History Fridge / HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince

* A bit of casting brilliance here — after Bill Weasley gets savaged by Greyback in ''Half-Blood Prince'', he's described as bearing "a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody." Who plays Bill in the ''Deathly Hallows'' films? Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Brendan Gleeson, who plays Mad-Eye.

* Blaise Zabini. First off, he doesn't exactly come out of nowhere — he's mentioned in passing in Book 1 because he was (alphabetically) the last new student in Harry's year. Of course, from then, the Fandom tried to make a character out of him... or "her" in some fanfics. Then we finally find out (partially through the movie) that he's indeed a Black male. He gets into the Slug Club because his mother is famous. She married seven times, each time to a wealthy husband. Each husband died mysteriously, leaving Blaise and his mother with all the wealth. Of course, the implications there are obvious. Zabini's mom is a "Black widow." The black widow, of course, is a spider that's known for being very poisonous, first off, and second, killing her mates — and the term has been used for a woman who has killed a succession of husbands or boyfriends. The fact that Zabini's mom (more than likely) literally ''is'' a Black widow (in terms of race) just makes this even more brilliant.

* When Snape taught Potions, only those who achieved an "O" in their O.W.L.S. could take his N.E.W.T. class. However, when he switches to Defense Against the Dark Arts, he lowered the criterion to an "E". Why? Because if he kept the same standard, the only student who would have been in the class was Harry.

* Harry uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy. The spell requires you to move the wand into the direction of the cut. In the film all Harry did was point the wand at Malfoy's chest, yet the wound though unseen through his shirt caused bleeding in his chest and his back. Harry stabbed him. [[FridgeHorror If that's the case, it's a miracle Malfoy even lived long enough for Snape to show up. A stab wound to the center of the chest can bleed you out in under a minute.]]

* When Harry is in detention for cursing Malfoy, he comments on how Snape seemed to be purposely keeping him longer so he couldn't spend as much time with Ginny. While Harry probably thinks this is just because Snape is mean, it may be deeper than that. Think about it -- Harry looks extraordinarily like his father. Ginny, meanwhile, has long red hair. Together they resemble Lily and James as a couple. Snape no doubt notices it, and by keeping Harry from Ginny, it's almost like keeping James from Lily.
* It seemed at first that Voldemort cursed the position of the DADA teacher purely out of spite. ("If I can't have it, nobody can.") Then, after the evidences of abysmal ineptitude of the general wizarding population was presented (like the ''Ministry of Magic'' having to buy hats imbued with a Shield Charm from a prank shop), you see the strategic magnificence of V's move. He ensured that the DADA classes would become a total mess, no consistent teaching routine would be possible, and before long the school would run out of decent DADA teachers completely, thus dealing a crushing blow to the opposition.

* Throughout the series, characters speculate on why Dumbledore never gives Snape the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. Generally, the idea is that Dumbledore doesn't trust him near the subject. Actually, it's because [[spoiler:Dumbledore knew the job was jinxed so that no one would last more than a year, so he put off giving it to Snape to make sure Snape was always around... until an uncharacteristic mistake leaves Dumbledore with no more than a year to live]]. Giving Snape the DADA job serves both as a parting gift of sorts, and also as an incentive for Snape to carry out Dumbledore's ThanatosGambit when the time was right.
** Not only that, but what specifically does Snape teach for his one year as DADA instructor? Non-verbal spells! He and Dumbledore both knew the Trio would have to go off the grid to complete their mission of [[spoiler: Horcrux destruction]], and that "stealth magic" would be an invaluable tool for them during that endeavor.
* Lily might have been so good at potions (according to Slughorn) because she was [[spoiler:friends with Snape]]. If that's the case, then Slughorn was right about [[spoiler:Harry being just like his mother. They both got their potions skills from the Half-Blood Prince.]]
* A bit of casting brilliance here - after Bill Weasley gets savaged by Greyback in ''Half-Blood Prince'', he's described as bearing "a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody." Who plays Bill in the Deathly Hallows films? Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Brendan Gleeson, who plays Mad-Eye.
* Arthur Weasley is promoted out of the understaffed Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office because war is imminent and it's not a priority. The same thing must have happened in the First Wizarding War - how else could Sirius keep hold of an illegal flying motorbike?

