[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HP6.jpg]]

->''"Apparently I underestimated you, Potter. Who would have thought you knew such [[BlackMagic Dark Magic]]?"''
-->-- '''Severus Snape'''

In the sixth ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book, published in 2005, the Ministry has finally accepted that Voldemort is back, but that's not really making the situation any better. With everyone terrified, obviously unjustifiable arrests, and misinformation still being printed, just in the other way, and events play out to show that the Ministry can't really stop Voldemort in its current form.

But while those events linger over the plot, the action stays fully grounded at Hogwarts. Harry learns more about Voldemort's BackStory, becomes increasingly suspicious of Snape's loyalty and discovers an old potions textbook annotated with powerful spells and useful notes from its previous owner who identifies himself only as "[[TitleDrop The Half-Blood Prince]]". Draco Malfoy joins the Death Eaters only to discover that EvilIsNotAToy; [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and wacky romantic hijinks ensue for everyone]].

As WordOfGod has noted, ''Half-Blood Prince'' is where the serialization of Harry Potter hit its max. Where all five of the previous novels ended the main plot, Half-Blood Prince's ending builds up to an emotional release but simply prepares the reader for ''Deathly Hallows'' to start up at a much faster pace.
----
!!Tropes exclusive to this book or at least especially prominent:

* AccidentalKiss: Harry and Ginny. Type 1.
* AcquittedTooLate: Morfin Gaunt, who was framed by Voldemort for the murders of [[spoiler:Tom Riddle Sr. and his parents]]. Dumbledore found evidence Voldemort was the real culprit but Morfin didn't live long enough to see the verdict being overturned.
* AmbitionIsEvil: ''Finally'' averted in the person of Horace Slughorn, which is nice given that he is a member of Slytherin, the ''Former TropeNamer''. He has a tendency for favoritism, singling out people he hopes will benefit him in the future due to their talent or family connections, but even this is equal-opportunity and he doesn't hold (much) prejudice against other houses or non-purebloods. He is also genial, more likable than all prior Slytherins (DracoInLeatherPants notwithstanding), [[spoiler: is [[WhatHaveIDone ashamed]] of accidentally helping Tom Riddle's StartOfDarkness]], and isn't, you know, ''evil''.\\\
It's also mentioned that the people he singles out really do have knacks for going far in life (which is why he makes favorites of Hermione and Ginny, even though they aren't from prominent families). So it's really a win-win for both sides, with him providing opportunities to students that they might not get otherwise and them sending him various gifts in exchange. If you think about it, it's no worse then a College Professor giving a student they think has potential pointers and tips.
* AndThatsTerrible: In the song about Odo:
--->''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.''
* AscendedExtra: Ginny, who goes from minor character to a rather vital person in Harry's life. [[Film/HarryPotter The film]] at least tries to temper this by giving her a prominent role.
* AssholeVictim
** Played with. [[spoiler:Tom Riddle Sr.]] had a reputation as being [[RichBitch snobbish]], but [[spoiler:Merope effectively kidnapping and date-raping him with a LovePotion still comes off as morally wrong to many]].
** Also with [[spoiler:Morfin Gaunt]], {{Muggle}}-[[FantasticRacism hater]] who was framed with the murders of [[spoiler:Tom Riddle Sr. and his parents]], all of whom were [[AssholeVictim victims]] on their own right.
* BeautyToBeast: [[spoiler:Fleur to Bill]]. Also Voldemort's back story, due to his own efforts.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: This and about half of the Fate and Prophecy index get smashed into bits by Dumbledore and Harry's discussion on TheProphecy. To make it short, there's no greater providence at work, being TheChosenOne is little more than a technicality, [[TheUnchosenOne Harry has no particular destiny to fulfill nor is there any higher power ensuring his success]] and the only reason him and Voldemort need to kill each other is because [[ItsPersonal they both want to.]]
* BeneathSuspicion: Nobody believes Harry as he argues that Draco is a Death Eater plotting against them, since Draco is mostly a joke to them by this point.
