Line #45 Fridge/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince


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12	! Warning: Marked and Unmarked spoilers ahead. Read at your own discretion.
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16	[[folder: FridgeBrilliance]]
17	* When Dumbledore visits the Dursleys, he notes that Petunia's Agapanthus flowers are flourishing. Another name for Agapanthus? [[spoiler:Lily of the Nile.]]
18	** And given the usual joke about how something 'isn't just a river in Egypt', this easily becomes [[spoiler:Lily of Denial]].
19	* Harry uses Sectumsempra on Draco 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 that 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.]]
20	* 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", because if he kept the same grading standard, the only student who would have been in the class was Harry.
21	** As Potions Master, of course Snape would only want the highest scoring students, because at this point, [[FridgeHorror if something goes wrong]] you end up with BodyHorror instead of HilarityEnsues. Not only that, but he has a very low tolerance for anyone who isn't a very good potioneer. By restricting his N.E.W.T. students to only those with an "O," he ensures that the only sixth- and seventh-years he'll have to deal with are the cream of the crop.
22	* 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 evidence of the 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.
23	** Which is why Dumbledore has future job interviews (e.g. with Trelawney and Snape) outside of Hogwarts: to prevent other curses.
24	** It also explain why the Dumbledore's Army was the only organization in Deadly Hollows that suffers the least amount of casualties. Harry was more consistent in his teachings in a single year, than several DADA teachers put together.
25	* 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 that 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.
26	** Not only that, but what specifically does Snape teach for his one year as DADA instructor? Non-verbal spells! He and Dumbledore both knew that 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.
27	** He also teaches about Inferi, because, as he notes, Voldemort used them a lot in the last war and is likely to do so again. In essence, Snape is doing his best to specifically train Harry and co for the task ahead.
28	* 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]].
29	* 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." In the ''Deathly Hallows'' films, Bill is played by Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Creator/BrendanGleeson, who plays Mad-Eye.
30	* 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?
31	* Throughout the first five books, Hermione performs brilliantly at potions, while Harry, failing to pay close enough attention to Snape's instructions, is mediocre at best. In the sixth, he starts making each potion perfectly by following the Prince's advice, which is what he should have been doing all along.
32	** 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.
33	* Who is the Half-Blood Prince and why is Lily mentioned in here more than in any other book?… Gotcha.
34	* 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 [[MercyKill 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]].
35	* 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 "BlackWidow". 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.
36	* 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.
37	* 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 that 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 that the original plan, having Snape kill him without ownership of the Wand passing from him, could still work. Brilliant.
38	** Alternately/additionally, if Draco ''does'' successfully go into hiding, Voldy (hopefully) won't be able to kill him. Which means that Draco would remain the master of the Elder Wand...but he'd have no idea of it himself, and then the ownership of the Wand would become confused enough it'd be pretty much impossible for anyone to trace it.
39	* When Harry and Dumbledore are visiting memories, Dumbledore knows that Tom Riddle's friends are in the Hog's Head. Why? Because the Barkeep of the Hog's Head is [[spoiler:his brother]].
40	* 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.
41	** 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 motion that neither of them could ever have anticipated]].
42	* 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.
43	** 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. There's also the fact that the Dark Spell used by Harry, Sectumsempra, was created by Snape, meaning that if someone investigates, he can be jailed for creating that dark spell.]]
44	* Remember how Ron has [[AttentionWhore always craved attention and admiration]]? Well, in this book/movie, he gets 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}}".
45	* 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.
46	** Right before the aforementioned scene with Dean Thomas and Ginny, when Harry leaves the Gryffindor boys' dormitory with Ron and Hermione in tow, they encounter Lavender Brown, Ron's girlfriend, in the Gryffindor common room. Unable to see Harry because he's hidden underneath his InvisibilityCloak, [[NotWhatItLooksLike Lavender believes Ron and Hermione to have been alone inside the boys' dormitory]], causing her to scream at Ron before breaking up with him. This is lucky for Ron and Hermione because [[PleaseDumpMe Ron wants to end his relationship with Lavender but is too much of a coward to do it himself]], and Felix Felicis sees to it.
