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Harry Potter And The Half-blood Prince

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Why did Snape decide to return to Voldemort? As characters mentioned in the book - what made Dumbledore trust Snape so much?

My guess is that Snape is actually the one who discovered a way to save baby Harry from being killed by Voldemort. And this redeemed him in Dumbledore's eyes. For, the only way to be forgiven for telling Voldemort about the prophecy and endangering Harry was to find a way to save Harry's life.

Snape may have invented a very powerful protection spell or potion for the baby Harry. We know from book six that Snape was a genius at potions and even invented new spells.

I just don't buy the vague "love conquers all" crap reason for Harry surviving Voldemort's curse. I think Dumbledore gave Harry that explanation because he could not tell Harry the whole truth--that Snape saved his life. What if the Dark Lord read Harry's mind and figured out that Snape was really on Dumbledore's side from the beginning? It's crucial that Harry does not know the whole truth about Snape, in case Harry's mind is violated by Voldemort.

I think that Dumbledore told Snape to do whatever is necessary to stay in the Dark Lord's good graces, even if it means killing Dumbledore. It is more important to find out where the Horcruxes are than to save Dumbledore's life.

Long live Snape!

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Harry wasn't killed so he wouldnt be an inferi.  Inferi are just animated dead people without minds (see Night of the Living Dead).  Also, it does not have to inanimate.  Rowling left this open when Dumbeldore said he thought Voldermort's snake was an horcrux.

One way of finding this out is by asking Rowling herself. You could say: I heard it said that Harry was a horcrux. Is that true? Maybe she puts the question in the rumours section.

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Just my 2ct after having just finished HBP.

I believe that Snape really is to be trusted now. When he answers Bellatrix's questions in one of the first chapters, he does not explain why members of the order showed up at the ministry. Wasn't that only because he alerted them? And Dumbledore claims that after he found Slitherin's ring, Snape saved him. The argument Snape had with Dumpledore in the forest could point towars Dubledore urging Snape to fulfill the unbreakable. Whether he really killed Dubledore in the end? No idea - but so far all the killing curse victims just died and didn't rise in the air (and out of sight).

I also supected the "Harry is a horcrux" thing the moment I read what they are. It could explain, why Voldemoort killed Harry's mother first and his father second (as we learned at the end of book 4). It would make up a thrilling end of book 7 when they kill Voldemoort and find out that his final piece of soul resides within Harry, imprisoned in agony forever.

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I'm often wondering why Harry himself isn't more interested in learning more about the principles behind magic

Probably the weakest spot in the Harry Potter books is, that there are, IMHO, no consistent principles in spells, enchantment, potions, transfigurations and the way and contexts they're being used in. I think JKR just dreams up whatever is required by the story at the moment without thinking about whether it could fit anything like an underlying principle or not. I'd be surprised if she'd try to come up with such an attempt in the final book.

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Nice screen name. I assume it stands for Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore?

As for the principles, I would guess that questions like that will be answered on her website eventually, as opposed to in the final book. I mean, she has to cram a whole lot of stuff into book 7. Book 6 didn't really answer anything except why Voldy didn't die. But every other main question is still open. Also, she haas already answered a few questions about magical "properties." I remember her saying that conjured items, for instance, only last for a short time, which explains why the Weasleys can't just conjure themselves a new house or robes. :)

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That's what I mean. She layed down some halfheartedly followed "laws" and things people can NOT do - but no principles. Nothing you can derive anything from. A sort of alternate science building on certain fictional basics is what's missing - but maybe that would be asking for too much.

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True, but we've only just learned really that people can invent their own spells. She never tells you the whole story right away. So I'm waiting until after the books are all out before criticizing the lack of magical principles. Personally, I want to know the limitations of wandless and nonverbal spells. It would clear up a lot of speculation about Dumbledore. But that's probably why she hasn't told us. ;)

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This is kind of a weird aside, but I heard on the radio today (Useless Fact of the Morning on WXEG 103.9 "the X") that the Harry Potter books are more often requested than any others by al-Qaeda Guantanamo detainees.

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;) That was on Mugglenet the other day. It makes sense though. I mean, they are popular. Maybe a bookstore donated them because they had 1000 extra copies. :dough: Have you seen the stacks of them everywhere? It's so funny, because those books are in such high demand for the first day, and then the stores just have piles and piles of them.
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...

I also supected the "Harry is a horcrux" thing the moment I read what they are. It could explain, why Voldemoort killed Harry's mother first and his father second (as we learned at the end of book 4)...

That is known as the wand order "mistake" and has everyone so confused that most fans have given up trying to figure out who died first. Or they simply accept JKR's explanation:

At the end of 'Goblet of Fire', in which order should Harry's parents have come out of the wand?

Lily first, then James. That’s how it appears in my original manuscript but we were under enormous pressure to edit it very fast and my American editor thought that was the wrong way around, and he is so good at catching small errors I changed it without thinking, then realised it had been right in the first place. We were all very sleep-deprived at the time.

This seems pretty straightforward at first, except that I would bet money that that was not what it said when she first answered the question. I read it when she first put it up, and it said James first, then Lily. I have a first-edition copy of GoF. (I got it delievered from Amazon on the release date.) It has the "mistake" in it. But if you go back and read through the scene in a copy where the mistake was "corrected" it doesn't make nearly as much sense. Harry says the person who comes out of the wand first was the person he had been thinking about more than an other that night. All the references in the graveyard scene are to James, not Lily. Anyway, I think I'll just go with JKR's current answer, and accept that it was a mistake in the original printing and it just wasn't fixed properly. Gah.