* BigManOnCampus: Harry finds himself in this role now that he's Gryffindor Quidditch Captain ''and'' everyone knows he was telling the truth. The combination of celebrity, a growth spurt and everyone seeing the scars from Umbridge's detentions turns him into an unwilling ChickMagnet.
* BilingualBonus: In Latin, ''fēlīx fēlīcis'' are both words meaning "lucky". [[note]]Those are the nominative and genitive forms of the adjective; essentially, they're two different ways of saying the same word whose use depends on the grammatical role played by the noun it modifies. Notably, Latin nouns and adjectives are often displayed this way in high-school textbooks.[[/note]]
** "Luck's luck"
* BloodMagic
** As revealed by a memory given by [[spoiler:Slughorn]], one of the steps in creating a [[spoiler:Horcrux]] is to [[spoiler:commit murder.]]
** Also, Dumbeldore has to cut his own hand to enter a cave Voldemort has protected with Dark Magic.
* BreatherEpisode: Between the dark fifth and seventh books, most of this book is a pretty easy-going tale with a lot of exposition and teen angst (not to mention [[Funny/HarryPotter many jokes]]). That is, until the last few chapters.
* CallBack: And lots of them, some easy to miss.
** Such as Harry going to Diagon Alley with Hagrid and meeting Draco in Madam Malkin's... only Diagon Alley is no longer the wonderful wizard bazaar of the first book, but under war conditions.
** This [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]:[[invoked]]
-->'''Hermione:''' You said to us once before that [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone there was time to turn back if we wanted to]]. We've had time, haven't we?"
* CallingYourAttacks: Mostly played straight, as in the previous books, but [[AvertedTrope averted]] when [[spoiler:Snape begins teaching non-verbal spells in Defense Against the Dark Arts.]]
* CaptainObvious: The source of "You can't break an Unbreakable Vow." Harry snarks that he'd worked that much out for himself, and asks what happens if you DO break it. "You die."
* CassandraTruth: Harry, dear, when you accuse someone of something it helps to have actual evidence backing it up.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Two examples. One inversion and one subversion.
** The first is when Hermione [[spoiler:uses a Confoundus charm on Cormac to make him miss his last block, ensuring Ron gets the position of Gryffyndor Quiddich Team keeper]].
** The second is when Harry puts Felix Felicis in Ron's drink, which is forbidden; however, [[spoiler:it turns out he didn't actually put it in. Ron only thought it did, [[MagicFeather and it gave him the confidence boost he needed to win]]. While the plan worked, Ron mocks Hermione's earlier attempts to stop Harry from putting the potion in his drink and then makes out with Lavender, hurting her badly]].
* ChekhovsGun: The series [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter has its own page.]]
* CityMouse: Fleur Delacour. She doesn't appear to realize how much this aggravates her future in-laws (but there's clearly animosity on both sides).
* ClingyJealousGirl: Lavender
* ComplimentBackfire: Ron praises Luna for her performance as a commentator in a Quidditch match. Ron is sincere, but Luna isn't so sure since everybody else tells her she did poorly.
* ContinuityLockout: Formally takes effect, Rowling dispenses of the -- rather tedious -- recap chapter that all of the other volumes start with.
* CoolTeacher: For all his favoritism, Slughorn does deliver an impressive first Potions lesson.
* CreepyChild: Tom Riddle, but espicially so in the movie (which works really well, seeing it's the nephew of the guy who plays him as an adult!)
* CuckoolanderCommentator: Luna during the last Quidditch match.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:Harry vs. Snape is quite possibly the single most one-sided duel in the book besides Snape's earlier bouts with [[FakeUltimateHero Lockheart]].]]
** [[spoiler: The fact that Snape is using Legilimency to see what spells Harry is going to cast ''before he casts them'' just makes it even more pathetic.]]
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: The creation of a horcrux is so forbidden that there's virtually no information on how to do it besides "kill somebody".