47	** Even if the luck potion only benefits the drinker, the effects still make sense. Ron was becoming increasingly paranoid about even being seen by Lavender, it was only a matter of time before he started pestering Harry to borrow his Invisibility Cloak so he could vanish from her completely, and it's fairly heavily implied that Harry's getting irritated by Ron's constant diving for cover every time he sees a girl he thinks is Lavender. The longer Ron puts off the breakup, the more annoying it is for Harry. Ron and Lavender finally breaking up is really lucky for Harry.
48	* After Harry learns it was Snape who relayed the prophecy to Voldemort, Harry asks Dumbledore how he can be sure a talented Occlumens like Snape is on the right side. Dumbledore considers for a moment before replying that he trusts Snape completely. Dumbledore wasn't reconsidering whether he trusts Snape – he does – but whether explaining why he does in order to reassure Harry would be worth breaking his word to Snape never to reveal certain facts.
49	* 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 likely realized he would have been too shy and embarrassed to ask her out and decided to do it herself.
50	* It is well that Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes has expanded into new classes of product line in addition to joke items, because joke shops often require general economic prosperity to stay afloat and prosperity is not a permanent thing.
51	* 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 protection 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.]]
52	* It seems as though some people were baffled at how little impact the identity of the Half-Blood Prince had within the book or movie. However, that may have been the point. Why? Well, in the previous books, mysteries involving objects usually had a sense of innocence and childlike wonder to them, and were usually treated as one of the biggest deals. However, because Harry [[spoiler:almost killed Malfoy with a potentially fatal curse, being forced to accept the responsibility and hide the prince's book away deterred Harry from learning more about him]]. Even Hermione admonishes Harry, bringing up the consequences alongside the action. Later, when the prince's identity is revealed, consider when it happens: after [[spoiler:Dumbledore, the man who usually encouraged wonder, just died]]. With something like that, the HBP's identity looks like far smaller potatoes.
53	* In the film, after Katie Bell is cursed and Snape inspects the necklace, he chafes at Harry for "just knowing" that Malfoy is the culprit. [=McGonagall=] then suggests that "you go back to your dormitories. ''All of you''." She was chiding ''all'' her present pupils, current or former, including Snape.
54	* 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.
55	** There's also the fact that, say what you like about Scrimgeour, but he does seem to recognize and use talent wherever it can be found. While Fudge would've dismissed Arthur as a slightly eccentric odd-job man, Scrimgeour realized that Arthur really is much more than that.
56	* The Felix Felicis Harry won from Slughorn in this year's 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.
57	* It turns out that 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 that Harry was the one who would destroy him, Voldemort set off to kill Harry and his parents. Cue LaserGuidedKarma.
58	* Crosses over with HilariousInHindsight. Fudge was appointed as Minister of 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.]]
59	* 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.]]
60	* 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 [[MagicIsEvil 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.
61	** That would also explain why Tom Riddle Sr. never bothered to figure out what had happened to Merope or his child. If he believed that Merope was associated with the Devil, and that the child he fathered was little more than a demon, it’s no wonder why Riddle never bothered to find out what happened to the mother or the child. Who’d want to find out what happened to satanic figures? Ironically, Voldemort becomes a SatanicArchetype in part ''because'' Riddle never tried to find him (though there were certainly other factors involved)!
62	* 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 — who was a half-blood, and therefore probably got at least a partial Muggle education — 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.
63	** It's not a mistake: Riddle never asks Slughorn about seven ''horcruxes'', he asks splitting a soul into seven parts. Dumbledore spells this out: Voldemort wanted a seven-part soul; six Horcruxes, and the seventh part of the soul remained in his body. [[spoiler:Granted, Voldemort ''did'' end up creating a seventh horcrux, but that was by complete accident.]]
64	* Bit of a stretch for a MeaningfulName 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.
65	* 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 (which implied that 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.
66	** Made a tear jerker once you think about it... Voldemort believed his mother was weak for dying, never understanding the sacrifice she made for him.
67	* 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.
68	* Two for the meaning of Sectumsempra: 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)]].
69	* Hermione acting a bit drunk on butterbeer after the group leave the Three Broomsticks. Slughorn (obviously fairly sloshed himself) had spilled his drink over Hermione'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.