** Following this logic it also explains why Hermione seems to have a little more trouble this year as opposed to the previous five, at least in the film. Snape isn't teaching the class anymore. Slughorn is, and while Slughorn is a fine Potions Master in his own right he doesn't seem to be on Snape's level. Hermione is the type of student who listens to every word her teacher says. So when Snape taught the class she was paying very close attention to the man who was likely the greatest Potions Master in the history of Hogwarts, who also was a little more hands on with his teaching. When Slughorn taught it she listened to a fine but inferior Potions Master who seemed to let the textbook do most of the teaching.
* Who is the Half-Blood Prince and why is Lily mentioned in here more than in any other book?... Gotcha.
* In this book, Snape is about to kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore is left begging, "Severus, please...". At first it seems like he's weakly shocked at betrayal by Snape. [[spoiler: Actually, it's because he's begging Snape to kill him. Because Snape is putting Dumbledore out of his misery, it doesn't harm his soul; instead, it lets Dumbledore save two lives - Snape's, from the Unbreakable Vow, and Draco's, from Voldemort's UriahGambit - in exchange for his own. That's why he'd spent the night searching for him]].
* Blaise Zabini. First off, he doesn't exactly come out of nowhere - he's mentioned in passing in Book 1 because he was (alphabetically) the last new student in Harry's year. Of course, from then, the Fandom tried to make a character out of him...or "her" in some fanfics. Then we finally find out (partially through the movie) that he's indeed a Black male. He gets into the Slug Club because his mother is famous. She married seven times, each time to a wealthy husband. Each husband died mysteriously, leaving Blaise and his mother with all the wealth. Of course, the implications there are obvious. Zabini's mom is a "Black widow." The black widow, of course, is a spider that's known for being very poisonous, first off, and second, killing her mates - and the term has been used for a woman who has killed a succession of husbands or boyfriends. The fact that Zabini's mom (more than likely) literally ''is'' a Black widow (in terms of race) just makes this even more brilliant.
* The Death Eater attack of the Burrow put in the film seems pointless, but earlier Ron told Harry his mother had not wanted Ron and Ginny to return to Hogwarts because it wasn't safe anymore, and to stay home. The attack on the Burrow during Christmas made it clear that nowhere was safe from Voldemort and his followers, not Hogwarts and not even people's homes.
* When Dumbledore was trying to convince Draco to give up, not kill him, and go into hiding, he might have been trying to course-correct. He might have known Draco disarming him would screw up his plans to break the power of the Elder Wand and hope to win it back by defeating Draco, by convincing him to surrender so the original plan, having Snape kill him without ownership of the Wand passing from him. Brilliant.

