Cave men

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 26

I read this chapter on Saturday afternoon. I am writing about it Monday afternoon. This chapter hasn't kept me awake at night (plenty of other things to do that during the pandemic). The struggle is what to say that would (or at least attempt to) be insightful.

You've read it. You know what happens. The Inferi creep you out. You don't read it right before bedtime. And as my wife says, if she does read it after dark then she reads the next chapter before daring to turn out the light. Or, as she says she has also done on her five journeys through the series: stop half way, finish it the next night, then read the next chapter.

Who knew there were such strategies to reading Harry Potter. Any more chapters I shouldn't read at bedtime? No one warned me about this one. Fortunately, I read it in the middle of the day.

Something that amazes me about my wife and three daughters is their knowledge of specific chapters. Make that every chapter. I've heard them recite the chapters in order and give a summary of each. When I told one of them Saturday which chapter I had just read, she countered: "Oh, that means The Lightning-Struck Tower is next." Of course, she was right.

So what to say about Harry and Dumbledore and the Inferi Apocalypse?

The cave in question might not be your ideal Man Cave, but it is a Time-to-Man-Up Cave.

Dumbledore is really good at magic, but we already know that.

Voldemort was Dumbledore's pupil, so he can anticipate the Dark Lord's moves and tendencies. Not a stretch to believe that.

Dumbledore's trust in Harry is more evident after the whole potion-drinking ordeal. Twelve goblets full did seem excessive.

I never really thought about which Horcrux would be found. The locket is a good start. Will Dumbledore smash it or will he put some kind of wizard force-field around it? Not sure how that works, but I say destroy it into a million pieces.

The chapter finishes one of my favorite and telling lines so far: "I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore. "I am with you."

And to lighten the mood ...

A Tik Tok user made a video of what the Hogwarts uniform would look like over time ✨ pic.twitter.com/0T499c6g0E

— Film Feed (@FiImFeed) April 12, 2020

A Matter of Trust

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 25

Haven't tried a Harry haiku for a while:

Harry's got a girl.

He's still obsessed with Malfoy

Road trip to the cave

So what if I'm not much of a poet
That's why I don't often show it
Now let's have a go of it

Collective 🙄 everyone.

Going on an adventure with Dumbledore is exciting, but I'm more intrigued by an ongoing storyline. Besides, what happens at the cave will be, presumably, covered in the next chapter.

Harry's obsession with Malfoy's secret shenanigans (at least that's how Harry sees them) has risen to paranoia, or descended into it, depending on your viewpoint. And when Harry discovered that Snape told Voldemort about the chosen one prophecy, well, Harry just became all kinds of unhinged.

Harry is convinced that Snape and Malfoy are conniving behind Dumbledore's beard to accomplish some sort of scheme for Voldemort, like find a Horcux he hid in the Room of Requirement. He may be right, he may be crazy.

The question is this. Can Dumbledore be that easily tricked to trust the wrong people? Not straight up, but by way of a spell? Possibly.

The other possibility the author has given us permission to consider is this: Through the leading of Snape, Dumbledore has enlisted Malfoy to find a Horcrux or something else of value for the fight against Voldemort. (But the whole thing about Malfoy's fear of being killed doesn't jive. Still, Harry heard only part of the conversation, and context can be everything.)

And thinking outside the cauldron, maybe Draco's father is behind this mission. The only thing I can say for sure is that it's definitely someone.

Because Dumbledore keeps telling Harry to let go of his obsession with Malfoy, it is logical to think Dumbledore knows exactly what Malfoy is up to because he's put him up to it. The need-to-know requirement is popular with Dumbledore, so it stands to reason he doesn't have a good reason yet to tell Harry. And now Harry has enlisted Ron and Hermione to spy for him. Who sees that not ending with someone in the infirmary?

Of course, it's difficult to imagine a world with Harry and Draco on the same side. But I won't rule it out. I expect a higher rate of unexpected twists to come in the final chapters of this book and the final book.

Hold on to your Horcruxes, it's time to go spelunking.

Well, obviously

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 24

I had a feeling that Myrtle's mysterious bathroom conversations were being had with Draco Malfoy. The poor boy was shaking, crying and in fear for his life.

Now just who would be the sort to threaten a schoolboy's life? Or who might be directing a minion to make such a threat? Got me. 😉

Harry's reliance on the Half-Blood Prince's scribblings finally backfires with a shout of SECTUMSEMPRA! Slughorn would not be proud. For almost killing Malfoy, I have to say Harry got off pretty easy with detention even if it is with a teacher he detests. Sounds like an expelling offense to me. Snape must want to keep Harry around.

Harry finally finds the Room of Requirement when he needs it most. Imagine that. Lots of things hidden in there. Wonder what Malfoy's been looking for in there and for whom is he working? Might the search be related to the topic of Horcruxes? Plausible, but perhaps too obvious.

