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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Book Plot

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince immediately highlights how dark and dangerous the times are. A visit to the Muggle Prime Minister’s office, where the newly-sacked Cornelius Fudge informs him of the rise of Lord Voldemort shows how the effects of his return are spreading. Narcissa Malfoy visits Severus Snape, begging him to protect her son Draco from the wrath of Voldemort: Draco has been given a task, and she knows that for him to fail would mean certain death. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow agreeing to help Draco. Meanwhile, Dumbledore comes to Privet Drive, announcing that Sirius left Grimmauld Place to Harry in his will, then taking him to meet Horace Slughorn, a former Hogwarts Potions Master. Together, they convince Slughorn to return to Hogwarts, no doubt lured by Harry’s fame.

As classes start, Harry finds he excels in Potions because of a book which has another student’s instructions scribbled in it. It is said to be the property of the Half-Blood Prince. Dumbledore gives Harry some private lessons, in which the two delve into memories pertaining to the younger Lord Voldemort. They see his family on his mother’s side, and him as an eleven-year-old at a Muggle Orphanage. Viewing the memories is an attempt to find his weakness. On a trip to Hogsmeade, Quidditch player Katie Bell is accidentally cursed by a necklace. Harry thinks Malfoy is behind it. Meanwhile, he is gradually realising feelings for Ginny, and Ron starts going out with Lavender Brown – much to Hermione’s devastation.

Dumbledore shows Harry another memory: a memory from Slughorn which has been tampered with. It shows a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle asking about Horcruxes, but gives no further information. Dumbledore asks Harry to try and obtain the real memory, which he eventually gets from Slughorn by using a potion that gives the drinker good luck. After watching this memory, Dumbledore guesses that Voldemort made seven Horcruxes: objects that contain pieces of someone’s soul. Meanwhile, on Ron’s birthday, he is given a drink which is laced with poison and nearly dies. Harry again suspects Malfoy.

Dumbledore takes Harry to a cave which he suspects contains one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. They work through the dark magic that guards the place and obtain it, seriously weakening Dumbledore in the process. On their return to Hogwarts they see a Dark Mark hovering above the castle, and race back to find the school awash with Death Eaters, and Draco Malfoy waiting for them. Harry is hidden under his Invisibility Cloak, and watches in horror as Snape comes out onto the Astronomy Tower and does what Draco could not: he kills Dumbledore. Snape then reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince. At the funeral, Harry tells Ron, Hermione and Ginny, now his girlfriend, that he won’t return to Hogwarts next year, that he has to find and destroy the final Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione insist that they will accompany him wherever he goes.

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