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Nightmare Fuel / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
  • The Inferi, especially when they come out of the water. Harry slashes at them, but they have no blood to shed, and they try to drag Harry down into a watery grave.
    • Especially considering the fact that Voldemort's Inferi are the bodies of his victims; hundreds of innocent people with families, floating in a mass grave, forced to do their murderer's bidding. The movie only made them creepier, just by making them succeed in pulling Harry underwater.
    • Made ever-so-much-worse in true Rowling fashion with the knowledge that one of those corpses is most likely Regulus Black, Sirius's brother.
    • A subtle but unnerving example in the film. When Harry is trying to give water to Dumbledore, he quickly fills up the previously-filled-with-potion bowl with water, but he can't take any water from the bowl whatsoever due to its magic... just when Harry realizes it won't work, he goes absolutely still. He slowly looks around at the lake, the water perfectly calm, surrounding this dark island... but he has no other choice. Slowly, his entire body language screaming that he knows something is gonna happen the moment he gets water, Harry inches toward the edge of the island and scoops some up... Cue an Inferius grabbing his hand, then all hell breaks loose.
    • There is also the fact that in the film, Harry gets pulled underwater, and we see, the floor of the lake is teeming with Inferi, and it is a large lake, what's worse is the fact that the Lake has probably not been visited by Voldemort since he placed the locket there, he gained the locket in 1961, and turned it into a Horcrux not long afterwards, that means that there is a possibility Voldemort had already killed at least near 100 people by the end of the 70s for his inferi.
  • The potion in the cave. It's freaking Dumbledore sobbing and pleading for Harry to kill him. And Harry can't do a single thing but force more and more of the potion down his mentor's throat. It's a real Tear Jerker.
    • The music/sound effect when Dumbledore drinks the potion. It sounds like muffled, distorted screams.
  • Young Tom Riddle. He made a rabbit hang itself, among other things.
    • And that is only one of the things the orphanage's staff knows Tom must have done, but cannot prove. As Mrs.Cole herself states...
    Mrs. Cole: Billy Stubbs's rabbit... well, Tom said he didn't do it, and I don't see how he could have done, but even so, it didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?...
    • What Riddle did in the cave to terrify two other orphans. It's never revealed what happened, and the two kids refuse to testify, so there is no proof the orphanage is aware of that he did anything wrong, but it does show, even at that age, that Riddle was a terrible person.
    • Taken altogether, when Mrs. Cole first says they'll all be glad to be rid of the kid, it sounds harsh, but when she says all the things they suspect him of, it becomes more understandable.
    • On that note, seeing a teenaged Tom Riddle from Slughorn's flashbacks is just chilling. In the book, Dumbledore mentions that most of those who associated with Voldemort in his younger years are too terrified to share their memories of him, and it's not hard to see why. Tom Riddle is perfectly polite and calm, charming even, but there's an undercurrent of menace that reveals itself every now and then. It's like we're seeing hints of the person he'll become.
    Slughorn: You have no idea how he was like, even then.
    • Riddle is in his late teens in this memory and he's wearing his uncle's ring - which means that by the time of Slughorn's memory, he's already killed Moaning Myrtle, his grandparents, and his father.
    • We also learn that Riddle already had a reasonable amount of followers while still a student. According to Dumbledore, these students committed several reprehensible actions at Hogwarts and never got caught. While we aren't given any specifics (other than the first opening of the Chamber of Secrets), it's heavily implied that whatever these students were up to makes the actions of the Marauders, Draco's gang, and Dudley's gang look tame by comparison.
    • One of the trailers for the film highlighted the creepy factor of Young Tom Riddle by focusing heavily on the scene at the orphanage, along with voiceover of his boasting of his powers ("I can make things move without touching them...") over dark scenes in the film, such as Ron's poisoning and the attack at the Burrow.
      (over the title card)
      Harry: Did you know, sir? Then?
      Dumbledore: Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time? (sounds fade out as release date is shown) No...
    • In a way, young Tom is like a dark deconstruction of the typical Kid Hero protagonist of fantasy stories who finds out they have magic powers. From a very young age, when he discovers he has magic powers, he's almost immediately using them to hurt other people and get what he wants, and the Muggle children and adults at the orphanage are powerless to stop him. He only gets more dangerous when he goes to Hogwarts and actually learns how to use magic. He was born to a great legacy, which turns out to be continuing the line of an ancient family of Dark wizards, and he attains power no one has ever seen before. In other words, he's what Harry could have become if he wasn't a good person at heart and didn't have friends, teachers, and parental figures to set him on the right path.