* DarkIsNotEvil / DarkIsEvil: The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher [[spoiler:Severus Snape]] imparts his personality onto the classroom and adorns the walls with plenty of pictures showing the various horrid things that happen to anyone who runs afoul of the Dark Arts.
* DeaderThanDead: Inferi. They're like zombies and thus have to be burned; other forms of magic such as Sectumsempra won't work because they have no blood and feel no pain.
* DeadManWriting: The mysterious R.A.B.
* DeathByChildbirth: Merope Riddle
* {{Dedication}}: Rowling said that this book and her youngest daughter, Mackenzie, "were racing each other into the world", so she issued this dedication:
-->To Mackenzie,\\
My beautiful daughter,\\
I dedicate\\
Her ink-and-paper twin
* DesignatedLoveInterest: Ginny. Part of the hate for the pairing of Harry and Ginny is because of DieForOurShip, while the other part is rooted specifically to this. After her [[StrangledByTheRedString questionably rushed hook-up with Harry]], most of the development of the pairing took place off screen. In fact, there's a time skip following their hookup where Harry describes it at as some of the happiest moments in his life, but the readers never actually get to '''see it'''.
* DespairSpeech: Slughorn gives one of this when he agrees to give Harry his memory about [[spoiler:the time he told Tom Riddle about the Horcruxes.]]
* DestinationDefenestration: Attempted on Fudge by Margaret Thatcher. Fudge is apparently so flustered by the memory that he gets his third-person pronouns up-gemixed.
* DisappointedInYou: When Harry disappoints Dumbledore by not making much of an effort to get a memory from Slughorn, he would have preferred him to yell; "this cold disappointment was worse than anything."
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: The love potions. They're basically the magic world equivalent of date rape drugs. Yet, using them is portrayed as sweet and innocent because it's the girls using them on the boys. Just imagine the uproar of the MoralGuardians if any of [[DoubleStandard the boys were shown using them on the girls]].\\\
Deconstructed with [[spoiler:Merope's rape of Voldemort's father]], which is portrayed as a ''very bad thing'' not just in and of itself but because [[spoiler:it meant Tom Riddle wasn't conceived out of love, making him evil]]. The reason it's played for laughs with Ron is that Harry kept anything untoward from happening. And it's possible the DoubleStandard exists in the HP universe, and [[spoiler:Merope was put in ''deliberately'', to highlight it.]]
* DrunkenSong: When Hagrid and Horace get drunk on Aragog's funeral, they sing a song called "Odo the Hero".
* DueToTheDead: Many students attend [[spoiler:Dumbledore's funeral]].
* EnfanteTerrible: Tom "I can do bad things to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to" Riddle.
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:Snape's murder of Dumbledore plays with it, although it is ultimately subverted in the next book.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even most dark spellbooks are reluctant to elaborate on the nature or creation of Horcruxes.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Ron and Hermione.
* EvilIsCool: Used InUniverse with [[spoiler:Snape as the Dark Arts teacher]]. Harry, upon hearing him talk about the Dark Arts thinks, "''It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?''"
* EvilIsNotAToy: Draco is proud to be working for Voldemort... to begin with.
* FakeMemories: Horace has covered up his own memories of [[spoiler:giving the young Voldemort information about the Horcruxes]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Hagrid mentions overhearing Dumbledore and Snape getting into an argument regarding a task Dumbledore entrusted Snape with. The next book reveals that the "task" was in fact [[spoiler:Snape's "betrayal" and murder of Dumbledore, although it's more complex, being more comparable to Assisted Suicide as Dumbledore was dying anyways from the curse on Marvolo's ring.]]
** When Harry catches a whiff of a love potion (which smells like whatever you'd associate with love), he notes that it is a bit familiar, and he has smelled it around the Burrow. Shortly afterward, he notices that it's Ginny's perfume. Later on, he begins to develop serious feelings for her.
* FreeSamplePlotCoupon: After Dumbledore tells Harry about the importance of destroying Horcruxes, the latter is concerned about the potential difficulty of finding said artifacts in the first place, but then the headmaster tells him that he had already destroyed Marvolo's Ring, and that Harry himself had destroyed Riddle's Diary in ''Chamber of Secrets'', so there are only four more Horcruxes to worry about.