70	* One from the film: in the book, Harry and Dumbledore have to walk to Hogsmeade in order to apparate to the horcrux cave, and then return to Hogsmeade before flying back to Hogwarts. Because of time constraints in the film, this gets changed to them apparating directly to and from Hogwarts, with Dumbledore addressing the impossibility by saying "Well, being me...has its privileges." How so? Well, since he's taught there for almost all his adult life (several decades), he would know better than anyone else about the protective enchantments (both the ones that have been there for centuries and the recent additions in the wake of Voldemort's return) and would therefore know how to penetrate them. Especially since he was probably the one who placed at least some of them himself.
71	** Another possibility is that the school recognizes him as headmaster and allows him to bypass everything.
72	* 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.
73	* 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.
74	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik_ghfvFJzs In Noctem]]", from the movie's soundtrack, just sounds like your typical (if hauntingly beautiful) OminousLatinChanting... Until you take a good, hard look at [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/In_Noctem the lyrics]] (which are the same in English as they are in Latin). It's the "Love Conquers All" message of the entire series in two minutes, ''and'' it underscores the parallels between Harry and Snape.-Tropers/TenderLumpling
75	* The dose of love potion in the chocolates seems over-the-top. But consider that it was meant for Harry, not Ron, and compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1LLxB165jA Ron's eating habits]] versus how Harry eats chocolate (in the scenes where Lupin gives him chocolate for example). Still unethical of course.
76	** Alternatively, Romilda might have put way more love potion in the chocolates than necessary because she ''really'' wanted Harry to fall madly in love with her. If she did that, and Ron ate a ton of the chocolates, ''and'' the potion was unusually strong because the chocolates had been kept lying around for a while, that would explain the extremely potent effect.
77	* The reasons for Merope Gaunt being bad at magic:
78	** It's all but stated that she and Morfin never went to Hogwarts. Of course they didn't; their father Marvolo would almost certainly have prevented them from going, not wanting his precious pureblood children to mingle with blood traitors and Muggle-borns. (In real life, many parents with all kinds of extremist views prefer to homeschool their children to prevent them from getting different ideas.) Alternatively, they couldn't afford wands, cauldrons, spellbooks, robes, potion ingredients, etc., and even if they were aware of the fund for students who couldn't afford school supplies, Marvolo's stubborn pride would never allow him to accept that the last descendants of the great Salazar Slytherin had been reduced to living off of charity. Remember, he would rather have lived in filth and squalor than sell their last two precious heirlooms, the Resurrection Stone ring and Slytherin's locket.
79	** With the Gaunts living in extreme poverty, they wouldn't have had the money to shell out for new wands. In 1991, the Weasleys were better off than them and still couldn't afford a new wand for Ron, what with the things costing seven Galleons a pop. Merope's wand, like as not, was another hand-me-down, possibly her mother's. We know that "the wand chooses the wizard", and wands don't work as well for people who didn't "choose" them.
80	** The Gaunts were severely inbred from centuries of marrying their own cousins to preserve their blood purity and were down to a SingleLineOfDescent by the [=1920s=]. Even if they somehow changed their minds and tried to marry outside the family, it's hard to imagine even the most die-hard pureblood supremacist actually ''wanting'' to marry a Gaunt, given their inbreeding-related defects, notoriously violent tempers, and extreme poverty...which would mean their only option was to continue marrying within the family. Severe inbreeding could very well have taken its toll on the family's magical abilities. But wait, they did produce one of the most powerful wizards of the modern age...because his father was a Muggle, with fresh, non-Gaunt blood in him.
81	*** It's also hard to imagine that either Marvolo or Morfin was a good and patient teacher. Especially Marvolo. Since even Morfin seems to have been afraid of his father’s temper (as shown in the first Pensieve scene and when he expressed fear over how Marvolo would react to the family ring being gone), and Morfin was AxCrazy, one can only imagine how much Marvolo would have terrified Merope, who doesn’t seem to have been as crazy as her brother ''or'' her father. Marvolo could have so frightened Merope while teaching her that she couldn’t perform magic well, which led to a vicious cycle that only ended when Marvolo and Morfin were arrested, only for Merope to succumb to despair when Tom Riddle Sr. fled once she stopped drugging/cursing him.
82	* The film has a moment when Harry is dodging a question from Hermione about the owner's identity of the old Advanced Potion-Making book. While this happens, Ginny quickly swipes the book from Harry's hand and answers Hermione's question. She was quick to jump into this discussion because she had a previous experience with a strange book. [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Namely, Tom Riddle's diary, which compelled her to open the Chamber of Secrets, release the Basilisk and leave the bloody message on one of Hogwart's walls!]] She was making sure the same thing didn't happen to Harry!