  • Every description of a new brutal death or kidnapping in the early chapters heavily emphasizes the current daily misery and paranoia of the Wizarding World as the Death Eaters attack people in crowded urban areas and isolated wilderness refuges alike. A wide range of established characters from all stations in life (Mr. Ollivander, Amelia Bones, Igor Karakoff, ice cream man Florean Fortescue, and Order of the Phoenix member Emmeline Vance) fall victim to the Death Eaters over just one summer, and it is made clear that they represent a small fraction of Voldemort's recent victims.
  • Throughout the school year, Voldemort's evil continues to affect people outside of the main cast, with there being brutal remainders of this like Hannah Abbott (one of the few students to appear in every book) being told that her mother has been found dead and a boy too young to even attend Hogwarts (although his sisters do) being fatally mauled by Greyback to punish his mother for siding against Voldemort.
  • Katie Bell touching the cursed necklace, floating up with her arms outstretched, then dropping to the ground screaming. The worst part in the movie is when we get a closeup of her face while she's being held rigid in the air. Her eyes are bulging and the angle makes her mouth look like it's open much wider than humanly possible.
    • That's not the only part that's terrifying about that scene. Even before then, when it looks like her body's getting thrown and dragged across the ground like some sort of human ragdoll, it's so inhuman that it could probably give The Exorcist a run for its money.
      • The last slam on the ground is especially painful to watch.
    • Her friend shouting "I warned her! I warned her not to touch it!" as Katie thrashes about on the ground.
    • Even Hagrid's appearance doesn't help to dampen the fear felt during this part, as he is absolutely serious as he warns the characters not to touch the necklace. It helps to highlight just how serious of a threat that necklace was.
  • The Deleted Scene where the school choir is singing that song is both beautiful AND haunting.
  • The fact that Muggles can feel Dementors' presence, but can't actually see them. These creatures are wandering the streets at night, preying upon victims that can't even see what their captor is. Rowling has stated that she based Dementors on clinical depression. Taken with the above, this implies that, in the Potterverse, Muggles who suffer from the disorder do so because they have an invisible soul-sucking demon lurking close by. Charming.
  • Apparition, when you think about it. In the books, it's the extremely-uncomfortable sensation of being squeezed through a narrow tube, unable to breathe, which is terrifying to those with a fear of enclosed spaces. In the films, a person's body is shown twisting, stretching, swirling... it's all very disturbing, especially for any unlucky freeze-frames.
    • If it's done incorrectly, people can be separated from their body parts or otherwise get gravely injured. Sure, in practice, you have plenty of experts who can re-do mistakes at will, but imagine being alone and having yourself go through that, particularly if you're not good at the particular kind of magic...
    • During the first Apparition lesson, Susan Bones manages to Splinch her entire leg. Sure, she gets help immediately, but it's still horrifying to think about.
  • The idea of Voldemort murdering people, then modifying the memories of others to believe they've committed the murders. Like he did with both his father's family and Morfin and Hepzibah Smith and her house-elf Hokey respectively.
  • Ron being poisoned by drinking the oak-matured mead. He is shown frothing at the mouth and convulsing violently. If Harry did not read the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making, it would've been too late to save Ron. And even then, if Slughorn hadn't conveniently left the Bezoar in his bag, it still might've been too late.
  • Right before, there is a rather unsettling moment when the love potion's effects wear off. The dopey look of infatuation fades away and a rather horrified expression replaces it; Harry and Slughorn just laugh it off. From a brain chemistry standpoint, powerful infatuation can have similar effects to drugs. What Ron might have been feeling may have been similar to crashing after coming down off a high, and he was only exposed to a small bit of the potion for a few hours. Imagine what it felt like for someone that may have been fed the potion for several months...like what was implied to have happened to Tom Riddle Sr., Voldemort's father.
    • When you think about it, what happened to Riddle Sr. is outright nightmarish. He was magically enslaved by Merope Gaunt, forced to abandon everything and everyone he knew; and basically raped until Merope conceived his child. He immediately seized his chance to escape when she stopped feeding him the wizarding equivalent of roofies, but he can't tell the truth about his ordeal because nobody would believe him; pre-WW2 asylums weren't the greatest of places and, of course, a man can't be forced into a sexual relationship, everyone knows that. Then sixteen years later, his Child by Rape finds him and murders him along with his parents. He might have been an asshole, but he still had quite a crappy life.