* FriendVersusLover: Hermione vs. Lavender and Ginny vs. Ron.
* {{Geas}}: The Unbreakable Vow.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When Ron and Hermione try and fix the former's misspelled essay due to a worn out auto-correct quill, one of the things Hermione notes is "Augury doesn't begin with O-R-G' either.'
* AGlassInTheHand: Dean Thomas after seeing Harry and Ginny kiss. Romilda Vane seems to be even angrier, as she is described as looking like she's about to throw something.
* GottaKillThemAll: The quest to find and destroy all of the Horcruxes.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Harry and Ginny.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] via Felix Felicis.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Dumbledore uses this method to leave Harry alone with Professor Slughorn so as to persuade him to return to Hogwarts -- specifically, by asking to use the loo. The fact he returns afterwards with a magazine he wants to keep "for the knitting patterns" just highlights his eccentricity and hilarious kookiness. It was still a nice bit of obfuscation.
* InsecureLoveInterest: This is Lupin's reason for not getting together with [[spoiler:Tonks.]] He comes round in the end.
* InspectorJavert: Harry to Draco.
* InsultBackfire: "Dumbledore's man through and through, aren't you?" "Yeah, thanks for clearing that, Minister."
* IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow: Right before Christmas vacation, Ron and Lavender are described as "saying a thoroughly nonverbal good-bye".
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Harry has to tell Ginny this. She [[AvertedTrope knows exactly what he's trying to do]] and ignores it.
* JustBetweenYouAndMe: [[spoiler:Dumbledore]] encourages [[spoiler:Draco]] to go on about his plans in order to buy time. Since [[spoiler:Draco]] is reluctant to kill him, he complies.
* TheKetchupTest
* KickTheDog: Greyback attacked the five-year-old son of Ms. Montgomery when she refused to cooperate with the Death Eaters. The boy later died from his injuries.
* KillItWithFire: Dumbledore specifically states that fire is the most effective against Inferi. The RingOfFire he uses in the cave is even in the British cover pictured above.
* KnowledgeBroker: Horace Slughorn
* LastMinuteHookup: Not only do Harry and Ginny become a couple close to the end after Harry spends a good portion of the book crushing on her, but they actually manage to ''break up before the end of the book''! Doubly so because the novel glosses over the few weeks Harry grows closer to Ginny, in the span of a chapter going from crush to couple. [[Film/HarryPotter The film]] rectifies this a bit by expanding Ginny's screen time and giving her more scenes alone with Harry.
* LosingTheTeamSpirit: [[spoiler:Dumbledore's death]] has this effect on the entire school.
* LoveEpiphany: Harry's "chest monster"
* LovePotion
** Part of the merchandise at Fred & George's joke shop. One of Harry's fangirls attempts to trick him into eating a box of chocolates spiked with them. HilarityEnsues when Ron eats them instead.
** [[spoiler:In addition, this seems to be the entire reason that Lord Voldemort exists in the first place, as his mother had used a Love Potion on a snobbish {{Muggle|s}} -- Tom Riddle Senior]].
* LoveDodecahedron
* LoveHungry: Merope Gaunt for Tom Riddle Sr. See above entry for LovePotion.
* LoweredRecruitingStandards: Harry and Ron, among others, get into NEWT Potions because Slughorn has lower standards than Snape.
* MacGuffin: Voldemort's Horcruxes.
* MagicFeather: Harry pretends to give Ron a luck potion to give him confidence. A slight subversion in that the potion would have actually worked if added for real, but its use in contests is of course banned.
* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:Lupin and Tonks]]. He's in his thirties. She's in her twenties.
* MeaningfulEcho: "Don't worry, Harry, you are with me," becomes "I am not worried, Harry. I am with you." Former TropeNamer.
* MeaningfulFuneral
* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler:Dumbledore]]
* MetaTwist
** Horace is set up as the new-DADA-teacher of the book. Harry is as surprised as the reader to learn he's actually replacing Snape, who's moved positions after wanting the job for years.