* The name of the chapter in which [[spoiler:Dumbledore dies?]] The Lightning-Struck Tower. Commonly called The Tower in modern Tarot decks, this card is one of the most feared (along with the Death card). It talks about a sudden realization, loss, a BrokenPedestal. And even more so, several decks' illustration for the Tower shows people [[spoiler:''falling/being thrown out of a tower.'']] All of this happens in the chapter: Dumbledore was [[spoiler:killed via an Avada Kedavra that looks suspiciously like a lightning strike, thrown off the Astronomy tower,]] and this causes the aforementioned feelings in Harry. Also one to the readers as well. Admit it, most of us probably held a LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt attitude towards Rowling [[spoiler:killing off Dumbledore]] until it hit us in the face.
** The Tower is also a symbol of absolute destruction that razes the old way of things so that a new thing may rise from the ashes. It represents the need to tear something down completely to rebuild it into something wholly new. Considering the series' phoenix references/imagery as well as how many things fundamentally lurch in a new direction after this [[spoiler: (Hogwarts becomes a Dark Arts academy, the storyline itself becomes an Artifact Quest for the first time since SS, all the relationships get upended, etc.), this moment is symbolic of that rebirth but in the inverse way: this is not the glorious phoenix's rebirth, but essentially the Fourth Reich (because Nazi allegory!). Even though Dumbledore plans everything and makes sure it's Snape who casts the spell, it sets actions in motions that neither of them could ever have anticipated]].
* Harry becomes a KarmaHoudini in the movie version of Half-Blood Prince (he runs off before Snape can punish him for [[spoiler: using Sectumsempra on Draco]]). Why? Because it changes his motivation for getting rid of the Half-Blood Prince's book - he's not hiding it because he doesn't want Snape to confiscate it; he's hiding it because he doesn't want anyone (not even himself) to be tempted by the dark magic in the book.
** Snape has the perfect setup to finally get Harry kicked out of Hogwarts. Harry attacked a student with a Dark spell, Snape's favorite student, no less, and Snape has him alone. Yet he doesn't go through with it. [[spoiler: Because doing so would have screwed up his and Dumbledore's plans to destroy Voldemort in Book 7.]]
* Remember how Ron has [[AttentionWhore always craved attention and admiration]]? Well, in this book/movie he gets what he it: In the form of the [[SmittenTeenageGirl lovestruck girl, Lavender Brown]]. Then, he gets the hint of how downright ''annoying'' it can be to always get attention. In a way, Lavender was a [[AnAesop physical aesop]] on the lesson "be careful what you wish for".
* After Harry takes the luck potion to [[spoiler:get the memory from Slughorn,]] he is guided in a roundabout and unpredictable path to get his goal. It's odd though that he bumps Ginny Weasley on his way through the portrait hole under his invisibility cloak. Why would he, when he has perfect luck to prevent it? But ...that bump helped break Ginny and Dean Thomas up, a hidden desire of Harry's. Of COURSE he bumps her; he wants them to break up, and the luck potion makes it happen.

* Hermione outright says that she was going to ask Ron to Slughorn's Christmas Party. This is in contrast to Book 4 where she waited around hoping Ron would ask her. She's likely copped on to how clueless he is by now.

* The lesson that Dumbledore tries to impart on Harry after seeing Slughorn's true memory has much deeper implications once you've read the seventh book. He is trying to impart to Harry the difference between being dragged to death kicking and screaming or facing it willingly. [[spoiler:Depending on how you read the subtext, he is manipulating Harry to accept that he needs to be killed by Voldemort to destroy the piece of soul still inside him, OR if Harry chooses to die, then he will confer the same on all of is friends and loved ones as his mother placed on him when she chose to die. Even if Harry was killed off for real at that moment before he would vanquish him, all of the people he loved would have finished the job. There's no way that Dumbledore wouldn't have deduced/planned ahead for this possibility.]]

