*_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Summary_*

Compiled by Lucas Richardson

This is a summary of the 6th Harry Potter book. Its goal is to hit the
major points of the book for reference purposes. It is not meant to be
arranged in chronological order in relation to the book, but rather by
topic, though for clarity some chronological order is preserved. Also,
I'm generally not trying to analyze what things mean and speculate about
what will happen. All I'm really aiming to do is to have something to
look back upon when the next book comes out so I don't feel lost when I
start reading it. If you haven't read the book, I'd recommend you do
that rather than read this, as I can't possibly do it much justice here.
I've left some things out, though I think everything of importance is
here (that said, it's quite LONG). I'm sure I've miss-spelled a few HP
specific words and names. Oh well, you should get the gist. Feel free to
copy it and do whatever you'd like with it.

*To sum it up as quickly as possible:* Harry learns of Voldemort's past
and in doing so finds that he's split his sole and stored the pieces in
objects called Horcruxes, which must be destroyed in order to destroy
Voldemort. The prophecy has basically come true because Voldemort
believes in it, but that doesn't change Harry's role. Harry learns many
new spells and becomes a master at potions due to a book that once
belonged to the Half-Blood Prince (as he later finds out, Snape). The
students learn to Apparate as well. Harry and his mentor, Dumbledore,
become closer than ever and Dumbledore is truly proud of Harry.
Dumbledore is killed by Snape in the end during a raid on Hogwarts by
Death Eaters who had been let into the castle though crafty means,
despite it's enhanced security for the year, by Malfoy (who is now a
Death Eater). Students are sent home early and the school may or may not
reopen next year, though Harry doesn't plan to attend. Harry will soon
be 17, the age of majority for wizards, and will (presumably) go off in
search of the Horcruxes in order to destroy Voldemort. Ron and Hermione
plan on remaining by his side.

*Detailed Points*

    * Dumbledore dies. Snape used Avadra Kedavra on Dumbledore (which
      should mean instant death) and he subsequently fell from the
      Astronomy Tower. The school closed before final exams but the
      Hogwarts Express did not arrive to bring students home until after
      Dumbledore's funeral, which was attended by many characters we
      have met throughout the books, including the Mermaids and the
      Centaurs. Dumbledore's body was on display and it burst into
      flames for a short time, after which a white tomb appeared around
      his body. Just before the tomb appears, Harry thinks he sees a
      phoenix rise up.

    * The Half-Blood Prince is Snape. The reference comes from the fact
      that his mother's maiden name was Prince and that his father was a
      muggle. This isn't revealed until the end of the book. Before
      that, the identity of the Half-Blood Prince is a mystery which all
      starts with the Prince's Advanced Potions book. Harry starts off
      the school year not thinking he will be able to take a NEWT in
      potions because Snape had expected the highest grade on the OWL in
      order to take the class. It turns out that Snape is the new
      Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and that a new guy,
      Slughorn, is taking over Potions. Slughorn will allow people with
      lower grades in (he's more interested in making connections with
      important people), so Harry is able to take the class. He does
      not, however, have the books or supplies for the class so he must
      borrow some. Slughorn pulls the Half-Blood Prince's book out of
      the cupboard in the classroom and loans it to Harry. Harry quickly
      learns to love the book, as it is full of handwritten notes that
      allows him to excel in the class (to Hermione's annoyance, since
      he is able to do better than even she). There are also various
      spells written in the book, including one to make people levitate
      and hang from their ankles and one that will slash the target. He
      uses the latter by accident on Malfoy when they get into a fight,
      not knowing what it will do. Snape is able to fully heal Malfoy,
      who was injured quite badly. Harry clings to the book throughout
      the story. Even when his new copy of Advanced Potions arrives, he
      swaps the covers of the two books so that he can give the new copy
      back to Slughorn and keep the Half-Blood Prince's copy.