    • Harry really dodged a bullet here. The love potion that affected Ron? It was created for Romilda to make Harry "love" her. Harry was very close to suffering the same fate as Voldemort's father. Good thing that Hermione warned him about the very possibility of Romilda trying such a thing and Harry himself seeing the effects of the love potion used by Merope.
  • McGonagall manages to get one due to being the same Reasonable Authority Figure as ever. She's always been willing to reprimand Harry for breaking rules or acting up, treating him like any other student despite knowing what he's been going through since he was a year old. But in this book, Harry crosses some serious lines and she responds appropriately. When Harry accuses Malfoy of cursing Katie, McGonagall is quietly disgusted, coldly warning Harry that the former is a very serious accusation and chastising him for seemingly making it out of his long-standing grudge with his rival (the film perfectly portrays this, showing her reprimanding him in a quiet, furious tone). When Harry casts Sectumsempra, the gloves come off and McGonagall is absolutely livid, and viciously tears him a new one for his actions, telling him that he should be expelled. Seeing such a kind, if stern authority figure who has always loved Harry now viciously angry and disappointed with him is deeply unsettling.
  • Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf who infected Lupin, is one of the nastiest villains in the series. While most other werewolves tend to isolate themselves before their transformations so they can't hurt anyone, Greyback is a Fully-Embraced Fiend who gets as close as possible to potential victims before the full moon rises. He specialises in going after kids—usually to infect and recruit them but once killing a little boy. He even tries to eat people when the moon's not full, at one point attacking Bill in human form and leaving him with permanent scars. The child predator overtones don't help.
    Lupin: Fenrir Greyback is, perhaps, the most savage werewolf alive today. He regards it as his mission in life to bite and to contaminate as many people as possible; he wants to create enough werewolves to overcome the wizards. Voldemort has promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specializes in children...bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards...
    • The fact that the books and films never directly depict him in his canid form makes him all the more unnerving. Without emphasis on a full-moon-induced Superpowered Evil Side, he can be seen as less of a savage, bipedal wolf, and more of a savage (and decently clever) human being — who can withhold or employ strength and monstrosity nearing that of a transformed werewolf almost whenever he wants to.
    • There is also the fact that he is shown in the films to apparently be permanently in a quasi-wolfman form at all times, like his embracing of his wolf side has caused a sort of Fusion Dance between them, even in the books his "human" side personality is described as not being that different from how a werewolf acts.
  • The Attack on the Burrow in the film version. Regardless of what you may think about its inclusion note , the scene is terrifying: Voldemort and his followers are back in power, and they are able to appear/attack anywhere. The ones attacking involve an Ax-Crazy woman who tortured several into insanity, and a werewolf who has no hesitation in spreading lycanthropy... and they're toying with you, trying to draw you away from others, which succeeded on Harry and Ginny. Then once they have you alone, they hunt you... not just fight, but constantly apparate around to make you unsure where they are, hiding until the right moment to strike. Then at the end, just like the attack itself, they damage the Burrow for the fun of it. The book had vibes of this, but never was "nowhere is safe" so strongly showcased.
  • And speaking of nowhere being safe, the fact that a whole team of Death Eaters gets into Hogwarts, which is supposed to be the most secure location in Britain. If they can get in there...
  • The Sectumsempra curse, particularly from the point of view of a victim. Imagine having your skin cut open without anything even touching it, to the point that you could bleed to death. Even if the first victim is Draco Malfoy, you can imagine Harry's horror at seeing blood spurt from his opponent's body "as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword".
    • Especially since it's implied the wounds bleed more freely and don't close as quickly as normal cuts (or don't close at all, short of magical intervention). Bleeding out from being slashed deeply in the chest is one thing, but bleeding to death from a small cut on the cheek?
  • Malfoy essentially joined a terrorist cult and is tasked with killing someone, namely Dumbledore. Granted, when he confronts Dumbledore, he obviously can't do it face-to-face. Now remember the effects of the necklace and the poisoned mead? All Malfoy's idea. In his fear and despair, Draco actually risked more lives by accident in his efforts to just get Dumbledore.
    • Draco himself is sixteen years old and involved with a group of people who are known for torture and murder by most of the wizarding community. Even worse, he's being forced into engaging in these very activities for fear of his life. Meanwhile, his father is in jail and his mother can do nothing to protect him.