83	* We see Mundungus giving things to the Hog’s Head barman in Hogsmeade. It’s possible that he’s giving [[spoiler:Aberforth Sirius’s mirror at that time.]]
84	* While Tom Riddle's main reasoning for working at Borgin and Burke's may have been in order to find objects to use to create Horcruxes, there may have been a secondary reason. What kinds of customers shop at Borgin and Burke's? Dark wizards and rich pure-bloods. Tom may have used his employment to recruit some of his early Death Eaters.
85	* The Gaunts' birth defects are very pronounced, as if they've been marrying within their own family for several generations. While the number of pure-blood families was declining in Britain, there were still at least [[https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/who-are-the-sacred-twenty-eight 27 other such families at the time]], many of whom were also wizard supremacists, like the Blacks, Lestranges, and Malfoys. But considering the Gaunts were proud of not just being pure-blood, but being Parseltongues and descended from Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell, they may have been arrogant and entitled even by their peers' standards. Alternatively/additionally, their poverty and, let's face it, total lack of anything resembling manners (especially compared to, say, the upper-class Malfoys) would probably mean none of the others would ''want'' to marry into that family. Crosses over with Fridge Horror.
86	* Dumbledore says to Petunia that they've corresponded, which Harry thinks is a bit of an odd way to refer to a Howler. However, there is not only that, but also the letter he left them along with baby Harry (which Harry no doubt was never told of, as it would lead to questions as to who dropped him off and what it said). And in Book 7, we learn that Petunia actually did write to Dumbledore as a child and that he wrote back to her!
87	* Snape's anger at Harry for [[spoiler: using the Sectumsempra spell on Draco]] is probably the most enraged we've ever seen him in the series. Obviously, he's pissed that Harry attacked and nearly killed one of his students, but there's another reason: at the beginning of the book, Snape made an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy to protect her son. Ron mentions that if an Unbreakable Vow is broken, whoever was involved dies. So Snape was pissed because Harry not only nearly killed Draco, but him as well! [[spoiler: With one of his own spells, to boot]].
88	** Adding onto this, if Draco and Snape had been killed from this (Draco from the spell, Snape from breaking the unbreakable vow), then Dumbledore's plan would have completely gone up in smoke [[spoiler: as Dumbledore was already dying, and there would be no Snape to guide Harry behind the scenes and keep watch over the school in the next book]]. It's very likely that Snape knew this, so his anger is completely justified: Harry very nearly completely screwed up their plan to destroy Voldemort!
89	** There's another reason: With Harry casting Sectumsempra and Slughorn's comments during the Christmas party about his sudden potions expertise, Snape no doubt put two and two together, [[spoiler: hence revealing his identity as the Half-Blood Prince to Harry at the end of the book ]]. With Slughorn also constantly gushing about Lily's natural talent in potions, it becomes clear that Snape was pissed off because Harry was essentially insulting Lily's memory by cheating in a subject that she actually had talent in and put work into. The fact that Harry was doing so by using Snape's own notes was an even bigger slap in the face.
90	* With the reveal that Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, the title of the book can also be read as "Harry and Snape." This makes perfect sense, as this book is by far Snape's biggest role in the entire series, and he's arguably the most important character in the book. In other words, Snape is pretty much the protagonist of the book along with Harry, with his advice (his notes in the potions textbook, giving him dueling tips) even guiding Harry along the way. Series-wide, this book is also the point where we finally catch on that Snape has much more of a role than previously thought, and shows that he was ''always'' looking out for Harry since the first book. Essentially, the "Harry and Snape" title could also apply to the ''entire series'', since both characters by far have the biggest impact on the events of the series.
91	* Harry writes a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay at one point and later reflects that he "fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors”. Harry almost definitely wrote about the Patronus Charm, but it seems odd that Snape would have tried teaching the students an alternative way, since the Patronus is the only thing we've ever seen have any effect on dementors whatsoever. It becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize that of course Snape wouldn't want to teach the class Patronuses because he'd certainly be expected to produce one as a demonstration, which [[spoiler:would reveal his Patronus's form and might cause Harry to realize that it matches Lily's]]. Snape may have even had to come up with his own way to counteract dementors over the years so that he could avoid casting a Patronus for this reason.
