able to confirm to Dumbledore it could not have been Hagrid's pet. An
archnid has black (faceted?) eyes. The eyes described by Moaning
Myrtle were NOT those of a spider.

Carol wrote:
Still, to return to my original comment about not seeing how the HBP
plot could fit into CoS, I don't see how the HBP's Potions text or
DADA text could have been used in a book about Harry's second year.

Abergoat responds:
I'm not sure that any of the HBP plot was in CoS - I got the
impression it was just the title and the 'story' of the half-blood
Prince. 

The pertinent bit from the link I provided is as follows (JKR's words):
'The Half-Blood Prince' might be described as a strand of the overall
plot. That strand could be used in a whole variety of ways and back in
1997 I considered weaving it into the story of 'Chamber'. It really
didn't fit there, though; it was not part of the story of the basilisk
and Riddle's diary, and before long I accepted that it would be better
to do it justice in book six. I clung to the title for a while, even
though all trace of the 'Prince' storyline had disappeared, because I
liked it so much (yes, I really like this title!). I re-christened
book two 'Chamber of Secrets' when I started the second draft.

Abergoat adds:
So the important bit is "'The Half-Blood Prince' might be described as
a strand of the overall plot". The Eileen Prince thread has been
covering the idea that Eileen was involved with Hagrid in CoS, that
Eileen may have been attacked because she had the Ravenclaw relic,
that Snape is trusted by Dumbledore because of his desire for vengance
for his mother and the possibility that even now Eileen may reside in
St. Mungo's and Snape worked with Lily on potions to heal her. If
these are true then the 'half-blood Prince' is most definitely a
strand of the overall plot and was only tangentially related to CoS.
She gave birth to the man (and her memory drives the man) whose
actions led to Harry being marked. 

I still think 'half-blood' is doing double duty. Snape may just be
proud he shared half of Eileen Prince's genes if not her name. So he
may view the 'half-blood' as 'half a Prince' with a nod to his father
thrown in as a clever word play. I suspect the most important part of
that moniker may be his mother. The Ravenclaw relic probably passes
through women so surnames have little meaning. 

Abergoat