** Two previous RedHerring characters are behind the main plot, and this time Harry is on to them from the beginning. [[spoiler:So is Dumbledore, but he's keeping quiet about it in case Voldemort catches on through Legilimency.]]
* MindRape: Dumbledore goes through this while [[spoiler:drinking the potion guarding the locket Horcrux]].
* MyGreatestFailure
** [[spoiler:Slughorn revealing information about Horcruxes to a young Tom Riddle.]]
** [[spoiler:We hear Dumbledore going through his during his mind rape.]]
** Also [[spoiler:Snape's feelings about giving Voldemort the prophecy and dooming James and Lily, though Harry believes this to be a lie at the time]].
* MySisterIsOffLimits: Harry struggles with this. In the end, Ron is fine with him dating Ginny though. After all, they are best friends!
* MythologyGag: It can '''not''' be mere coincidence that Slughorn once misstates Ron's name as [[RupertGrint "Rupert"]].
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The unnamed prime minister that Fudge terrifies in the first chapter. If you go by the internal chronology of the books, it should be JohnMajor, although the caricature reads more like a spoof on TonyBlair. But if it was Major, it would provide attentive readers with the amusing image of MargretThatcher throwing Cornelius Fudge out of her office window (although the idea of gray and unflappable JohnMajor getting worked up to the point of attempting homicide is equally funny).
* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: [[spoiler:Voldemort's mother at first used a LovePotion to make Riddle Sr. fall in love with her. Then she decided that it didn't feel real because it wasn't genuine, so she neutralized the potion, hoping that he'd really be in love with her after it wore off. Unfortunately for her, he dumped her like a hot potato, abandoning her and her child.]]
* NoMatterHowMuchIBeg: Harry, Dumbledore and the Horcrux-containing potion. Harry keeps his word, but only barely.
* NonIndicativeName: In-universe example. Love potions can't actually create love, only infatuation.
* NoOntologicalInertia
** [[spoiler:Dumbledore's body-bind spell.]] There are hints throughout the books that this is a common and expected phenomenon -- magic dies along with the wizard that performed it.
** In a brilliant bit of AdaptationExpansion, the movie uses this to discuss Slughorn's relationship with Lily Potter.
-->'''Slughorn:''' I once had a fish... Francis. He was very dear to me. One afternoon, I came downstairs and... it vanished. Poof.\\
'''Harry:''' Poof.\\
'''Slughorn:''' It was a student who gave me Francis. One day I came down to my office, and there was a bowl with only a few inches of clear water in it. And there was a flower petal floating on the water. Before my eyes it started to sink, and just before it hit the bottom, it transformed into a wee fish. It was a beautiful piece of magic, wondrous to behold. The flower petal was from a [[MeaningfulName lily]]. The day Francis disappeared was the day your mother... ''(starts crying)''
* NotADate: Harry and Luna at Slughorn's party. He makes it clear that they're going as friends, which she is perfectly happy with. Peeves, of course, overhears them and zooms off cackling about how "Potty loves Loony."
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Draco Malfoy. In the previous books, he was a bully, but not even a pawn when it came to Harry vs. Voldemort. But in this one, Harry will get ''serious'' trouble because of him.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Inferi are basically magical zombies with a different name. (The original voodoo/vaudou kind, not the modern post-George Romero kind.)
* ObviouslyEvil: Tom Riddle, as a child in the orphanage, to the point where even though nobody can prove anything he scares everyone, even those who run the orphanage. By the time he gets to Hogwarts he becomes very good at hiding this, enabling him to fool everyone except Dumbledore, who met him before he adopted the act.
* OneLastFieldTrip: {{Invoked}} after Dumbledore's funeral. Harry has lost his mentor and broken up with his girlfriend. He is going to drop out of school to hunt down Voldemort's Horcruxes. He is glad that he has "one last golden afternoon" to spend with Ron and Hermione.
* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: The protection around the Horcrux ensures that it's impossible for anyone (including Voldemort himself) to get at it without [[spoiler:hideously torturing them]].
* OperationJealousy: Ron and Lavender; Hermione and Cormac.
* PartTimeHero: Harry frequently neglects preparation for his battle with Voldemort in favor of sports and dating. [[spoiler:Snape calls him on this during their battle at the end of the book.]]
* PerpetualPoverty: Finally averted by the Weasley Twins, who take Harry's Triwizard winnings as seed money and build a very lucrative business in Diagon Alley.
* PleaseDumpMe: Ron takes the coward's way out and just pretends to be asleep every time Lavender visits him in hospital, to Harry's exasperation.
* ProperlyParanoid: Harry (finally) turns out to be right about Malfoy being a Death Eater and planning something.
* PsychicAssistedSuicide: A rabbit at Tom Riddle's orphanage is made to hang itself.
* PsychosomaticSuperpowerOutage: Tonks loses control of her metamorphmagus powers in her depression over Lupin rejecting her.
* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:Dumbledore. Let's see.... He gets an arm nearly burned off from a curse -- a curse that proceeds to slowly drain his life force away. Later he has to slice open his arm [[BloodMagic for a blood tribute]]. He drinks all that poison to retrieve the fake Horcrux. Then he gets a Killing Curse right in his chest and tumbles off the balcony of the tallest tower in Hogwarts.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech
** Played with, as it's not delivered by the BigBad, but [[spoiler:Snape]] does give Harry a rather good one when they are dueling at the end -- and, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows in hindsight]], [[spoiler:it's very easy to interpret as Snape getting one last chance to say to Harry, "No, seriously, get better at the things I was trying to teach you or you are going to frigging '''die'''."]]
** Harry also delivers one to Rufus Scrimgeour.
** Dumbledore also gives a small one to the Dursleys in the beginning of the book, calling them out on not bothering to treat Harry like a second son and instead treating him like a piece of trash, though he does remark that this made Harry turn out for the better, because Dumbledore was able to see what happened to Dudley, who had been given everything he'd wanted.
* RedHerring: Both Inverted and {{Hand Wave}}d: the book starts out with Snape giving Bellatrix (and by extension the readers) a detailed accounting of himself during the previous books to make it plausible he could still be working for Voldemort despite the previous buildup of him as a [[GoodIsNotNice bad-mannered but otherwise trustworthy good guy]].
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In-universe example. Fleur's insistence on marrying Bill forces Molly to admit that her future daughter-in-law is a far, far better person than she had given her credit for.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Snape was the Death Eater who told Voldemort about the prophecy, bumping Lily and James to the top of his list. Harry, naturally, learns this ''minutes'' before going after a Horcrux with Dumbledore. It takes everything he has not to start tearing the office apart like at the end of the last book.]]
* RomanticFalseLead: Dean Thomas
* SelfGuardingPhlebotinum: The cursed opal necklace that kills anyone who touches it. Bonus points for being a ChekhovsGun from its brief mention in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Voldemort.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: When Hermione says Harry has never been more fanciable, American readers may see that as Hermione simply calling Harry likeable, but British/Commonwealth readers will know that Ron is acting so jealous because Hermione has just called Harry ''desirable'' in public.
* SequelHook: Harry's decision at the end [[spoiler: to not come back to Hogwarts in favor of focusing solely on destroying Voldemort]] signals a radical departure for the final installment.
* ShaggyDogStory: Did you hear the one about how the Horcrux Harry and Dumbledore nearly killed themselves trying to retrieve from the cave [[spoiler:turned out to be a fake, planted by someone else to buy the resistance some time for when Voldemort came back to get it?]]
* ShoutOut: The captain of the Slytherin (the house known for cunning, ambition and lust for power) Quidditch team is named [[HouseOfCards Urquhart]].
