[the_old_crowd] Thoughts on HBP

[Rynne]

Lexicon Steve:
>So here's a more general question that I've wondered about. What's up with
>the "Prince" thing?

I've never officially "thought" about this, but my feeling is that the
Half-Blood Prince is Salazar Slytherin, and now for a variety of
reasons that I'm only really thinking about now in order to reply to
this *g*.

First is that he lived roughly a thousand years ago, when there *were*
princes, and many of them.  And what I can see is Slytherin being an
*illegitimate* prince, born out of wedlock to a (Muggle) king and his
(witch) mistress, or something along those lines.  This could
concievably create his hatred for Muggles--I don't remember as much of
my European History class as I should, but I don't think bastards were
too well-received at that point in society (or indeed until much, much
later), and Muggles could have easily mistreated him and thought it
was all right.  But it doesn't change the fact that he was of royal
blood, hence the title "prince".  Now moving on to speculation about
who the prince is rather than why he is a prince...

In my eyes, Slytherin's own half-bloodedness (is that a word? :p)
could cause him to be sympathetic to Tom Riddle's circumstances, and
whatever enchantment the Sorting Hat has (my favorite theory is that
it's imbued with the essences of the four founders themselves,
essences which look into each first year's mind and decide, using
their own criteria, which students they want), it could somehow have
that sympathy as well, which explains how a half-blooded Tom Riddle
could get into the house "claimed" by purebloods.

Also, HBP is something that was cut out of CoS and therefore must have
at one point been important to the plot of CoS when it was still in
draft stage, and you *can't* say that Salazar Slytherin is unimportant
to the plot of CoS!  And background on why Slytherin thought the way
he did wouldn't be as important to CoS itself (what is important is
that he thought it), but I believe it could *really* be important in
terms of the series, considering how Voldemort seems to idolize
Slytherin.

And, using the theory of a poster on the main HPfGU list (post 111201,
on book titles and their significance), who poses that every other
book has a title the subject of which is hostile towards Harry in some
way, HBP could uphold this theory if Slytherin was the HBP, as
Voldemort is using Slytherin's name in part to further his agenda
against Muggles, etc.

*cough* So there's my theory on why Slytherin could easily be the HBP
and why it's feasible he's a prince.  I think this is the very first
time I've actually posted a theory on any list...

--Rynne

-- 
Let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
--William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors

http://rynne.livejournal.com