92	** Additionally, as we saw in Book 3, a Patronus needs a truly joyful memory or idea, not just somewhat happy, to cast. It's doubtful Snape has many of those.
93	** FridgeSadness: It's possible some of Snape's happiest memories are from when he and Lily were children, which would have been before his own prejudices and involvement with the Death Eaters drove them apart.
94	* Imperiusing Stan Shunpike might seem like an odd move for the Death Eaters, but it actually makes sense when you think about it. Stan is the conductor of the Knight Bus, which is not only one of the biggest modes of transportation for wizards, but is also fairly discreet in its own way. Apparition and the Floo Network can both be traced, but the Knight Bus doesn't seem to magically track its passengers. Having control over Stan allows the Death Eaters to keep an eye on anyone who might be travelling by Knight Bus to hide from them, and also to ride it themselves without being apprehended. Additionally, how easy would it be for Stan to kidnap lone travellers here and there and turn them to the Death Eaters' cause in turn?
95	* A flashback in the first chapter has Fudge notify the Muggle Prime Minister about the upcoming importation of three foreign dragons and a sphinx for the Triwizard Tournament, in accordance with regulations set by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. There is no mention of the Prime Minister being notified about a fourth dragon due to unforeseen circumstances, but that's because the Ministry of Magic didn't need to ''import'' another one. The First Task of the Triwizard Tournament featured three foreign dragons (Swedish Short-Snout, Chinese Fireball, Hungarian Horntail), and one domestic dragon: the Welsh Green. Instead of going through the trouble of finding a fourth dragon overseas and telling the Prime Minister about it, they just grabbed one from Wales and called it a day. Fudge's comment also confirms that the Welsh Green wasn't part of the original plans for the Triwizard Tournament.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder: FridgeHorror]]
99	* 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.
100	* The scene involving [[spoiler:Harry making Dumbledore drink the potion]] was nasty enough to begin with, but it becomes ''much'' worse when you realize what that potion actually does, as hinted by the flashbacks in ''Deathly Hallows'': [[spoiler:It makes you live through your worst memories over and over, presumably worse each time. Basically, Dumbledore was reliving the fight between Grindelwald, his brother, and himself that left their little sister dead.]]
101	* ''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).
102	* 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...
103	** Perhaps the Draught of Living Death and "love" potions are there for cross curriculum purposes with Defence against the Dark Arts? The principle of 'offense informs defense' is common in advanced courses, and since NEWT potions is a requirement for Aurors, that would explain why these dangerous potions are in the 6th and 7th year syllabi. In short, you need to know how the potions are made (i.e. what ingredients are needed) and what they do, in order to prevent some shady operations that use those potions.
104	** 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....?
105	** 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.
106	** It's also possible that the standard recipe wasn't wrong, just not as powerful/effective as Snape's.
107	** Additionally, he didn't ask for a ''perfect'' potion, he was judging them on ''which one was best.'' So yes, he may well have known that the instructions were wrong, but he would've graded them on how well they followed the instructions.
108	* Why is Snape so furious when Harry uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy? Because it's a lapse in Snape's Unbreakable Vow to protect him from harm at all costs. Meaning Harry unintentionally almost killed ''two people''. And it's a spell ''Snape invented himself.''
109	** Imagine if Snape hadn't been there in time to save Draco. Not only would that mean Harry is now a murderer with two bodies under his name, it would also completely derail Dumbledore's plan to destroy Voldemort, as Snape would obviously no longer be there to help guide Harry behind the scenes, or to look after the school. Meaning Hogwarts would have been a much, much, worse place, and Harry likely ''almost caused Voldemort to be immortal forever'' since Snape's patronus wouldn't have led him to the locket horcrux in the lake. All because Harry just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and used a random spell that he found in a book out of panic.
110	* During ''Half-Blood Prince'' and ''Deathly Hallows'', there's an army of Dementors "breeding" all over Britain ''and no one controlling them.'' Not only that, there's no spell described in the books that can actually kill them (a Patronus just repels them) and WordOfGod says they're immortal.
111	* 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 (though it's probable that Dumbledore would've kicked him out of Hogwarts if he had).
112	** How exactly would one invent a spell like that anyway? Did he just say random words and point his wand at someone until something happened in general, or would he have done research on various spell effects and try to tweak them to suit his needs? Either way, he probably would have had to test it out on somebody to know it was bad enough for enemies...
