CHAPDISC: HBP9, The Half-Blood Prince

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 147731

> >> AyanEva:
> CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,      
> Chapter 9, The Half-Blood Prince

> <massive snip>

Betsy Hp:
Really good discussion questions, AyanEva.  To not retread what 
other posters have said, I'm just going to deal with two questions I 
have some (hopefully) different takes on.
  
> -Slughorn lists two times that he took Felix Felicis: Once when he 
> was twenty-four years old and once when he was fifty-seven. I      
> wonder if these times are significant?

Betsy Hp:
Absolutely wild guess here:  At 24 Slughorn took the Felix Felicis 
and managed to get hired on at Hogwarts as both Potions Master and 
Head of Slytherin house, *the* position for the sort of networking 
that is Slughorn's bead and butter.  At 57 Slughorn took the Felix 
Felicis and managed to either a) help his friend defeat a great Dark 
Lord without risking life and limb (making him about 109 years old) 
or b) retire from teaching without being destroyed by another Dark 
Lord on whom he has far too much intimate knowledge (making him 
about 73 years old).

> -What is the point in calling the chapter HBP? Just to introduce   
> the potions book and tell us it is important? It seems kind of 
> unnecessary and I keep thinking that there must be something else 
> in this chapter that I am missing.

I think it's hugely important that Harry met the young Severus Snape 
without realizing that was who he was meeting.  He found the young 
Snape to be someone he related to (as he does in the pensieve scene 
in OotP, interestingly enough) and someone he could rely on to 
provide clear and useful advice.  Something I believe he's going to 
need to recognize about adult Snape if he has a hope of defeating 
Voldemort.  We also get the anvil dropping of Harry and Snape being 
such similar people.  And I'm sure it's a hint that the "half-blood 
Prince" is Snape.

I really think Snape is going to be *the* challange for Harry in the 
next book.  Harry is going to have to get past his hatred for Snape, 
and he's going to have to see past Snape's rather crusty exterior in 
order to prevail.  Otherwise, I'm afraid that even if Harry *does* 
defeat Voldemort, he'll turn into a man just as or even more bitter 
than Snape is now.

It's interesting because the importance of Snape has been discussed 
many a time on this list, but this is at least the third time Snape 
has had a chapter heading of his very own (the first being "The 
Potions Master" in PS/SS, the second being "Snape Victorious" in 
HBP).  Has any other character received such high billing as many 
times?  Perhaps JKR is giving us a hint. (Oh, and of course, Snape 
gets his own book.  Can't forget that! <g>)

Betsy Hp