* In the book, Molly mentions that her husband now has a better (and far better-paying) job, although he liked his old job more. It might seem out of nowhere, but in book four Ron stated that his father could obtain better jobs in the ministry, but he preferred the one he had. After Voldemort came back, Arthur put his preferences aside to help as much as he could against him. It is also further proof that the Weasleys are actually very competent wizards.
* The Felix Felicis Harry won from Slughorn in this years first Potions Lesson. As it needs half a year to be made and Slughorn had only one Month and a half, there wouldn't have been enough time to create it just for this occasion. This Felix Felicis was actually Slughorn's emergency stash in case the Death eaters got hold of him, he wanted to drink it in order to make it easier to escape. But now when he was safe and sound in Hogwarts he felt safe enough to give it away as he was under Dumbledore's protection.
* It turns out Voldemort helped bring about his (original) downfall because he actually took one of ''Sybill Trelawney's'' prophecies seriously (as Dumbledore points out, it was no more accurate than any of her other predictions; [[SelfFulfillingProphecy it was only fulfilled because Voldemort acted on it]]). So believing Harry was the one who would destroy him, Voldemort set off to kill Harry and his parents. Cue LaserGuidedKarma.
* Crosses over with HilariousInHindsight. Fudge was appointed as Minister for Magic in 1990, and mentions that his first Muggle PM tried to throw him out the window. Who was PM in 1990? [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Yeah, they didn't call her the Iron Lady for nothing]].
* How does Dumbledore know that the chair is actually a Transfigured Slughorn? Well, perhaps part of it is that, as he shows later in the book, he's an expert at detecting magical "residue." [[SpotTheThread But in a house where everything has been trashed and broken, the one thing which is perfectly unharmed...is the chair.]]
* Tom Riddle Sr. leaving Merope after she stopped feeding him the love potion and his discovery that she was a witch. Back in the 1920's popular culture had not yet truly overcome the traditional religious association of witchcraft with the Devil. To somebody of Riddle's background this was far worse than merely being date raped by an ugly peasant girl. It would have been seen as outright satanic and the child he conceived on the witch who ensorcelled him would have been little more than a demon in his mind. But, since The Masquerade was stronger in the U.K. (as shown in ''Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'') he could hardly go public with what really happened. Hence the more mundane, if dubious, "hoodwinked" explanation.
* In the flashback, Tom asks Slughorn if seven horcruxes would be the best number. Slughorn rambles in terror about splitting your soul in seven, but 1 master soul plus 7 fragments equals 8 parts. Dumbledore gets that wrong too, proposing that Riddle aims to split his soul in seven and have six horcruxes. Why do they make such mistakes? Well, earlier it is established that Slughorn never noticed how ineffective Libacius and Borage's potions book was and it took Snape to correct a ton of things for the potions to be easy to brew. This could point to potioneers being bad chemists and not understanding dilutions, causing them to confuse things like a wizard making seven horcruxes meaning he split his soul in eight.

* Harry asks Dumbledore if Merope didn't want to live even for her child. But think about it: Merope suffered so much abuse in her own home that she barely could use magic (implied it was very severe) and as Dumbledore points out, it's very likely that she stopped giving Riddle the love potion because, despite everything, she truly loved him and couldn't bear to keep the lie going. Yes, it is still rape and not at all justifiable, but still tragic. It's not unlikely that all this resulted in her pregnancy being of high risk. In the end, Merope did the very same thing that Lily Potter did: She died so her son could live.

* This book actually foreshadows [[spoiler:the Elder Wand]]. When Aragog dies Hagrid and Slughorn sing, ''And Odo the hero, they bore him back home to the place that he'd known as a lad. They laid him to rest with his hat inside out and his wand snapped in two, which was sad.'' The practice of snapping a dead witch or wizard's wand must have started when someone figured out that wands learn from their masters.
* Two for the meaning of Sectumsemprae: either it could mean [[spoiler: 'Sever(us) forever', which is a pun on Snape's name (plus, if you see the 'Us' as separate, could allude to him and Lily's relationship being severed)]], or [[spoiler: 'cutting '''always'''' (as of the next book, 'always' becomes one of Snape's most remembered lines)]].
* Hermoine acting a bit drunk on butterbeer after the group leave the Three Broomsticks. Slughorn (obviously fairly sloshed himself) had spilled his drink over Hermoine's part of the table. . . some of what he was drinking landed in her butterbeer, and she didn't notice when she chugged it back.

* Why is Slughorn so desperate to make Harry happy? It's not just that he wants to profit from Harry's fame- [[spoiler:Slughorn is, very indirectly, the reason that Voldemort survived long enough to kill Harry's parents]]. This is probably why he agrees to go back to teaching once he sees that Harry will be one of his students. It's [[MyGreatestSecondChance the best opportunity he'll ever get]] to right the wrongs of his past, however minor. And then, of course, he gives the Horcrux memory to Harry because the boy offered Slughorn what he wanted most in the world: forgiveness.

* Dumbledore was confident that the only known relic of Gryffindor (the sword) was always well out of reach of Voldemort, but he was wrong. There was one more object at Hogwarts that once belonged to Gryffindor... the Sorting Hat. The hat itself mentions that it was originally Gryffindor's and it would have been fantastic as a Horcrux, allowing a piece of Voldemort's soul to peek into the hearts and minds of every student who passed through the school. It's a damn good thing Dumbledore never gave Voldemort that teaching position because had the hat been or become his true target, the story could have potentially ended ''very'' differently.