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Some random stuff that I've been thinking of:

At first I didn't like the end scene with Harry and Ginny, where they part. It seemed much to Spiderman-ish and I didn't like the idea of Harry giving her up. However, it has occured to me that he really didn't have any choice. Ginny can't leave school and go with him. She's not of age. So he had to leave her behind. There's nothing else for it. I wouldn't be surprised to see her again though, her birthday may be early in the year. ;)

Lily was the potions teacher. I'm really into this theory. Snape started teaching at Hogwarts in 1981. Lily went into hiding somethime between July 31, 1980 and October 31, 1981. Sluhorn says Lily was great at potions, perhaps better than Snape. Hermione, who is almost always right, thinks the handwriting in Snape's book looks female. That is waay to big of a coincidence for me to ignore. JKR has said that some of the Hogwarts teaachers have spouses, and that they are keys to the plot. Well, yeah, Harry's father would be key to the plot. *cough* Here's what I think happened. Snape and Dumbledore heard the prophecy. Snape tells Voldy. Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter are born. Voldy decides Harry is the threat. Snape finds this out and for some reason, does not like it. (I think he had a crush/liked/loved Lily, but anyway) Snape goes to Dumbledore and tells him his story. Dumbledore believes him. Dumbledore tells the Potters to go into hiding. They do. Hogwarts is then without a Potions master and a DADA teacher (like always). Snape applies for DADA but Dumbledore won't give it to him because he knows it's cursed. He hires Snape to teach potions. Snape becomes a double-agent. The Potters become more worried. They perform the Fidelius. Wormtail betrays them. Voldemort goes to kill them with... some other people. JKR refuses to comment on whether there was anyone else there. *cough* Snape *cough*

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  • 3 months later...

Just a theory here,

What if because he drank that potion in the bowl while looking for hte locket that his soul left his body. his body died, but his soul would still be alive, but without a host body, thus causing the painting to appear, but dumbledore not dead. he then will come bak as a ghost, becuase his soul did not die and help harry out.

I just hope umbridge will not become headmistress now like she did in order of the pheonixs

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  • 11 months later...
Hey, I say screw altruism. Harry ought to be a horcrux, but instead of killing himself, for the "greater good," he should screw everyone else over and decide to live for himself.

Not that he could, anyway, if Voldemort was still alive. He's never going to be able to live for himself until Voldemort is dead and gone, not unless he leaves Ginny and his friends and runs away to hide in a random country somewhere a la witness protection, and that's no choice at all. If he has to die to free himself... Let's just say I won't be altogether happy about that either. The injustice of it would be tragic indeed.

If he is a horcrux, my understanding is that Voldemort only made him one by accident. I don't really see how Voldemort could be resurrected from a living, walking horcrux. So, couldn't Harry just wait until he dies of old age?

Voldemort's henchmen aren't just going to go home and cry once their master's *dead* though. At least, Bellatrix isn't, and I suspect a few more might believe in his immortality this time, since he didn't die the last time. Bellatrix is also pretty much nuts, so she's just going to go after Harry until she's dead or has Voldemort back; she's almost as bad as he is. She wouldn't need to think that Harry's a horcrux. She wouldn't even need to know about the horcruxes. She'd just go after Harry because he's there and well, Harry. Not that this matters much anyway, because Harry'd never risk it.

Though, I don't think the horcrux thing in itself presents much of a problem. My current favorite theory is that Harry, in killing Voldemort's body, will create his own horcrux, only instead of splitting his own soul, he'll split Voldemort's off of his, and then throw that horcrux through the veil, or destroy it some other way.

EDIT: fixed html/bbc

Edited by non-contradictor
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"The veil" is the veil in the Department of Mysteries that Sirius fell through in OotP. It's generally accepted as a portal to the afterlife, or something similar. I'm not sure JKR has explicitly stated as such, but it's pretty clear from what happens to Sirius.

There are lots of theories that involve either Harry, Voldemort, or various horcruxes being pushed/walking through "the veil." That's the most popular method for Harry killing himself to get rid of the supposed horcrux. *shudder*

Speaking of which, I'm also curious whether a dementor's kiss would be able to rid Harry of the supposed horcrux. :ninja:

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I still don't think Harry is a horcrux. The prophecy said "neither can live while the other survives," meaning Harry can't live unless Voldemort is dead. I think that means that it is somehow possible for Harry to be alive after Voldemort is really dead, so unless there's a way to undo a horcrux without killing the living host...

We've seen one, maybe two horcruxes - the Gaunt family ring and the "heavy locket which none of them could open" in the display case at 12 Grimmauld Pl. The ring specifically was described as having a 'cracked black stone,' which suggests that the destruction of a horcrux is at least somewhat violent. And we don't know if the locket, if it was indeed Slytherin's locket, was de-horcruxed by Regulus, or merely stolen.

If Harry is a horcrux, the prophecy suggests there's a way to safely de-horcruxify him. I see no evidence anywhere in the series to suggest that JKR is planning to kill off Harry, even in the name of disenhorcruxification.

Making up words is fun!

-Q

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