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From the category archives:

Characters

Sectumsempra, by Arabella Figg

by Travis Prinzi on July 2, 2009

Our next guest post comes from Arabella Figg! ~ Travis

c24-sectumsempra This is my first post here, and what a chapter to work on! So, no metaphorical Dung Bombs, please. (All page references are from the American edition.)

Sectumsempra could well have been titled Truth or Consequences, as deceit plays the starring role. Moreover, two events we’ve long-anticipated—a confrontation between Harry and Draco, and another kind between Harry and Ginny—occur.

The chapter begins with good news—Katie Bell’s return and the Ron/Lavender and Ginny/Dean breakups, Harry can now pursue Ginny, but fears Ron will disapprove; is he right (Ron has previously indicated how he would feel)? He returns Katie to the Quidditch team, displacing Dean who has played most of the year; was this fair? [click to continue…]

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Essence of Insanity, by “Lily Luna”

by Travis Prinzi on June 27, 2009

Special thanks to Lily Luna for her willingness to guest-blog for Chapter 22 of our Half-Blood Prince Read-Through! She’ll be returning for “Flight of the Prince” as well. Enjoy! ~ Travis

c22-after-the-burial I am honored to be asked to assist with the HBP read-through.

In Chapter 22, Slughorn extracts a bottle of valuable venom from the dead Aragog and Harry in turn extracts a bottle of valuable memory from him. Thus both spinners are milked of something evil. Harry gets the memory through a combination of drinking lucky potion, luring Slughorn with the promise of the venom, getting Slughorn drunk, appealing to his love of Lily and affection for Harry, and promising him that giving Harry the memory will cancel out the damage done by discussing horcruxes with Voldemort. [click to continue…]

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Lord Voldemort’s Request

by Dave the Longwinded on June 25, 2009

LVR Travis asked some of us to fill in on the HBP read-thr0ugh, since he’s busy, you know, editing a book!

It would be easy to skip through Chapter 20 thinking that the most important thing we learn is how Voldemort/Riddle came into possession of Hufflepuff’s Cup and Slytherin’s Locket. We know that both end up becoming Horcruxes at some point later. In addition, the connection between these devices, Hogwarts, and Horcruxes is foreshadowed both here and in the earlier Pensieve lesson. Slughorn’s distorted memory points to a conversation about such things with young Riddle, but it’s clear that he’s gone to great pains to hide important elements of that conversation — the wizard’s version of “trying to forget.” [click to continue…]

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Elf Tails

June 20, 2009

I’ll admit that not much struck me in the re-reading of Chapter 19 of Half-Blood Prince, so I’ll have to leave much of the discussion to the pub. Lots of humor, of course. The Dumbledore/Snape argument is the most interesting part of this chapter, but having that answer now, there isn’t a lot to say [...]

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A Sluggish Memory

June 13, 2009

The first few pages of chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince belong to after-break catching-up. Hermione gets filled in on the Snape/Draco conversation, and Ron begins to show more signs of discontent in his relationship with Lavender.
Fawkes and Loyalty to Dumbledore
The action begins once again in Dumbledore’s office, where one of my favorite Dumbledore/Harry moments takes [...]

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Christmas Eve at the Burrow

June 11, 2009

We’re halfway through Half-Blood Prince!
More Snape irony in this chapter: As Harry what he overhears to Ron, he’s convinced he knows that Snape is on Voldemort’s side, because “No one’s that good an actor, not even Snape.” Wrong! Funny that as Harry is being vindicated about Malfoy, he’s completely wrong about Snape.
Dumbledore really becomes a [...]

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A Party and a Promise

June 8, 2009

Harry was supposed to have been reading Quintessence: A Quest. Perhaps if he’d actually read it, he’d not have spent so much time wandering around and having to pass yet again through the three stages of alchemy in Deathly Hallows? “Quintessence” means:

the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water; was [...]

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Harry, Like Dumbledore

June 6, 2009

Let the snogging begin! Chapter 14 of Half-Blood Prince centers on the continuing misunderstanding between Ron and Hermione and their frustration with each other. There’s probably a lot to say about that, but I’ll leave it to the pub.
I want to talk about Harry. It turns out we don’t have to wait for the Slughorn [...]

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Young Dumbledore and Younger Voldemort

June 5, 2009

I think Dumbledore is as intriguing in this chapter as young Tom Riddle, Jr. is. I’ve written much about our budding sociopath in my book and on this site, so I’ll leave commentary about him to you all in the comments. I want to focus primarily on Dumbledore.
Dumbledore makes an interesting comment prior to jumping [...]

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Snape Victorious

May 23, 2009

Am I missing something, or does the artwork for this chapter in the U.S. edition have nothing whatsoever to do with this chapter?
It’s always fun to see Rowling playing with quick lines of foreshadowing after having read what was being foreshadowed. In the beginning of Chapter 8 of Half-Blood Prince, while Harry is paralyzed from [...]

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In the Spidery Broom Shed

May 12, 2009

We’re not yet done with chapter 4 of Half-Blood Prince. Before Dumbledore leaves Harry with the Weasleys, he has a few matters to discuss with him in a “smelly, spidery broom shed.” This is one of those moments which convinces me of my idealistic reading of Dumbledore, though I’m sure Manipulative!Dumbledore advocates have their take [...]

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Horace Slughorn

May 11, 2009

Chapter 4 of Half-Blood Prince gives us our first glimpse of Horace Slughorn, and Rowling’s narrative misdirection is in high gear in this chapter. Slughorn is one of two new items in Book 6 that get set-up and paid off (using Janet Batchler’s schema) within this book’s narrative, with almost no consequence whatsoever for Book [...]

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Dumbledore Visits the Dursleys

May 9, 2009

After two chapters outside of Harry’s perspective, we’re ready to get back inside Harry’s head again. But Rowling doesn’t put us right there. She smoothly transitions us back into Harry’s head. “Harry Potter was snoring.” And while our hero saws logs, we get a bird’s-eye view of newspaper clippings around the room. As always, the [...]

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Severus Snape, Fiery Snake

May 6, 2009

The last two words of Chapter 2 of Half-Blood Prince, “Spinner’s End,” are “fiery snake.” These were very well-chosen words by J.K. Rowling, especially given what she wrote in Deathly Hallows. The term “fiery snake” is used to describe the third and binding magical movement of the Unbreakable Vow.
Dumbledore said to Snape in “The Prince’s [...]

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Ginny Weasley

January 18, 2009

I’ve always found Ginny Weasley fascinating, given her ever evolving role in the story and the lives of other characters. In 2004, Rowling hedged her bets on Ginny in an online chat session:
Field: Do you plan for Ginny to take on a major character role in [...]

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Fictional Politicians

January 17, 2009

I’m enjoying the Saturday discussion prompts at the My Friend Amy blog, so I thought I’d respond to this week’s as well. The question: Who is your favorite and least favorite fictional politician? I’ll stick with Harry Potter on this. Feel free to answer either from Harry Potter (considering every member of the Ministry is [...]

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Beedle the Bard: Dumbledore’s Commentary

December 5, 2008

This quick-fire series of initial thoughts on Beedle would not be complete without a discussion of Dumbledore’s commentary. The real meat on this will be in John Granger’s promised forthcoming post on Dumbledore’s writing on two levels. Still, I hope to add a little bit of fuel to the conversation here.
Rowling did get a couple [...]

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Beedle the Bard: “The Tale of the Three Brothers”

December 4, 2008

Here’s the great irony of Dumbledore’s commentary on “The Tale of the Three Brothers” – The man who knows the dangers of temptation to power, particularly the temptation of deathlessness, used his authority as a well-respected, even revered, member of the Wizarding community to convince the Wizarding World that the three Deathly Hallows have no [...]

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Beedle the Bard: “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump”

December 4, 2008

What a fantastic little story! Aside from being a delight to read, there’s some interesting commentary by Dumbledore, who notes that this is the only story of the five that almost completely plays by the rules of real Wizarding World magic.
It’s an interesting observation, because even though the magical world is not, as I’ve argued, [...]

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Harry, War Hero

October 9, 2008

“It would have been a cop out to kill him,” J.K. Rowling says:
In many ways it would have been a neater ending to kill him. For sure, I knew that all along. felt that the books’ overriding message was that love is the most powerful force in this world. My model with Harry really was [...]

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Sorcerer’s Stone Week, Day 5: The Dumbledore Denouement

September 25, 2008

One of the key moments of each book is the “Dumbledore Denouement” – the final conversation, after the story’s climax, in which Dumbledore and Harry have a little chat about what happened.
Here’s a little assignment for Day 5 of Sorcerer’s Stone Week. With the knowledge of Dumbledore’s backstory in mind, go back and re-read [...]

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Sorcerer’s Stone Week, Day 4: The Snape Story

September 24, 2008

It seemed pretty evident in the first book that Severus Snape was going to be an intriguing character. This is a post dedicated to the greasy potions master. Several questions for consideration and comment:

In what clever ways did Rowling set up the Snape plot in book one?
Any Snape foreshadowing that you missed in the [...]

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Voldemort is a Failed Character (Part II)

August 8, 2008

by Dave
Part I of this series: Why Joker Succeeds and Voldemort Fails
“Behind the scenes” is a trope of long standing tradition in many forms of literature. In a recent essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Terry W. Thompson argues that the violent deaths occur off the page as a direct result of Shelley’s love of classical [...]

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Pub Discussion: Remus Lupin

August 5, 2008

Several of the recent discussions here at The Hog’s Head have reminded me once again of what great thinkers regularly visit and comment. Here’s a discussion starter for you all: Remus Lupin’s character. It’s time to give everyone’s favorite werewolf some careful attention. Directions to head in:
Remus Lupin’s “Furry Little Problem”
Werewolves are classic scary characters, [...]

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Happy Birthday, Harry Potter & J.K. Rowling!

July 31, 2008

Today is the birthday of our favorite author and her story’s hero. Happy Birthday to J.K. Rowling and to Harry Potter!
Exciting news: Amazon is selling copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, available for pre-order! (If you decide to order a copy, please do so by clicking to it from this site; that way, [...]

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