CHAPDISC: HBP21, The Unknowable Room

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 158739

CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 
21, The Unknowable Room


Harry has been wracking his brains over the previous week, trying to 
form a plan to get Slughorn to release his true memory. Coming up 
empty, Harry resorts to doing what he increasingly does when at a 
loss, which is to pour through his Potions book, hoping that the 
Prince may have scribbled something helpful. Hermione firmly tries 
to discourage this behavior, but Harry ignores her, having 
discovered the intriguing words "Sectumsempra!" "For Enemies" in the 
Prince's hand.

Meanwhile Ron struggles to finish a difficult essay for DADA. He's 
fallen behind because he's been worried about his upcoming 
Apparition test. Harry has completed his paper, but expects a low 
grade as he disagrees with Snape on the best way to tackle 
Dementors. Hermione keeps hammering away at Harry, insisting that 
magic isn't the way to get Slughorn to give up his real memory. She 
says the key is something unique to Harry which will ultimately 
persuade Sluggy. "It's not a question of slipping him a potion, 
anyone could do that," she says.

At this point Ron realizes with horror that his Spell-Check quill is 
malfunctioning and has peppered his essay with nonsense words.  
Hermione assures him she can fix it, and turns a bit pink when he 
says "I love you Hermione."  (The small thud in the background was a 
tiny anvil hitting the floor.) Ron admits he'd like to be free of 
Lavender, but seems incapable of figuring out how to break it off.

With a sudden, startling "Crack!" Kreacher appears, followed closely 
by Dobby. Ron spills ink all over his essay.  Harry had never told 
Hermione that he asked the elves to tail Draco. He urges them to 
make their report before Hermione can build up a head of steam about 
possible elf mistreatment, especially as Dobby says he hasn't slept 
for a week. Kreacher sings Draco's praises but Dobby interrupts to 
declare Draco is a bad boy.  Kreacher's information is useless but 
Dobby reveals Draco has been trying to avoid detection when making 
regular visits with a variety of other students to the 7th floor. 

Harry realizes that Draco has been using the Room of Requirement 
(ROR), which explains why Draco has been disappearing off the 
Marauder's Map. Harry is sure he's got Malfoy cornered, but Hermione 
is equally sure he won't be able to get inside because Harry doesn't 
know what the room becomes for Draco.  Hermione puzzles over "the 
variety of students" while she uses her wand to siphon off the 
spilled ink on Ron's essay. Harry figures out that these people are 
really polyjuiced Crabbe and Goyle.  Ron chortles at the idea of 
Draco's henchmen transforming into girls. Hermione goes to bed after 
once more telling Harry that he concentrate on getting the memory 
from Slughorn. Harry sees images in his dreams turning from Draco 
into Slughorn into Snape.  

At breakfast the next morning Hermione shows no interest in Harry's 
plans for forcing entry into the ROR. Harry is irritated by this 
since he believes Hermione could be a lot of help if she wanted to 
be.  Harry further justifies moving Draco's activities to the top of 
his priority list, since he still hasn't had any "brain wave" on how 
to obtain Slughorn's memory. Hermione reiterates that persuasion, 
not magic, is the right path for Harry to follow.  The Daily Prophet 
contains its daily dose of bad news including the information that 
Mundungus has been sent to Azkaban for impersonating an Inferius 
during a burglary.

Harry uses his free period after breakfast to try to get the ROR to 
become whatever it becomes for Draco, but to no avail.  He is then 
somewhat late for DADA, earning a 10 point demerit from Snape.  
Seamus asks a question about Inferi, which leads to a small Snape-
Harry skirmish and gives Snape an opportunity to disparage Ron's 
Apparition abilities.  After class Ron and Harry escape to the boys' 
bathroom, only to meet up with Moaning Myrtle.  Ron's mood improves 
markedly with the chance to goad Myrtle. She tells them she's 
hanging around this bathroom in the hope that she'll meet up with 
the "sensitive, bullied, lonely boy who comes into this bathroom and 
cries." 

