CHAPDISC: hbp12, Silver and Opals

[lyraofjordan]

No: HPFGUIDX 149558

CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 
12, Silver and Opals.

The chapter begins with a brief reminder that Dumbledore is 
frequently gone from the school, leading Harry to feel he and his 
lessons have been abandoned.

The day of the first Hogsmeade weekend dawns, and we learn that 
Harry, (like some members of this list) likes to while away his 
Saturday mornings perusing his HBP book, looking for hidden clues. 
The book is filled with a variety of imaginative little spells and 
jinxes that were apparently created by the Prince himself. Harry has 
already tried a few, including Muffliato (which keeps others from 
overhearing a conversation), although Hermione heartily disapproves.

On this day, Harry comes across a scribble that reads: Levicorpus 
(nvbl). He determines that (nvbl) must mean nonverbal, and doubts 
he'll be able to pull off a nonverbal spell, which he is still 
having trouble with in DADA. But, as the narrator points out, the 
Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.

Harry waves his wand, says Levicorpus inside his head, and Ron is 
shockingly hoisted in the air as if by an invisible hook. Harry 
finds the counter-jinx scribbled in the book, lets Ron down, and all 
the boys agree it's been a great laugh. At breakfast they tell 
Hermione, who berates Harry for using spells when he doesn't know 
what they're for, especially handwritten spells that are not 
Ministry-approved. She wonders who'd create such a spell, and Harry 
remembers seeing his father use it in Snape's Pensieve. In fact, he 
wonders if James could be the Prince. Hermione, however, reminds him 
the Death Eaters used it at the Quidditch World Cup. She says she 
doesn't think the Prince was a very nice person, and Harry retorts: 
If he'd been a budding Death Eater, he wouldn't have been boasting 
about being a half-blood. Hermione says she doesn't believe all the 
Death Eaters are purebloods, it's only Muggleborns they have a 
problem with.

After Harry gets a note from Dumbledore, setting the next lesson for 
the following Monday, the trio undergoes a security check as they 
leave the castle and head to Hogsmeade. In the town, they run into 
Slughorn, who wants Harry to attend the next Slug Club meeting, 
which is Monday, but Harry has the handy excuse of a meeting with 
the Headmaster. 

On the way to the Three Broomsticks, the trio see Mundungus and the 
barman from the Hog's Head in conversation on the street. After the 
barman walks away, Mundungus drops the old suitcase he's carrying, 
and a bunch of junk spills forth. Ron picks up a piece and 
recognizes it as a silver goblet from Sirius's house. Harry attacks 
Mundungus, who has apparently stolen some Black family heirlooms 
from Grimmauld Place. Mundungus quickly disapparates, just as Tonks 
shows up and suggests the kids get out of the cold.

In the Three Broomsticks, Harry remembers that Sirius's stuff that 
Mundungus had stolen is actually his (Harry's) stuff as well. After 
noting that Zabini is hanging around and that Madame Rosmerta isn't 
behind the bar, the kids finish their butterbeer and decide to head 
back to school. They're walking behind Katie Bell and her friend 
Leanne when they notice the girls arguing. Suddenly Leanne grabs at 
the package Katie is holding. Katie grabs it back and is launched 
into the air, where she screams and seems in anguish, before falling 
to the ground. Harry runs for help and finds Hagrid, who carries 
Katie up to the castle.

Leanne tells the trio that things started happening when the package 
tore. She points to the ground, where an ornate opal necklace is 
poking out of the brown wrapping. Harry recognizes the necklace as a 
cursed one he'd seen at Borgin and Burkes. Leanne says Katie got it 
in the Three Broomsticks, when she went to the loo. In fact, Leanne 
now deduces Katie must have been Imperiused. 

Harry wraps the necklace in his scarf and they head up to school, 
Harry insisting all the way that Malfoy is behind this event. At 
Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall runs out to meet them, sends the 
necklace to Professor Snape and questions Leanne, who repeats that 
Katie went to the loo at the Three Broomsticks and returned with the 
package, seeming a little odd, and that the girls argued over 
whether it was advisable to agree to deliver an unknown object.  
She's then sent off to the hospital wing to be treated for shock.

Harry asks to see the Headmaster, but he's still away from Hogwarts, 
so Harry hesitantly decides to reveal his suspicions about Malfoy to 
McGonagall. In her best muggle attorney attitude, she cross-examines 
Harry about Malfoy's visit to Borgin and Burkes; says the new 
security measures would have kept such a necklace from entering 
school grounds; and besides, notes that Malfoy wasn't in Hogsmeade 
on this day, as he was doing detention for failure to turn in 
Transfiguration homework. 

