Hello from Hogwarts!
I finished the Half Blood Prince a few weeks ago, and it’s earned a spot in my top three favorites of the series so far. After all the intense drama in The Order of the Phoenix, this book’s minor mysteries (What’s Malfoy up to? Does Felix juice actually work? Who’s the Half Blood Prince?) were refreshing. Also, the couples who are supposed to be together finally start their relationships. I mean, Lavender and Ron are meant to be, right? 😉
Earlier in this blog, I wrote about Harry’s identity development throughout the first three books. His character changes and grows so much. Between facing Voldemort and dealing with the aftermath of his return, there’s no doubt that this whole series is Harry’s story, and the other characters are simply facilitators or barriers to his heroic journey. In my fiction writing classes in college, we learned that your narrator should be the character who changes the most. The classic example is Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby— The whole book is about Gatsby but it’s not his story because he doesn’t change. It’s actually the observer who changes because of his relationship with Gatsby.
While Harry certainly underwent the most change in the earlier books, he did not go through much development at all in The Half Blood Prince. His character essentially stays the same. Instead, characters who have been static in the past are now more dynamic, and as such, this book wasn’t really Harry’s story. In my opinion, there were two characters in particular who could have narrated The Half Blood Prince instead:
Dumbledore
Beginning with the end of Order of the Phoenix and continuing throughout The Half Blood Prince, Dumbledore’s character undergoes a major shift. He transitions from being the private, gatekeeper of wisdom to a transparent leader who doesn’t have all the answers. In Order of The Phoenix, Dumbledore admits to Harry that he’s made a huge mistake in hiding the prophecy from him. He promises from now on to include Harry in the mission to uncover Voldemort’s weakness. In this book, he follows through on that promise, and he decides to share his quest for knowledge with Harry rather than pursue it alone. For the first time, the two of them are on an equal playing field. This is especially clear in the cave scene when they search for (what turns out to be a fake) horcrux. In this scene, we see him rely on Harry rather than the other way around. I would love to hear Dumbledore’s narration on what it’s like to invite Harry into the knowledge he’s long kept secret. Dumbledore’s change in becoming more open with Harry, in my opinion, makes their relationship the most important one in the book.
Malfoy
Besides arrogantly sending Harry back to London with a broken nose at the beginning of The Half Blood Prince, in this book, Malfoy is depicted lurking in dark corners, sneaking around the castle, and looking sickly and pale. He often cries in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Even as an observer, it’s clear that he’s changing physically and emotionally. You can’t get through this book without wondering what the heck is going through his mind. When I finally discovered at the end that he was grappling with this mission was to kill Dumbledore, it seemed evident that Malfoy was undergoing a major character change. In the previous five books, he’s proudly and steadfastly boasted his Slytherin identity, admiring his Death Eater father Lucius and torturing Harry without remorse. However, this identity has never been put to the test until now. The fact that he can’t bring himself to follow through with Voldemort’s task puts him at a major crossroads. Will he keep trying to follow in his family’s footsteps? Will he betray his family and fight against Voldemort? Tangentially, Malfoy’s identity crisis in Half Blood Prince is similar to when Harry’s Gryffindor identity is put to the test in The Chamber of Secrets. Malfoy is just going through it much later, and I so wish that we could hear the story from his perspective.
Even though Dumbledore and Malfoy would have made great narrators for The Half Blood Prince, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Actually, it was the first I cried in during the series. Dumbledore’s death at the end reminded me of a professor and advisor from college who was very influential to me and passed away a few years ago. This book made me look back and miss him a little more. On a lighter note, The Half Blood Prince has been a great set-up for the excitement to come in The Deathly Hallows. I can’t believe I’m finally on the last book– quick shout out to Pipps for taking on this journey with me, my friend Meredith for watching all the movies with me as I go along, and my friend/roommate Kelsey for this promotional bookmark to gear up for this final epic.
And with that, here’s a quick note to those horcruxes out there:
xoxo,
Cami
The Girls Who Lived 