The following weekend Ron and Hermione go to Hogsmeade for 
Apparition practice and Harry goes off to the ROR. Wearing his 
Invisibility Cloak, Harry scares Girl-Goyle away, but still has no 
success in getting inside the Room to see what Draco's up to.

Tonks unexpectedly shows up, saying she's there to see Dumbledore 
although they are no where near the Headmaster's office. Harry 
thinks she looks terrible; she's thinner than usual and her mouse-
colored hair is lank.  She seems to be concerned about news that has 
not yet been published in the Daily Prophet.  She asks if Harry has 
received any letters from anyone in the Order and he replies that no 
one from the Order writes to him, "not since Sirius--"  Tonks's eyes 
fill with tears.  Harry mumbles an awkward apology, but she appears 
not to hear him.

Harry explains all this to Ron and Hermione.  Ron thinks Tonks is 
cracking up and losing her nerve.  Hermione thinks it odd that Tonks 
abandoned her post to come see Dumbledore, when Dumbledore was not 
at Hogwarts. Harry tosses out the idea that Tonks might have been in 
love with Sirius. Hermione admits Harry has a point, but still can't 
understand why Tonks was looking for Dumbledore "if that's really 
why she was here."

Questions:

1. Harry increasingly turns to his Potions book when he is at a 
loss.  Why has he come to rely on the Prince as his major source of 
inspiration or guidance, even for things outside the field of 
Potions?

2. Harry doesn't know the effects of Sectumsempra.  What does his 
eagerness to try it tell us about him?
 
3. Harry thinks Snape will mark him down on the Dementor essay.  
Does Hogwarts strike you as a place that encourages thinking in 
alternative ways?  Or do classes seem geared towards rote learning?

4. Do you think SPEW will be back in Book 7?

5. Why do elves never Apparate with a soft pop, but always with a 
loud "crack?"

6. Do you think it's likely that MWPP did not know of the Room of 
Requirement, or is Hermione right in assuming that the room is 
Unplottable?

7. In the exchange about the ROR, Hermione shows her logical 
thinking in determining that Harry won't be able to get inside.  
Harry displays some intuitive thinking in figuring out who 
the "variety of students are." Ron is amused about transfigured 
Crabbe and Goyle.  Does this tell us anything about the relative 
strengths and weaknesses of the Trio?

8. After 5-plus years at Hogwarts, is Ron really clueless on how to 
use a wand to clean up spilled ink? 

9. What do you suppose Hermione was thinking when Ron compared 
Lavender to the Giant Squid?

9. It's understandable that Harry dreams of Draco and Slughorn, as 
he is spending so much time thinking about them.  But, why does 
Snape appear in the dreams, too? Is Harry making a subconscious link 
between the three, or is Snape simply the stuff of nightmares for 
Harry?

10. Will any of the characters that we have met and who are now 
deceased, such as Emmeline Vance or Amelia Bones, make an appearance 
as an Inferi in Book 7?  

11. Is Ron being an insensitive dolt for picking on Myrtle? 

12. How much of Myrtle's description of sensitive, bullied, lonely 
Draco is her own imagination?

13. Is Hermione's puzzlement regarding Tonks' activities a clue that 
something sinister is going on, or is this a red herring that is 
later explained away by Tonks' love for Remus?

14. If Tonks' underlying concern was for news on the whereabouts or 
well-being of Remus, is this sufficient reason for her to leave her 
post?  

15. Do you find it strange that Dumbledore would not alert those 
guarding Hogwarts, especially those who are members of the Order, to 
his own absences from the school?

16. Hermione insists on at least four different occasions in this 
chapter that Harry is wrong to try to think of a magically-induced 
way to pry Slughorn's memory from him. Yet, Harry does end up using 
a potion on himself. Is Hermione wrong in her opinion that the key 
to unlocking Slughorn is something innate in Harry?

17. Bonus points for anyone who comes up with a joke about the hag, 
the Healer and the Mimbulus mimbletonia. 


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Marianne