* ShownTheirWork: When it is revealed that the only side effect [[spoiler:Fenrir's bite will have on Bill is a preference for very rare steaks]], Fleur declares that it is lucky that he is marrying her because "ze British overcook their meat." There is a French term "bleu" which is decidedly rarer than the British/American "rare". Essentially, it is just seared. The surface is cooked, but the inside is not really cooked at all.
* ShipSinking: Though not officially torpedoed until [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Book 7]], this book effectively sank the ship of Harry×Luna. However, it does still give the readers some...
* ShipTease: Harry and Luna get some moments, such as him telling her she's cool, refuting his thoughts about her from [[HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Book 5]] and when he takes her to Slughorn's Christmas Ball. After he asks her to go with him, Peeves also becomes a Ship Tease and starts singing, "Potty loves Loony!"
* ShotgunWedding: Merope was hoping to have one of these with Tom Riddle Sr., or at least have him stay with her due to her pregnancy.
* SickeninglySweethearts: Bill and Fleur (as far as Ron and Ginny are concerned), Ron and Lavender (mainly the latter).
* SmoochOfVictory: Harry kisses Ginny after she wins Gryffindor the Quidditch cup. (Also an AccidentalKiss).
* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Variant -- the one bringing this up isn't the one being accused of prejudice. When Slughorn talks about how surprised he was that Muggle-born Lily was so good at potions, Harry mentions that one of his best friends is Muggle-born and she's the best in their year. Slughorn plays it dead straight immediately after, denying any insinuations that he's prejudiced by rapidly pointing out that he's got several favourite Muggle-born students.
* SoulJar: [[spoiler:The Horcruxes.]]
* SpinningOutOfHere: Apparition is triggered by spinning in place.
* StalkerWithACrush: Romilda Vane and Merope Gaunt.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: In the cave scene, Dumbledore is shown to determine where the secret entrance is and the spells used on it without the use of any detection spells.
* SwitchingPOV: To show us Snape's vow.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Ron accidentally eats love-potion-spiked chocolates meant for Harry. Harry gets Slughorn to give him an antidote before things get out of control... and then he drinks poisoned wine meant for Dumbledore.
* [[spoiler:ThanatosGambit]]
** [[spoiler:Albus Dumbledore, though we don't learn it until the next book.]]
** Also, apparently, R.A.B.
* TonightSomeoneDies: Book 6 was hyped by the piece of info that one major character would die. Theories raged like wildfire throughout the year.
* UglyGuyHotWife
** [[spoiler:After Bill is mauled by Fenrir Greyback the Werewolf, Fleur still loves him. This is what finally convinces Ginny and Molly Weasley to accept her.]]
** Inverted with [[spoiler:Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle.]]
** Played straight with [[spoiler:Lupin & Tonks]]. Though we're sure some fangirls will insist otherwise. After all, Lupin is ''actually handsome'', its just his age and his lycanthrophy puts the odds against him.
** Also played straight with Mr. and Mrs. Delacour.
* TheUnchosenOne: Dumbledore makes a point of making Harry realize that, regardless of the prophecy, what Harry does is ''his own'' decision and no one else's.
-->'''Harry:''' But, sir, it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him, or --\\
'''Dumbledore:''' Got to? Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! We both know it! Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard the prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!\\
'''Harry:''' I'd want him finished. [[ItsPersonal And I'd want to do it.]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "Chest monster" is certainly an original term, though anyone who's been an adolescent male probably has no trouble sympathizing.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Dumbledore's death.]]
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: [[spoiler:"So, when the Prophecy says, that I'll have 'Powers the Dark Lord knows not' it just means Love?" asked Harry, feeling a little let down. "Yes, just love" said Dumbledore. ]]
** HeartIsAnAwesomePower: [[spoiler: Love is precisely what saved Harry as a baby: Lily's sacrifical love is the source of his protection against Voldemort.]]
* WritingLines: Seamus accidentally knocks Flitwick off his desk with a spell, and has to write [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick."]]
* XanatosGambit: Voldemort's plan (ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore). The plan is to give Draco an impossible, likely-suicide mission in order to punish Draco's father, Lucius, for his failures. But, hey, if Draco succeeds, all the better.
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