CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152046

CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter
15, The Unbreakable Vow.

As the chapter begins, Hogwarts is being decorated for Christmas.
Enormously popular as both a Quidditch champion and the Chosen One,
Harry resorts to secret passageways to avoid the girls trying to
ambush him under the mistletoe.

Ron, now enjoying the attentions of Lavender Brown, finds Harry's
predicament hilarious. However, he is still refusing to speak to
Hermione because she ostensibly "snogged" Viktor Krum two years
before, and he still bears the scratches from her conjured birds.
Hermione, who doesn't seem to know what she's done to offend Ron,
refuses to study in the common room while he and Lavender wind around
each other like grapevines. Determined to remain friends with both Ron
and Hermione, Harry listens silently and separately as they complain
about each other.

As Harry eagerly deciphers the Half-Blood Prince's marginal notes on
Everlasting Elixirs, Hermione warns him to be careful. Harry retorts
that he's learned more from the Prince than from either Snape or
Slughorn. But Hermione's warning has nothing to do with the Prince.
She informs Harry that a group of girls, including Romilda Vane, is
plotting to slip him a love potion so he'll invite one of them to
Slughorn's Christmas party. When Harry asks how the potions can be
smuggled into the school despite the new precautions, Hermione
explains that they're not Dark or dangerous, so they wouldn't be
detected by Filch's secrecy sensors, adding that Weasleys' Wizard
Wheezes love potions disguised as perfumes or cough potions would
probably fool Filch.

They hear a noise behind the bookshelves, and Madam Pince appears to
inform them that the library is closed. Seeing Harry's book, which the
Prince has "desecrated" with his notes and cross-outs, she lunges for
it, but Harry snatches it from her grasp. As he and Hermione walk back
to the common room, Harry wonders whether Madam Pince was upset
because Hermione insulted Filch and suggests that Pince and Filch are
secretly in love.

As they enter the common room, Romilda offers Harry a gillywater,
which he refuses, then thrusts a box of chocolate cauldrons at him,
saying that she doesn't want them because they're filled with
firewhiskey. At a loss how to decline this offer, he clumsily accepts
the chocolates. Hermione starts to give him an "I told you so"
lecture, but seeing Ron and Lavender snogging again, she abruptly
leaves the room. Harry goes to bed hoping that being apart for the
holidays will give Ron and Hermione time to calm down.

In Transfiguration the next day, they attempt in front of mirrors to
change the color of their eyebrows. Ron sprouts a handlebar mustache
at which Hermione laughs unkindly, and Ron retaliates by imitating
Hermione bobbing eagerly in her seat with her hand up. Lavender and
Parvati laugh, and Hermione runs from the classroom almost crying.
Harry finds her emerging from a girls' bathroom accompanied by Luna
Lovegood.

After Hermione leaves, Luna explains that Hermione is unhappy about
"that Ron Weasley." As she states that Ron can be both "very funny"
and "a bit unkind," Harry notes Luna's knack for "speaking
uncomfortable truths." After she confides that she's been rather
lonely without the D.A., Harry invites her to go to Slughorn's party
with him "just as friends."

At dinner, while Ron is snogging Lavender, Harry and Parvati talk
about her parents' decision to let her stay at Hogwarts despite the
attack on Katie Bell. Hermione informs them that she's meeting Cormac
McLaggen, and Ron pulls back from kissing Lavender. Parvati notes that
Hermione likes Quidditch players, and Hermione responds that she likes
*really good* Quidditch players. As she leaves, Parvati and Lavender
begin gossiping about her and Cormac. Ron stares blankly, and Harry
ponders "the depths to which girls [will] sink to get revenge."

On his way to the party, Harry encounters a large group of girls, all
staring at him as he walks toward Luna, who is dressed in silver
spangles but without her radish earrings and butterbeer cork necklace.
As they walk toward Slughorn's office, he informs her that a Vampire
will be coming and she asks if it's Rufus Scrimgeour.

Slughorn's office, apparently magically enlarged, is brightly
decorated. Music is playing and house-elves are making their way
through the crowd bearing trays of food. Slughorn greets Harry and
introduces him to an author named Eldred Worple and his friend
Sanguini, a bored-looking Vampire. Worple offers to write Harry's
biography, but Harry declines.