Sometimes in my determination to see all the signs and be Captain Obvious, I miss clear clues and play the part of Captain Oblivious. But guessing is fun, even when I am way off.

Oh, to miss the championship match of Quidditch. But Harry was apparently a great captain. His team won it anyway and greeted him with a loud celebration. That had to feel good.

Of course it all worked out. So who in the room was surprised that Harry kissed Ginny in the celebration? Not those closest to them, I think. I know I wasn't oblivious to what was brewing.

Hope they had a nice walk.

Horcruxes revealed

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 23

Quick random thoughts as I was trying to fall asleep last night after reading this chapter and finally discovering the mystery of Horcruxes:

• Wow!
• Talk about selling your soul to the devil.
• Like, how many times now does this mean Harry has to kill Voldemort? Gonna have to go back through the chapter tomorrow when I write about it. Too much to remember.
• What would it be like to do a Zoom meeting with each piece of Voldemort's soul? Would they get along? Would they plot? Would they just hiss at each other?
• Will there be a sixth "Diehard" movie. You could just call it "Diehard 6" to represent the six Horcruxes. Bruce Willis could play Sirius and come back from a faked death as John McClane. You know you'd go see it. 
• Finally, someone should create a phone app game called "Whack-A-Vol."

Didn't you just love it that Dumbledore didn't care what time it was or how tired he was when Harry showed up with Ol' Sluggy's memory? How could either of them have slept anyway?

Sluggy is so gullible and naive, so undone by flattery, so bribeable. Or does he love how it makes him feel important to impart such secrets as he did with Tom Riddle long ago and now with Harry? He's like an anonymous source. Most anonymous sources love the power it makes them feel when they tell a reporter something they shouldn't. Sluggy is a complicated wizard, so take your pick.

As the plot moves we have aha moments. This chapter is obviously an aha, and it's one on which it seems much of the story going forward will pivot. Harry had an aha moment when the memory caused him to remember something Voldemort said during their encounter two years ago: "I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost ... but still, I was alive."

Only someone with no love in them could even contemplate the murders it would take to subdivide his soul into seven pieces like a farmer might do with a large plot of land. The way he was talking with Sluggy it seems obvious his decision to chase immortality was made then. What better way — in his twisted, sociopathic mind, heart and soul — to survive a war to "purify" the magical race. Each Horcrux is like an escape tunnel, like another life in a video game, another way to pay back his mother for making him a mudblood. This is fiction, but it makes you shudder to think someone could pursue such evil.

On to the quest to find and destroy the Horcruxes and ultimately Voldemort himself when he has nowhere left to hide or Death Eaters to protect him. Here we go with a countdown so I will get this straight and will have a reference point to look back on should I get confused, which is more than possible.

• Voldemort, we learn from Dumbledore, created six Horcruxes through murders he committed. This is why, when Voldemort's curse to kill Harry backfired it didn't completely kill him off. When Wormtail helped Voldemort regenerate his body from his wandering piece of soul, that allowed the seven pieces of his soul (six of them Horcruxes) to be Voldemort again.
• Harry is reminded that he destroyed the first Horcrux when he stabbed Tom Riddle's diary. That leaves five.
• Dumbledore destroyed a Horcrux when he worked his magic on Marvolo's ring and was left with a withered hand. That leaves four.
• There are theories about what objects could contain the four remaining disembodied pieces of Voldemort's wretched soul. 
• One could be the Slytherin's golden locket Voldemort stole from Hepzibah.
• Another could be Hufflepuff's golden cup Voldemort also stole from Hepzibah.
• There's a complicated theory that involves the snake Nagini as a possible Horcrux (more on that coming).
• And then maybe something that belonged to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor or both.

Dumbledore has been quite the researcher, but he is puzzled by the day Voldemort killed Harry's parents and tried to kill baby Harry. Dumbledore said he thought that murder would be the creation of the sixth Horcrux, but Voldemort's first body, so to speak, died that day. His best guess is that when Voldemort returned he created No. 6 in Nagini when he killed a Muggle man. That's possible, but I don't think Dumbledore is convinced.

That brings us to the discussion of the prophecy, which comes across more like a suggestion the way Dumbledore explains it. Voldemort, he said, created the enemy of Harry because he believed the prophecy of the "Chosen One." Confusing, I know.

I like what Dumbledore says about tyrants fearing the ones they oppress. That is so true of all tyrants from leaders of nations to selfish politicians to insecure bosses.

In the end, it seems Voldemort has set in motion his own downfall in a classic battle of a being with no ability to love vs. a human being with a remarkable ability to love and truly more to fight for.

Now that we know all the stakes, the Order of the Phoenix can go on offense. At least that's what I think will happen. And sadly I don't think Sirius was the final death we will see for the good guys.

Let the Horcrux search-and-destroy mission begin. (And I would like to know for sure who the Half-Blood Prince is.)