* ''Amortentia'', Love Potion, is, essentially, a magical date-rape drug. They distribute these ''openly''. Worse still, it could have been (and probably was) ''the very potion'' under which Voldemort was conceived. One must wonder why, if Dumbledore was aware of this, it was still on the sixth year curriculum to begin with (Although to Slughorn's credit, he calls the potion extremely dangerous.)
* Never mind that - what the hell was the Draught of Living Death doing on the curriculum? From the sounds of things, just a tiny bit would essentially put the drinker into a coma, and too much would kill them outright. It's one thing to discuss it in class, but to actually try making it...

** If you think about it, this could be a FridgeBrilliance as well. The instructions for the recipe was the only one in all the books to be wrong such as the wrong number of beans, how to extract the juice from them, and missing a counterclockwise stir after every seven clockwise stirs. As this was an advanced potions textbook, it should have been perfect, but maybe the author of the book realized the danger in putting such a dangerous potion in a book for sixteen-year-old students. Slughorn may have known this and knew only the best of the best potions students would recognize the errors and be able to correct them, which is why he did the contest on the first day to get such a powerful reward that had only been won by one other person in his many decades of teaching.

* The Sectumsempra spell which [[spoiler:almost made Draco bleed out]] is noted as "for enemies" by its creator...Gee, who were those enemies? Answer? [[spoiler:Sirius and James.]] And if the memory in ''Order'' is anything to go by, he tried to use it on [[spoiler: James]], though it was weak, nonverbal and to the face instead of to the chest. However the very fact that he didn't massacre them [[spoiler: especially after that trick with the Whomping Willow when Lupin was transformed]], shows tremendous self-control.

* Ginny mentions that it was lucky Harry had a good spell in his arsenal when Malfoy tried to use the Cruciatus curse on him. Malfoy, however, is definitely the lucky one. He was one syllable away from spending the rest of his life in Azkeban. Even if Harry had sliced his throat and killed him instantly, it would have been a [[FateWorseThanDeath favor]]. On another level of horror, what if that was exactly what Draco was going for? What if he was trying to escape Voldemort's demands and see his father again in one fell swoop? In his emotional state at the time, it might have made sense in his head.

* When Dumbledore goes to see Tom Riddle at the orphanage, Mrs. Cole, the matron, is initially suspicious of Dumbledore- until he waves his wand while handing her a blank piece of paper. Her eyes are noted to "slide in and out of focus" before she placidly accepts the paper. Dumbledore, one of the Muggles' greatest defenders, just ''illegally used magic on a Muggle''.

*** Also, it's implied (by Hagrid in book 1) that the rule is relaxed a bit for the specific instance of interacting with Muggle-raised wizard children because introducing young wizards to the world in which they belong is so integral to the survival of wizard society. And, one could argue, to TheMasquerade itself. If these children are not retrieved and introduced to Hogwarts, what you'd end up with is older wizard children whose powers manifest themselves in Muggle environments at inopportune times. Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem shows the worst-case scenario (or one of them, anyway) of what can happen if a teenage wizard's powers suddenly explode after lying dormant for years. [[spoiler: Read: Said teenage wizard ''almost leveled Manhattan.'']] Also, in Riddle's instance, he had already been using magic to control and harm the other orphanage children, so that was an even more special case.

** Plus, this is after Morfin hexed his face. For all his snobbishness, he took a LOT of abuse from the Gaunt family: first from Morfin's hex, then from Merope's drugs and rape, and finally from his own son murdering him.
* Harry was extremely lucky that Malfoy isn't the loyal Death Eater that he is presumed to be when he used the full body-bind curse on him on the Hogwarts Express (which may have been the point of course). Malfoy [[GroinAttack could have inflicted injuries]] [[TheToothHurts much worse than]] [[EyeScream a minor broken nose,]] to ''accidentally'' standing on Harry's famous phoenix wand, to just straight up apparating away and handing him to Voldemort. And remember that no one knew Harry was is there; it was only luck that Tonks put two and two together. There was plenty of opportunity for nasty things to happen.