    * Voldemort has kept himself alive using Horcruxes, which are items
      containing part of his soul. If he is killed and there is a
      Horcrux, then he is not truly dead. Before a Horcrux can be
      created, someone must be murdered. Previous wizards had only gone
      so far as to create one Horcrux, but Voldemort has made six of
      them so that his soul is split into seven parts (a powerful number
      in magic, he says). Even speaking of Horcruxes seems to be taboo
      at best within the wizarding community. The only people who know
      about the Horcruxes are Harry and Dumbledore (and likely
      Slughorn). We suspect that the 6 Horcruxes are the Slytherin
      family ring, Riddle's Diary, a Slytherin locket that Voldemort's
      mother wore, the Hufflepuff cup, the snake, Nagini, and likely
      something of Gryphindor's or Ravenclaws. He uses valuable items
      with special meaning to him. The first two items have been
      destroyed. Dumbledore probably should have died destroying the
      ring, but Snape was able to save his life and he ended up only
      with a charred, nearly useless hand. Once the Horcrux is
      destroyed, that part of the soul is gone forever. Voldemort's
      appearance over the years became less and less human due to this
      splitting of his soul.

    * Dumbledore always had some ironclad reason for trusting in Snape,
      who was at one time a Death Eater and originally came to Hogwarts
      to spy on Dumbledore for Voldemort. Snape had overheard the
      prophecy foretold by Trelawney and told Voldemort about it,
      causing him to hunt down and kill Harry's parents (as he tried to
      get to Harry). Snape told Dumbledore that he hadn't realized what
      happen and that he was sorry for the whole thing. (Just to
      speculate for a moment, Dumbledore was an overly trusting type,
      but I'm not sure if his absolute, solid, steadfast support of
      Snape could have been based on just this. I feel there is more to
      this yet to come) Also, at the start of the book Snape meets with
      Malfoy's mother and makes an unbreakable vow to protect the boy.
      Apparently if you break the vow you die (according to Fred and
      George).

    * Throughout the year, Harry has private lessons with Dumbledore.
      They use the pensive to look at memories from various people to
      see Voldemort's history. Basically, his mother's family was the
      last in the line of Slytherin. Previous generations had squandered
      away the family fortune, and Voldemort's mother, brother, and
      father lives in poverty and filth in a small hut. His uncle used
      magic on muggles and the ministry locked him up for it. His
      grandpa was abusive and put up a fight when his son was arrested
      and was also put in jail. Voldemort's mother was then left to her
      own and used a love potion to make a handsome muggle marry her.
      They had only the one child, and promptly split up because she
      stopped using the potion. It seemed as though she had given up
      magic altogether and ended up dying after putting Voldemort (Tom
      Riddle) into an orphanage. He grew up there until Dumbledore found
      him much like he found Harry. Voldemort had already become aware
      of his magic and had began using it for malicious purposes at the
      age of 11. Voldemort attended Hogwarts and returned to the
      orphanage during the summer. Voldemort became popular at school,
      and appeared to have many friends. In reality, he was always a
      loner who never needed to or wanted to depend on anyone. Many
      claimed to be close to him, but none really were. Slughorn had
      previously been a teacher at Hogwarts and Voldemort had asked him
      about Horcruxes. Slughorn told him some basic things, and it is
      through his memory that Harry and Dumbledore are able to find out
      about Voldemort's usage of them. Slughorn is reluctant to give up
      the memory and Harry must persuade him, which he does essentially
      by bribing him and getting him drunk at Aragog's(spider king from
      the forest) funeral. Voldemort began going by Lord Voldemort
      because he no longer wanted the name Riddle after he found that
      his father was not a great wizard but instead a muggle. He always
      wanted to be better than others. Voldemort had originally wanted
      to teach at Hogwarts immediately after graduating, however he was
      turned away as being too young (Though Dumbledore would not have
      approved, even then). Ten (?) years later, he returned once again,
      looking for a job. Dumbledore, by then headmaster, turned
      Voldemort away. Voldemort held a love for the school as it is
      essentially where he grew up (like Harry). He was not pleased to
      be turned away.

    * Malfoy was mysterious throughout the book. Harry noticed him
      acting strangely before school even started and followed him
      around. He knew Malfoy was up no good, but he could never prove it
      exactly. He suspected that Malfoy was a Death Eater (which turned
      out to be true) and that he was trying to do something with a dark
      object. Harry spends much of the book trying to spy on Malfoy with
      the assistance of the Marauder's map. Malfoy sometimes isn't on
      the map, which Harry eventually finds out is due to the fact that
      Malfoy is spending time in the Room of Requirements. The room is
      the same one that was used in the last book by the DA. There is
      usually no door to the room, but if you think the right thoughts
      one can appear. However, the room can take on different forms, and
      try as he might, Harry is only able to get into the room where
      Malfoy is spending his time only once. On this one occasion, Harry
      is trying to hide his advanced potions book and comes to a room
      where there are huge piles of things people have hidden over the
      years. The room itself is vast... like a small town. He passes by
      the vanishing cabinet will allow the Death Eaters to enter the
      school and he has no idea of it's danger. Malfoy looks and acts
      sickly and weak throughout the book. He obviously doubts that he
      will be able to repair the cabinet properly for Voldemort and
      stresses heavily because of it. In the end, he cannot kill
      Dumbledore, even though he is weakened and without his wand.
      Malfoy confesses to Dumbledore that Voldemort has threatened to
      harm his family if he does not help him. Dumbledore nearly has
      Malfoy convinced that he can protect him and his family if he just
      switches sides, but other Death Eaters show up first. Malfoy is
      last seen fleeing with the other Death Eaters.

    * Rosmerta was under the imperious curse (allows her to be
      controlled), though no one knew. Two (bad) attempts are made on
      Dumbledore's life. The first is a cursed necklace that is to be
      delivered to Dumbledore by a student. The girl is given the
      package while in Hogsmeade (we later find that it was Rosmerta who
      gave it to her). While she and her friend are walking back to the
      castle, they get into a fight about the package, as it will be
      caught by Filtch on their way in since he's searching everyone
      anyways. The package gets torn open in the fight and the friend
      touches the necklace, causing her to nearly die. They get her back
      to the school and she is in the hospital for most of the year. The
      second attempt involved a bottle of ale that Slughorn had bought
      from Rosmerta as a present for Dumbledore. Loving the comforts of
      life, he ended up drinking it himself along with some students.
      Ron ended up spending a week with Madam Pomfrey as a result.
      Rosmerta told Malfoy when she saw Dumbledore out of the castle
      (while he was on his way to the cave) and then Malfoy knew the it
      was time to bring in the Death Eaters.

    * Harry and Dumbledore set off to find a Horcrux. They leave the
      castle and walk to Hogsmeade (with Harry under his cloak) so as to
      not let on to what their actual destination is. They pass by
      Rosmerta before finding an empty alley and Apparate away. The
      place they go to is a cave where Voldemort had visited as a child.
      The orphanage would take a trip every year to the beach. The cave
      was on the shore and inaccessible unless you either knew magic or
      were an experienced mountain climber. Harry and Dumbledore go
      inside and find it completely dark. There is a huge lake with a
      glowing light at the center. Dumbledore manages to find a spot
      where he can summon a chain that brings a small boat to the
      surface that can ferry them to the small island in the center of
      the lake where the light rests. It should normally only hold one
      wizard, but Dumbledore says that Harry's powers are so minor in
      comparison to his own that the boat doesn't know the difference
      and thinks they are just one person. On their way to the island,
      they find that there are dead bodies floating in the water. Once
      there, they find the locket in something that looks like the
      Dumbledore's pensive and a potion that they cannot reach through
      surrounds it. No spell Dumbledore tries will work, so he conjures
      a cup and begins to drink the potion. He is fine at first, but has
      he drinks more and more he becomes more and more weakened. Harry
      has to force the last few cups into Dumbledore's mouth. Once it is
      gone, they pocket the locket and Dumbledore falls to the ground,
      dying of thirst. Harry conjures cups of water over and over again,
      but every time he tries to empty it into Dumbledore's mouth, it
      disappears. Finally, he is forced to fill the cup with water from
      the lake. As soon as he breaks the surface, the inferi
      (essentially zombies) beneath the surface awaken. Harry's spells
      have no effect on them, but Dumbledore conjures a huge ring of
      fire that keeps them away. This allows them to flee. Once out of
      the cave, Harry is able to Apparate them back to Hogsmeade. Harry
      later finds that the locket is a fake and that there is a note
      inside signed "R.A.B.". It is addressed to Voldemort and states
      that although the writer thinks he shall be dead before Voldemort
      returns to power, he intends to destroy the Horcrux. Harry
      realizes that Dumbledore was weakened and died for no reason
      because of this.

    * The final battle takes place immediately after Harry and
      Dumbledore's excursion into the cave to retrieve the locket they
      believe to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. After Harry manages to
      Apparate them back to Hogsmeade, they see the dark mark glowing
      over the castle. The immediately borrow a couple of brooms from
      Rosmerta and fly up to the astronomy tower. When they arrive,
      Dumbledore orders Harry to put on his invisibility cloak and go
      get Snape, who is needed to heal Dumbledore who is in a weakened
      state after drinking the potion to retrieve the locket. Before
      Harry could get inside, the doors burst open, Malfoy came through
      and disarmed Dumbledore. At the same instant, Dumbledore had cast
      a spell on harry to paralyze him instead of casting some spell to
      protect himself. A conversation with Draco came next as Draco
      couldn't seem to kill Dumbledore, and then other Death Eaters
      arrived and Snape killed Dumbledore. Harry couldn't move through
      the whole thing, but once Dumbledore was dead the spell was broken
      and he charged after the fleeing Snape and Malfoy. This brought
      him through the area where the rest of the fight was going on. He
      finds that, as he had instructed, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had
      done what they could to watch Malfoy, but it wasn't enough. The
      only members of the DA that responded when they needed help were
      Luna and Neville, the two social outcasts who had missed the DA
      meetings the whole year. Harry continues to chase Snape and Malfoy
      and they end up running away from the castle (No one can Apparate
      on Hogwart's grounds). Hagrid is there and is the target of many
      curses from the Death Eaters, but his huge size greatly diminishes
      their effect. Harry catches up at this point and attempts to take
      down Snape, but Snape blocks every spell and tells Malfoy to run
      on ahead. Snape indicates to all of the Death Eaters that Harry
      belongs to Voldemort and that they are to leave him. Snape becomes
      enraged when Harry calls him a coward and attacks him. Buckbeak
      attacks Snape at this point and by the time Harry can get back to
      his feet, Snape has made it to the gates and Disapparated. We find
      out that the Death Eaters were able to get through the enhanced
      security that Dumbledore had in place around Hogwarts because of
      Malfoy. He had found that there were a matching pair of vanishing
      cabinets that acted as a gateway. One was already inside Hogwarts
      at the start of the year.

    * The book in general had a less "school like" feel to it. There was
      less emphasis on everything scholarly, it seemed. Part of this was
      due to the fact that the 6th years have fewer (but more
      challenging) classes. Also, Dumbledore is killed before the end of
      the term and everyone is sent home early, so there isn't the usual
      end of the year panic during exams. Because everyone is sent home
      early as well, there is no points total or end of year feast.
      Gryphindor does manage to take the quiditch cup, however.

    * There is more "romance" in this book than any of the others. Ginny
      goes out with Dean for most of the book. Ron is initially
      frustrated that he had never gone out with anyone while his
      friends (and little sister) had and ended up with Lavender for a
      good while. It is implied that Ron and Hermione like each other
      they rarely spoke to each other (and when they did, they were
      fighting) the entire time Ron was going out with Lavender. He
      eventually broke up with Lavender, and while he and Hermione never
      hooked up, they are seen comforting each other at Dumbledore's
      funeral. Harry gets all fluttery around Ginny throughout the book
      and towards the end they hook up. At the very end, Harry breaks up
      with her, explaining that Voldemort will go after anyone he is
      close to. Ginny understands (perhaps before he even says it) and
      all is well.

    * Everyone takes driver's ed in this book. Only it's not drivers ed,
      but Apparation training. They don't get their "license" until
      they're 17.Everyone seems to have it pretty much down by the end
      of the book.

    * The book ends with everyone unsure if the school will open or not
      next year. The heads of houses decide that they will let the
      governors decide. Harry tells Ron and Hermione that it doesn't
      matter to him either way, as he won't be attending. He resolves to
      go off alone and fight Voldemort as he doesn't want to endanger
      anyone. R&H tell him that they're with him until the end though.
      The book ends with Harry looking forward to one last day of
      happiness (Bill and Fluer's wedding). This all means that book 7
      won't be following the same format as the rest of the books
      (without school and all). It should be noted as well that 17 is
      the age of majority for wizards, so we can expect Harry to briefly
      stop by Privet Drive and then be off trying to hunt down the
      Horcruxes and destroy Voldemort.

    * There is a new Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Fudge is
      ousted as he was ignoring the Voldemort problem. Scrimgeour is at
      least not ignoring the problem, but he is focusing more on
      maintaining a good image and keeping the public from panicking
      then actually stooping Voldemort. He is trying to do the latter,
      but the Aurors cannot stop Voldemort. The demeantors are loose and
      causing a constant fog over England and people are dying because
      of Voldemort. On two occasions the minister tries to get Harry to
      be the ministry's "poster boy" so as to make things look alright.
      The last offer he makes is at Dumbledore's funeral. On both
      occasions, he calls Harry "Dumbledore's man through and through"
      and Harry wholeheartedly agrees. (Dumbledore was touched when
      Harry had told him about this the first time).

    * Fred and George have their joke shop up and running in Diagon
      alley and are doing well. All of their items are banned at Hogwarts.

    * Harry wins a vial of Felix Felicis, the good luck potion, on the
      first day of potions by brewing the best Draught of The Living
      Death potion. The Half-Blood Prince's book allows him to do so
      well. Harry uses some of the potion when he gets the memory of
      Horcruxes out of Slughorn (to Harry's annoyance...he had wanted to
      use it all to impress Ginny). The rest is used by his friends in
      the final battle, which may have been the reason they weren't
      killed by the Death Eaters.

    * Bill and Fleur are getting married. The Weaslys initially despise
      Fluer. Bill is badly hurt by a werewolf in the final battle. The
      werewolf was in human form, so Lupin expects Bill won't become a
      full fledged werewolf. He does, however, expect him to exhibit
      some wolf-like traits and he says the wounds are cursed and may
      never heal. When Bill woke up, his personality was unchanged and
      he and Fluer still plan on getting married. Fluer and Mrs. Weasly
      finally came to an understanding when Bill was hurt and everything
      seems fine there now.

    * Harry was the person who was responsible for convincing Slughorn
      to return to Hogwarts. He had previously been on the run from the
      Death Eaters. Dumbledore couldn't convince him to come back, but
      Harry was able to. He was able to show Slughorn that he would be
      safer and happier at Hogwarts than on the run. Slughorn likes to
      know lots of important people. Moving from home to home, week by
      week, he had been out of touch for a year. He was famous for
      inviting important students (or mostly, students who knew/were
      related to important people) to parties, most of which Harry
      managed to avoid.