Better to be lucky

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 22

The oddest of things happen in this chapter. And I don't mean that just because my wish for something of real consequence to happen came true. That proves you don't need magic. Just "Destination, Determination, Deliberation" will do. (And I still wish apparation was a real thing.)

The first domino to fall is the death of Aragog. I must admit that because I am 9 years, 11 months into this not-so-widely-read project, I forgot who or what Aragog was. Keeping track of Hagrid and his zoo in the forest requires a database.

Most of the time what happens in this book is not what you see coming. I had given up on any kind of magic working on Sluggy to give up his Tom Riddle/Voldemort memory. I bought into Hermione's logic.

I admit I have picked on Ron. I know there are readers out there who think highly of Ron. But, come on, no way anyone saw it coming that Ron would suggest Felix Felicis — the lucky potion — as the way to finally get Sluggy to surrender his memory. Hermione was stunned. Of course, she wondered how someone of her intellect hadn't thought of it. Just unlucky.

Then the luck begins for Harry.

If you want to get someone to blab and give away state secrets, what better way to do it than for the person to sit down at the same table as Hagrid. Dumbledore is wise to keep Hagrid at Hogwarts, tending to his animals and away from anyone who would try to get him to talk about the Order of the Phoenix, Harry or anything to do with the war against the Death Eaters.

Sluggy, under the in-direct influence of Felix Felicis, walks blindly into an impromptu social gathering at Hagrid's cabin, has too much wine and finally talks. It was just that simple. Why didn't I think of that?

Harry also deserves some credit for his persuasive way with Ol' Sluggy. His final statement after handing over the memory finally shows his reason for not wanting to share. "Just don't think too badly of me once you've seen it."

With any luck, Harry won't.

The unknowable chapter

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 21

Just what exactly happened in this chapter to move the story forward? Felt a little like another day, another COVID-19 news conference with little to no status change.

• If Harry's progress to get Sluggy to talk was going any slower, it would be moving in reverse.
• I do agree with Hermione. Harry will have to persuade the old professor to spill it about Voldemort and Horcruxes. No spell or trickeration will work.
• Harry does learn that Dobby and Kreacher have followed Malfoy to the Room of Requirement, aka the Unknowable Room. But Harry can't find the door and learn anything. So not much progress.

A wise man once said: If you can't find a door, look for a window.

• Snape is as grouchy as ever toward Harry and Ron. What deep, intellectual answer was he looking for about the difference between an inferius and a ghost? Probably nothing. Just showing his superiority again.
• I do wonder who Myrtle was looking for in the boys room. Seems like Harry and Ron should have been more inquisitive.
• Quite a mysterious encounter with Tonks. We wonder along with you, Harry. Why does she need to find Dumbledore?
• Invisibility cloak and marauder's map sightings are always fun. Scaring Goyle half to death was funny. But another dead end.

Questions, questions, questions.

Was this chapter a big set-up for the next couple chapters, the rest of the book? We need answers and something big to happen soon. Will I get my wish?

Friends and enemies

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter 20

Ron and Hermione are friends again following the tumultuous events of chapters 18 and 19. Near-death experiences sharpen one's perspective on life.

They thought about what's truly important: friendship and being united sidekicks for the Chosen One. They are the role players, the trainers in Harry's corner, the ones who put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

With the synergy back they can focus on the important business of Malfoy's secret plans, Sluggy's secret memories and the worst-kept secret of the elephant in the room. Or the elephants if you count Harry's secret feelings for his best friend's little sister. Awwwwkward.

Harry was humbled by disappointing Dumbledore in his failure to get Sluggy to talk about his Tom Riddle memory. Harry's creativity will be put to the test with Sluggy. Simply asking will never work. Maybe the Half-Blood Prince has scribbled a potion in the margin in the back of the book that would do it? That's just a guess, but magic must play a part it seems. Or maybe Harry just needs to find out what Horcruxes are first to make Sluggy talk.

I am baffled by Dumbledore's logic. He couldn't get Sluggy to talk, but he thinks Harry can? Must be one of those Chosen One things. All in good time, I suppose.

The first trip into the pensieve shows more of the same about Voldemort. He's a thief and a murderer. And he obviously knew what he needed to achieve his goals. In his mind, nothing will stand in his way.

Until, of course, we come to the second memory. Dumbledore firmly stands in Voldemort's way. No doubt the Dark Lord wanted to use a teaching job as a trojan horse to infiltrate Hogwarts, overthrow Dumbledore and turn the castle into a military stronghold and place for training Death Eaters in the dark arts. I suspect Dumbledore had the same or similar fears.

So it's off to find Sluggy, extract that memory and finish the Voldemort puzzle. Good luck, Harry.

P.S. Dumbledore's final statement about not being able to keep a DADA instructor for more than a year since Voldemort was turned down for the job is chilling. But I have no idea what it means.