* Voldemort was already ObviouslyEvil, and had made anywhere from three to five Horcruxes, by the time of his job interview with Dumbledore. Though Dumbledore was not certain that Voldy had made any Horcruxes until after the diary was found and destroyed, he suspected it for years—probably since that very interview, in fact. It is strongly implied that this interview was the last time Voldemort appeared in public before starting his reign of terror, and thus, the latest point at which he could feasibly have been stopped with no deaths. Dumbledore, being the only one he ever feared, could easily have dispatched Voldy had he known what he’d go on to do, meaning that for the rest of his life, Dumbledore probably blamed himself for the deaths of all of Voldemort’s victims because he let Riddle walk out of his office unmolested.

* It's mentioned in passing that Harry's only struggles with N.E.W.T.-level Defense Against the Dark Arts come from him occasionally disagreeing with what Snape is teaching him. This not only shows just how far Harry has come, it also neatly parallels the Half-Blood Prince, who ignored the official recipes in favor of his own innovations. It's another example of how much Harry and [[spoiler:Snape]] have in common.

* Harry was extremely lucky that Malfoy isn't the loyal Death Eater that he is presumed to be when he used the full body-bind curse on him on the Hogwarts Express (which may have been the point of course). Malfoy [[GroinAttack could have inflicted injuries]] [[Fingore much worse than]] [[EyeScream a minor broken nose,]] to ''accidentally'' standing on Harry's famous phoenix wand, to just straight up apparating away and handing him to Voldemort. And remember that no one knew Harry was is there; it was only luck that Tonks put two and two together. There was plenty of opportunity for nasty things to happen.

* Harry was extremely lucky that Malfoy isn't the loyal Death Eater that he is presumed to be when he used the full body-bind curse on him on the Hogwarts Express (which may have been the point of course). Malfoy [[GroinAttack could have inflicted injuries much worse than a minor broken nose,]] to ''accidentally'' standing on Harry's famous phoenix wand, to just straight up apparating away and handing him to Voldemort. And remember that no one knew Harry was is there; it was only luck that Tonks put two and two together. There was plenty of opportunity for nasty things to happen.

* Voldemort was already ObviouslyEvil, and had made anywhere from three to five Horcruxes, by the time of his job interview with Dumbledore. Though Dumbledore was not certain that Voldy had made any Horcruxes until after the diary was found and destroyed, he suspected it for years—probably since that very interview, in fact. It is strongly implied that this interview was the last time Voldemort appeared in public before starting his reign of terror, and thus, the latest point at which he could feasibly have been stopped with no deaths. Dumbledore, being the only one he ever feared, could easily have dispatched Voldy had he known what he’d go on to do, meaning that for the rest of his life, Dumbledore probably blamed himself for the deaths of all of Voldemort’s victims.

* This book actually forshadowes [[spoiler:the Elder Wand]]. When Aragog dies Hagrid and Slughorn sing, ''And Odo the hero, they bore him back home to the place that he'd known as a lad. They laid him to rest with his hat inside out and his wand snapped in two, which was sad.'' The practice of snapping a dead witch or wizard's wand must have started when someone figured out that wands learn from their masters.

* When Snape taught Potions, only those who achieved an "O" in their O.W.L.S. could take his N.E.W.T. class. However, when he switches to Defense Against the Dark Arts, he lowered the criteria to an "E". Why? Because if he kept the same standard, the only student who would have been in the class was Harry.

* Snape had apparently made the potion himself successfully during his school years. He couldn't possibly have been planning to use it (or his ''Sectumsempra'' curse) on a certain group of Gryffindors that had been bullying him, right....?

* Tom Riddle Sr was raped. Okay, he ''did'' marry Merope, but he ''was'' under Amortentia, basically uberpowerful roofies. She kept him enslaved to her will for several years after forcing him to leave his family for her, stopping only when she fell pregnant with his child. And we readers blame him for ''getting the fuck away of her when he realized what she did to him''.