113	*** He may have even tested it out on ''himself''...
114	* 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 Azkaban. 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.
115	** To be fair, the dementors aren't actually at Azkaban at the time.
116	* 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''.
117	** No, because TheConspiracy depends upon as few Muggles as possible knowing of the Magic realm. He cannot achieve his aims with this powerful young wizard without this person's acquiescence, and they perform Memory charms on Muggles regularly to maintain TheConspiracy.
118	*** 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.
119	* There's an interesting, alternate interpretation of Voldemort's curse on the Defense Against The Dark Arts class. What comes across as pettiness is actually a brilliant piece of strategic warfare. Without a consistent DADA teaching curriculum, the up-and-coming generation of young Wizards would have been ill-equipped to fight the First Wizarding War. Indeed, the people teaching that position have run the gamut from the competent (Lupin) to the incompetent (Lockhart) to the deliberately obstructive (Umbridge) to ''actual Voldemort spies'' (Quirrel and Crouch-As-Moody), and several shades in between. And even if all of the teachers had been competent, the inconsistency that comes with changing teachers yearly isn't the best learning environment, particularly for kids.
120	** A comment by the Weasley twins lends more evidence to this having been intentional. Apparently, an alarming number of Ministry workers don't know how to cast a simple Shield charm, which is designed (at its base level) to block ''minor to moderate jinxes.'' It's literally one of the more practical Defense spells one can learn and employees in the Ministry, most of whom would have been old enough to remember the First War, ''don't know how to cast it.'' If that's any indication, the Defence instruction in Britain hasn't been up to snuff for at least a generation.
121	* There's a point where Harry is sitting across the train from Neville and he wonders what it would be like if their lives were switched (because of what he learned about the prophecy) and Neville was TheChosenOne instead. It never occurs to Harry that Neville's parents being linked (however tenuously) to that prophecy might be what got them tortured by Bellatrix et. al. in the first place. So in such a scenario, Harry's parents might be alive, [[FateWorseThanDeath but.......]]
122	* 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 months 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 from her when he realized what she did to him''.
123	** Even worse, he probably never got closure for his experience. He would have been locked in a mental hospital if he had accused a witch of enthralling him, and since it was before the Second World War, [[BedlamHouse it wouldn't have been a pleasant sojourn.]] And of course, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale it's impossible for a man to be sexually assaulted]], so ''no one'' could sympathize with him or offer him support.
124	** And it might not have only been his family he left when she drugged him... Who knows just how close he was to Cecelia, the woman he was seen riding horses with. They might well have been in love or engaged.
125	** 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.
126	* 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 ([[IfIWantedYouDead 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 in there; it was only luck that Tonks put two and two together. There was plenty of opportunity for nasty things to happen.
127	* Slughorn was lucky that he didn't have a drink of that poisoned mead when he was in his quarters by himself, because then he would have died without anyone being there to save him (like Harry was able to do for Ron). Not only would that possibly mean he'd need to be replaced (or Snape would be the Potions teacher again and someone else would do DADA?), but then Harry might have never gotten the full memory about Horcruxes, depending on when Slughorn might have chosen to drink the mead on his own.
128	* 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.
129	* Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt served six months and three years in Azkaban respectively. With Merope having left in the meantime, Marvolo lived alone after his release and died an unspecified amount of time before Morfin finished his sentence; and judging by the "welcome" that the Gaunts gave Ogden, they didn't often get visitors. Did Morfin come home from prison to find his father's rotted corpse or even his skeleton still inside the cottage after goodness knows how long?
130	* By the early twentieth century, the Gaunts are down just Marvolo, Morfin and Merope. The Gaunts were infamous for marrying their own cousins to "keep their family pure". [[BrotherSisterIncest And there are no cousins left for Morfin and Merope to marry]]. Yikes. The more you think about it, the squickier it gets.
131	* It's a damn good thing that Dumbledore found the cave [[spoiler:before dying]], and deduced that he had to bring Harry, and was able to figure out how to get in, and how to get to the potion in the middle of the lake, and how to obtain the Horcrux (even though it wasn't there; but Harry found "R.A.B."'s note), and was there to save Harry from the Inferi...
132	[[/folder]]

Context Fridge / HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince