Here's your place to ask any questions from the Half-Blood Prince! Anything that doesn't add up to you, something you'd like others to take a stab at? Use this thread!

Congratulations on making it through the reread!

I have two questions actually if that is ok! First, why does the minister say he only needs three dragons for the Triwizard Tournament and why did he need the sphinx? It was kind of confusing si could someone maybe explain it to me? Thank you.

I'm rereading the book right now! (I'm actually with you guys, I was rereading completely out of order, haha) So, I have one thing that doesn't quiet make sense.

Dumbeldore says that if some kind of tragic accident happens, then your powers can start to fade away, sort of what like happened with Merope, Voldemort's mother. Well, that also happened to Tonks, with her Metamorphing (sp?) powers. Well, does that happen everytime a tragic accident affects you, like your powers disappear?

I know it doesn't necessarily relate to the story, but I was curious about it.

EDIT: BasiliskFang, we posted at the same time



He only needs 3 dragons at the time because, technically, there were only supposed to be 3 champions. The syphinx was for the maze

I think that each witch or wizard is different and each would react differently to a tragic situation. Take Harry for instance, he has had plenty of tragedy to befall him throughout the series and he only got stronger, learning as he went along. Some people shut down when faced with adversity and others roll with the punches. My guess is your magic powers would be affected (like with Merope and Tonks) if you were the type of person who did not handle extremely horrible situations well. It could go along the lines of concentration, too. During the DA practices, Harry was continually telling the members to concentrate on their spells, so if your mind wasn't able to concentrate on your magic then that could affect your abilities.

I'm at the part now where Harry tried to get into the RoR to see what Malfoy's doing. In a page after that when the Trio is sitting in DADA and Semaus talks about an Inferi being spotted but it was in fact Mundungus and Snape does his usual sneer and snide comment, Harry asks Hermione and Ron why Snape isn't upset that Dung was arrested since their on the same side. Hasn't past experience taught Harry that Snape doesn't show any sort of emotion about an Order member. Especially since the year before when he was telling him 'He's got Padfoot' and Snape pretended not to know what he was on about. Surely Harry isn't that stupid to think that Snape would care now.

So do you reckon it was a mistype on JK's part and that Hermione was supposed to ask that? Or is Harry really as stupid as Crabbe or Goyle?

well harry can be rather dense, as is seen in the series. of course snape should not express emotion over mundungus being captured. even then, i doubt he really likes mundungus that much to begin with. really, harry somehow has still not figured snape out. he did after all miss a horcrux in the room of requirement when he was right next to it (bad move on his part). haha Slughorn refers to Ron as "Rupert" during aragog's funeral. was that on purpose by JK? I think so.

*LoL* THANK YOU BILL WEEZLY!! I thought I was the only one who noticed that Ron was called "Rupert" by Slughorn, I really did! I think it was done on purpose by JKR, it just seemed too likely.

lol yay for people who notice crazy stuff like that. One serious question i do have though, did any of James's friends (Lupin, Sirius, etc.) know about Snape and Lily's relationship? when harry says that Snape hated his mother, Lupin, who is right there, does not think to question that. whats the deal there?

I think Harry does prove himself to be quite dense more than once throughout the book series, and especially in this book. Like Dumbledore and I think Lupin told him, he is determined to hate Snape, and finds as many reasons as he can to place Snape on the bad guy side. I also think that JKR could have possibly been doing all that Let's-ask-stupid-questions-just-so-readers-suspect-Snape for the purpose of moving the book along...making things more interesting/mysterious/etc. Course, we're all too smart for that.