* The lesson that Dumbledore tries to impart on Harry after seeing Slughorn's true memory has much deeper implications once you've read the seventh book. He is trying to impart to Harry the difference between being dragged to death kicking and screaming or facing it willingly. [[spoiler:Depending on how you read the subtext, he is manipulating Harry to accept that he needs to be killed by Voldemort to destroy the piece of soul still inside him, OR if Harry chooses to die, then he will confer the same on all of his friends and loved ones as his mother placed on him when she chose to die. Even if Harry was killed off for real at that moment before he would vanquish him, all of the people he loved would have finished the job. There's no way that Dumbledore wouldn't have deduced/planned ahead for this possibility.]]

* Harry asks Dumbledore if Merope didn't want to live even for his child. But think about it: Merope suffered so much abuse in her own home that she barely could use magic (implied it was very severe) and as Dumbledore points out, it's very likely that she stopped giving Riddle the love potion because, despite everything, she truly loved him and couldn't bear to keep the lie going. Yes, it is still rape and not at all justifiable, but still tragic. It's not unlikely that all this resulted in her pregnancy being of high risk. In the end, Merope did the very same thing that Lily Potter did: She died so her son could live.

* The lesson that Dumbledore tries to impart on Harry after seeing Slughorn's true memory has much deeper implications once you've read the seventh book. He is trying to impart to Harry the difference between being dragged to death kicking and screaming or facing it willingly. [[spoiler:Depending on how you read the subtext, he is manipulating Harry to accept that he needs to be killed by Voldemort to destroy the piece of soul still inside him, OR if Harry chooses to die, then he will confer the same on all of is friends and loved ones as his mother placed on him when she chose to die. Even if Harry was killed off for real at that moment before he would vanquish him, all of the people he loved would have finished the job. There's no way that Dumbledore wouldn't have deduced/planned ahead for this possibility.]]

** Which is why Dumbledore has future job interwievs (e.g. with Trelawney and Snape) outside of Hogwarts: to prevent other curses.

** Which is why Dumbledore has future job interwievs(e.g. with Trelawney and Snape)outside of Hogwarts: to prevent other curses.

* When Harry is in detention for cursing Malfoy, he comments on how Snape seemed to be purposely keeping him longer so he couldn't spend as much time which Ginny. While Harry probably thinks this is just because Snape is mean, it may be deeper than that. Think about it -- Harry looks extraordinarily like his father. Ginny, meanwhile, has long red hair. Together they resemble Lily and James as a couple. Snape no doubt notices it, and by keeping Harry from Ginny, it's almost like keeping James from Lily.
* It seemed at first that Voldemort cursed the position of the DADA teacher purely out of spite (if I can't have it, nobody can). Then, after the evidences of abysmal ineptitude of the general wizarding population was presented (like the ''Ministry of Magic'' having to buy hats imbued with a Shield Charm from a prank shop), you see the strategic magnificence of V's move. He ensured that the DADA classes would become a total mess, no consistent teaching routine would be possible, and before long the school would run out of decent DADA teachers completely, thus dealing a crushing blow to the opposition.

* In this book, Snape is about to kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore is left begging, "Severus please...". At first it seems like he's weakly shocked at betrayal by Snape. [[spoiler: Actually, it's because he's begging Snape to kill him. Because Snape is putting Dumbledore out of his misery, it doesn't harm his soul; instead, it lets Dumbledore save two lives - Snape's, from the Unbreakable Vow, and Draco's, from Voldemort's UriahGambit - in exchange for his own. That's why he'd spent the night searching for him]].

* Bit of a stretch for a MeaingfulName entry, but here goes: Lavender Brown. Both colors, but while Lavender is pretty, exotic, and pleasing, Brown is common, plain, and unappealing. When Ron first starts liking (and liked by) Lavender Brown, he thinks things are exciting and wonderful. Then he starts to realize their relationship is empty and meaningless. Their relationship goes from bright and colorful lavender to dull and lifeless brown.