  • On her way out of Hogwarts, Bellatrix takes the time to burn down Hagrid's hut with Hagrid distracted battling the Death Eaters outside. Hagrid furiously roars that poor Fang is in there, and soon the poor dog's cries of panic are heard. Luckily, Hagrid manages to save his beloved dog, but the poor animal is left with singed fur and burns. Hagrid also mentions that a bunch of Bowtruckles were burned to death in the carnage.
  • What kind of abuse did Merope Gaunt suffer at the hands of her father and brother if it was literally bad enough to suppress her magic? The only other example of this that we see is Ariana Dumbledore suppressing her own magic after she was assaulted by Muggle boys for performing accidental magic, which was apparently so traumatic that it forced little Ariana into seclusion for the rest of her young life. No wonder Merope was so warped by the end.
    • And Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them makes it even worse.
    • The Gaunts (or at least Marvolo and Morfin) are extremely proud of their pure-blood status and their direct descent from Salazar Slytherin. The descriptions of all three make it pretty clear the family is heavily inbred. It's pretty clear how Marvolo intended the family line to continue.
      • Speaking of Merope, Dumbledore lampshades that the reason why she stopped giving Riddle the love potion was because she truly loved him. It doesn't make her actions justifiable, but it does help to understand when you see the abuse she endured and all she wanted was someone to love her. Made even worse by the theory that Merope, likely due to this, had a high-risk pregnancy and had to choose: Abort her baby and live, or die and give birth. To make matters worse, Tom Riddle Sr. was an arrogant prick. He was objectively not a nice person, but he was an infinitely better option for Merope than what she had available.
      • For that matter, where'd Merope learn how to brew a love potion? It's implied she wasn't that talented or intelligent. Going back to the fact that the Gaunt family was obviously inbred, was the use of Love Potion a family tradition in the past to get 'unwilling' family members to be more 'compliant'?
  • When Harry learns that Snape was the one who overheard Trelawney's prophecy, he loses his temper and storms to Dumbledore's office ready to start a new rampage like he did after Sirius's death. When Dumbledore learns why he's so angry, he actually pales for a moment, realizing that this is the last thing Harry needed to know and it's going to be hard to get him back in line after this. He does his best to smooth things over since they're about to go looking for the locket, but he's just barely able to do it and seems to realize that Harry is never going to respect or care for Snape, at least without knowing the whole truth. Dumbledore for once shows genuine panic realizing that a secret he'd have preferred to not fall into Harry's hands is now exactly where he didn't want it.
    • There's also a moment in this scene where Harry continues to express distrust of Snape and begins to imply that Dumbledore is leaving the school unprotected. Dumbledore actually becomes genuinely angry with Harry for the first time for daring to accuse him of not doing everything he can to protect the school, staff, and students. Harry quickly becomes cowed, realizing he's crossed a line, and Dumbledore quickly moves the conversation along due to having more important things, but Dumbledore actually becoming furious with Harry is a sight that Harry mercifully only has to see once in his life.
  • When Snape finally confronts Dumbledore, from Harry's perspective, it's Snape announcing his betrayal full-on. And the Death Eaters are bickering until everybody hears something that cows every single one of them, from sadistic psychopath Bellatrix to bloodthirsty beast Greyback.
    Dumbledore: Severus... Severus, please.
    • From everyone's perspective besides Snape, Dumbledore is pleading for his life, apparently only realizing too late whose side Snape is really on. To hear this paragon of good and power begging for his life turns everyone's blood to ice.
  • The reactions of everyone to Dumbledore's death at Snape's hands. His colleagues and mentors are shaken; Slughorn is completely shell-shocked never thinking Snape was capable of this, McGonagall laments this "terrible stain" on the school's history. The Order is in despair and shock, with Lupin and Tonks both in horror since they always trusted Dumbledore who trusted Snape.
  • The scene where Malfoy is testing the Vanishing Cabinet, using a bird as a guinea pig. It returns to him dead, which is creepy in and of itself and is proof that the cabinet doesn't work yet, but it's easy to imagine that Voldemort was at the other end and killed the bird to send a threatening message to Draco.
  • The curse on the ring. Going by Dumbledore's symptoms, Riddle imitated the necrosis-inducing effects of Bothrops asper venom—except that apparently even amputation won't work for the curse.

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