From the category archives:

Horace Slughorn

A Sluggish Memory

by Travis Prinzi on June 13, 2009

c17-a-sluggish-memoryThe 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 place: when Harry tells Dumbledore the story of affirming to Scrimgeour that he was “Dumbledore’s man, through and through.”  Dumbledore goes speechless and teary, and Fawkes lets out “a low, soft, musical cry.”  Fawkes’s song symbolizes loyalty to Dumbledore, which is loyalty to the good.

It’s an interesting moment to observe after our discussion about Lupin’s loyalty to Dumbledore in the last chapter.   Whatever else you think about Dumbledore’s actions, this moment does not strike me as manipulative.  Dumbledore isn’t working up a tear to take advantage of Harry’s declaration of loyalty.  And Fawkes, quite obviously a symbol of goodness in the series, affirms Harry’s loyalty.
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Horace Slughorn

by Travis Prinzi on May 11, 2009

c04-horace-slughornChapter 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 7.  (I’ll introduce the second item when we get to it; good luck guessing until then.)

This introducing set-ups in Book 6 that get paid off in Book 7 was in and of itself brilliant misdirection on Rowling’s part.   Since we all believed, and to an extent rightly, that Book 6 was really just the first half of the Book 6-7 story, we were wondering how Slughorn would really turn out in Book 7.  I recall that one of the first essays to appear at HogPro (back before it became a blog) post-Book 6 was speculation on EVIL!Slughorn.  [click to continue…]

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