Spotting a disheveled-looking Hermione, he leaves Worple to talk to
her. She tells him that she's just "escaped" from Cormac. Harry says
that it serves her right for coming with him. She confesses that she
chose Cormac to annoy Ron but had also considered inviting Zacharias
Smith, an idea that Harry finds revolting.

As Luna talks with Professor Trelawney, who smells of cooking sherry
and complains about having to share classes with "Dobbin" (Firenze),
Harry asks Hermione whether she intends to tell Ron that she confunded
McLaggen and Hermione says that she wouldn't do that. As Cormac
appears and Hermione runs off, Trelawney notices Harry for the first
time. She tells him that the omens relating to him were never good and
that for him of all people, Divination is crucial.

Slughorn joins them, drawing a "trapped" Snape into the conversation
and giving him partial credit for Harry's "exceptional potion-making."
When Snape states his impression that he has not taught Harry
anything, Slughorn replies that it must be natural ability. As Snape's
eyes bore into Harry, Slughorn asks Harry what other subjects he's
taking. Harry lists them, and Snape points out with "the faintest
sneer" that those are the subjects required to be an Auror. Harry
retorts that that's what he wants to be.

Luna tells Harry that the Aurors are involved in the Rotfang
Conspiracy, a plot to bring down the MoM through Dark Magic and gum
disease, causing Harry to inhale mead up his nose. Filch approaches,
holding Draco Malfoy by the ear. Filch tells Slughorn that he found
Draco "lurking in an upstairs corridor" and asks Slughorn whether
Draco was invited to the party as he claims. Draco pulls away from
him, angrily stating, "I was trying to gate-crash. Happy?"

When Slughorn allows Draco to stay, Draco looks nearly as unhappy as
Filch, and Snape, whose eyes are on Draco, appears to be both angry
and, Harry notes with surprise, slightly afraid. As Filch shuffles
out, Draco regains his composure and thanks Slughorn for his
generosity. Harry notes that Draco has dark shadows under his eyes and
his skin has a "distinctly grayish tinge." Snape, smoothing his
expression into inscrutability, orders Draco to follow him and they
leave despite Slughorn's protests.

Telling Luna that he'll be right back, Harry slips into the corridor
and puts on his Invisibility Cloak. After pressing his ear against
various doors, he hears voices and crouches down to eavesdrop through
the keyhole. He picks up the conversation in midsentence as Snape
says, ". . . cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled--"

Draco cuts him off, denying his involvement. Snape calls the attempt
"clumsy and foolish" and informs Draco that he's already suspected.
Draco asks who suspects him, arguing that "that Bell girl" must have a
secret enemy. Exclaiming "Don't look at me like that!" Draco tells
Snape that he knows what Snape is doing, but "it won't work--I can
stop you!" Snape notes that Bellatrix has been teaching Draco
Occlumency and asks what thoughts he's trying to conceal from his
master. Draco retorts, "I'm not trying to conceal anything from *him*.
I just don't want *you* butting in!"

Harry wonders what has happened to cause Draco to speak so rudely to
Snape, whom he has always seemed to like and respect. Snape starts to
say what would happen to any other student who refused to meet with
him, but Draco again cuts him off with, "So put me in detention!
Report me to Dumbledore!" Snape responds, "You know perfectly well
that I do not wish to do either of those things." Lowering his voice,
Snape tells Draco that he, Snape, is trying to help him: "I swore to
your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco--"

Draco sneers that Snape will have to break the vow because he doesn't
need Snape's protection, adding that he has a plan but it's none of
Snape's business. Snape says that if Draco tells him the plan, he
(Snape) can assist him, and Draco says that he has all the assistance
he needs and that he'd have had Crabbe and Goyle with him if Snape
hadn't put them in detention. When Snape says that Crabbe and Goyle
need to work harder if they intend to pass their DADA OWLs this time
around, Draco reacts by calling DADA a "joke" and an "act" and
sneering that "we" don't need protection against the Dark Arts. Snape
asks where Draco thinks that he (Snape) would be if he didn't know how
to act and repeats his warning about relying on assistants like Crabbe
and Goyle.

Draco says that he has "better people" helping him. Snape asks Draco
to confide in him, but Draco again interrupts, accusing Snape of
wanting to steal his "glory." Snape responds that Draco is speaking
like a child, then says he understands that Draco is upset by his
father's imprisonment.

Draco rushes out of the room, barely giving Harry time to step aside.
As Snape, again wearing an "unfathomable" expression, emerges and
returns to the party, Harry remains where he is, his mind racing as he
contemplates the conversation he has just overheard.

Discussion Questions:

1) What do you think of Ron's public "snogging" sessions with Lavender
and Hermione's reaction? What about Ron's and Hermione's behavior in
Transfiguration? What does Harry (whose thoughts are paraphrased by
the narrator) mean by "the depths to which girls would sink to get
revenge"?

2) Hermione says that love potions are not Dark or dangerous, but
Harry, the intended recipient, disagrees. How "dark" is Romilda's plot
to get Harry to take her to Slughorn's party by, erm, potioning him?
And how responsible are the Twins, who made and sold the love potions,
for the uses to which the potions are put?

3) Harry expresses real interest in the Prince's notes on Everlasting
Elixirs and defends his book against both Hermione's aspersions and
Madam Pince's grasping hands. Is he just using the Prince's notes to
get marks he doesn't deserve, or is he really learning more from the
Prince than he ever learned from the adult Snape or Slughorn? How
might this new interest in Potions, if it lasts, play out in Book 7?

4) We later learn that Madam Pince is not the only person listening
behind the shelves: Draco is there as well. JKR is clearly misleading
the reader with a false or incomplete explanation. Can you think of
any other "explanations" that may be revealed as misleading in the future?

5) Just for fun, why might Harry think that Filch and Pince are in
love? Is Harry right?

6) Why do you think that Harry invited Luna to Slughorn's party? What
does his doing so tell us about him, compared to or contrasted with
Hermione's inviting Cormac McLaggen? Do you agree with Harry that
Hermione got what she deserved when Cormac ambushed her under the
mistletoe? Why or why not?

7) What do you make of Luna's conversation with Trelawney? What
insights into Luna does this chapter provide, or is she strictly comic
relief? And why would Slughorn invite Trelawney, of all people, along
with his Slug Club, his celebrity guests, and his former star pupil,
Severus Snape? Just for fun, why do you think JKR included the Vampire
Sanguini as a party guest?

7) Why does Snape react as he does to Slughorn's statement that Harry
is a "natural" at Potions? Are his suspicions aroused at this point?
Do you detect any genuine affection on Slughorn's part for his
brilliant former student, or is it all jovial bluster and too much
mead? Did you feel any sympathy for Snape during this conversation?
Why or why not?

8) Why does Draco claim to be "gate-crashing" when he was actually
upstairs? Why does he look angry when Slughorn allows him to stay? The
narrator, voicing Harry's perspective, asks: "Why was Snape looking at
Malfoy as though both angry and . . . was it possible? . . . a little
afraid?" How would you answer the narrator's (or Harry's) questions?

9) Draco's appearance suggests that he's suffering from stress or
insomnia. Do you think that he was really too ill to play Quidditch
(previous chapter)? How do you account for the change in his attitude
toward his Head of House and former favorite professor? What
parallels, if any, do you see between this relationship and Harry's
with Dumbledore?

10) Clearly, Crabbe and Goyle are not taking NEWT DADA with Harry and
Draco. Might they be repeating fifth-year DADA (rather than taking no
DADA class at all), and could they, theoretically, repeat their DADA
OWLs as Snape implies? What, if anything, does this detail tell us
about Snape's attitude toward DADA? Is he really concerned about
Crabbe's and Goyle's DADA OWLs? What is he trying to accomplish by
putting them in detention?

11) What do you make of Draco's contempt for DADA, his attempt at
Occlumency, his reaction to Snape's Unbreakable Vow, and his
accusation that Snape is trying to steal his glory? How successful are
his attempts to evade Snape's questions? What, if anything, does Snape
learn from Draco's answers?

12) Snape changes tactics several times during the interview. How and
why? Are these changes an indication of weakness or strength? Do any
of his statements or questions seem deliberately ambiguous or
misleading? How does this conversation tie in with, or affect your
understanding of, "Spinner's End"?

13) Snape's expression is twice referred to as "unfathomable" or
"inscrutable." What does this description suggest to you? Why does
Snape return to the party rather than following Draco?

14) How did this chapter affect your views on where Snape's loyalties
lie? Why do you think the chapter is titled "The Unbreakable Vow" when
the vow is barely mentioned?

Carol, thanking Penapart Elf, Siriusly Snapey Susan, and Potioncat for
their comments and suggestions

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