Later, Harry and his friends speculate for whom the necklace might 
have been intended. Harry thinks either Dumbledore or Slughorn. 
Hermione suggests Harry could have been the target, too, but Harry 
thinks Katie would have just handed it to him when she noticed he 
was behind her. To his friends' dismay, Harry continues to harp on 
how Malfoy could have accomplished his task, and when the pair point 
out it wasn't a very good plan, anyway, Harry responds, "But since 
when has Malfoy been one of the world's great thinkers?"



Discussion Questions:

1)	In GoF, it says something to the effect of "four years in 
the magical world had taught Harry it wasn't a good idea to stick 
his hand into some unknown magical substance." But by 6th year, 
Harry is willing to try incantations without a clue of what their 
effect will be. Does this change of attitude tell us something about 
Harry? Is he becoming reckless?

2)	After using the Levicorpus spell, Harry is able to find the 
counterspell handwritten in the HBP book. Later, when he uses 
Sectumsempra on Draco, it turns out Snape also knows a countercurse 
for that spell as well (though we don't know if he invented it or 
just learned a spell that heals the cut).  Does the fact that Snape 
apparently creates/learns counterspells to undo his curses give us 
any insight into the man? 

3)	The Levicorpus spell is specifically noted as being 
nonverbal. In DADA class, however, it seems that students are using 
the same spells they learned verbally, but learning to cast them as 
nonverbal spells. Do you think all spells can be cast verbally and 
nonverbally, or are some used only as either verbal or nonverbal? 
Why?

4)	Levicorpus is Harry's first successful nonverbal spell. Why 
do you think he was able to do this one?

5)	Some of the Prince's early jinxes included one to make 
toenails grow fast, one to make the tongue stick to the roof of the 
mouth, and Muffliato. Ron thinks they are the sort of spells Fred 
and George might create; Hermione says they are the work of someone 
who is not a nice person.  Do you think these are typical schoolyard 
hexes, not much different from the bat bogey hex or Ron's 
eat slugs curse, or do they hint at something darker? 

6)	Is there any particular symbolism or meaning to the opal 
necklace (or to opals or necklaces), or is it simply a convenient 
McGuffin?

(Not sure what a McGuffin is? Look here)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuffin
http://sc.essortment.com/alfredhitchcoc_rvhd.htm
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/mcguffin?view=uk


7)	Most of JKR's characters, even those with walk-on parts, 
have a complete name (Mark Evans, Piers Polkiss, and dozens of 
students who have been sorted in the last few years and happily 
taken their place in the Charms Society, Gobstones Club, or whatever 
they do that keeps them from crossing paths with Harry ever again).  
But Katie Bell's friend Leanne gets six pages of center stage, yet 
no last name. Did this bother anyone? Was JKR simply signaling that 
Leanne wasn't really worth bothering with?

8)	In OOTP Sirius says the barman at the Hogs Head threw 
Mundungus out of his bar 20 years ago and has banned him since. That 
seems to suggest some bad blood between the two. Yet Harry sees the 
same two talking on the street in Hogsmeade. What are we to think?

9) Harry is upset at Mundungus for stealing "Sirius's stuff" (or 
more specifically, I think, for violating Sirius's memory) and 
totally forgets it's now his stuff. Does this surprise you? Is 
Harry's almost total lack of interest in material goods (aside from 
international-standard broomsticks) an important element of his 
personality? Will it be important in the future?

10) If Malfoy was in detention, how did the necklace end up at the 
Three Broomsticks?

11) Hermione warns about using "unknown, handwritten spells" that 
aren't "Ministry approved." But just a few chapters ago, she was 
admiring the products at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which are most 
likely not all Ministry approved.  And after her experiences with 
Umbridge and Fudge, it seems Hermione would have suspicions about 
the value of Ministry approval. Is this just a lame excuse she comes 
up with, or is there some validity to her concern about using spells 
that don't bear the MOM stamp of approval? 

12) Harry only reluctantly tells McGonagall about his suspicions 
concerning Malfoy. Why is he less open with her than with 
Dumbledore? Will this be an issue as we move into book 7?

13) Heightened security measures have Filch using the Secrecy Sensor 
on students as they leave the school. Why is Filch checking people 
as they *leave* the school? Is it wise to have a squib doing tasks 
that could put him in contact with magical objects he might not 
recognize or be able to counter or disable? And why is Filch, who 
seemed solidly on Umbridge's side the previous school year, still 
apparently in good graces at Hogwarts? Is this another example of 
Dumbledore trusting people to do the job he's given them, and is 
this a wise move on the Headmaster's part?

(A bouquet of virtual daffodils is on its way to Penapart Elf for 
her help and undying devotion to Chapter Discussions.)

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