The Burrow: The Half-Blood Prince

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by Michael Rogers

Ever since Rowling released the official name of the 6th Harry Potter book people have wondered, who is the HBP and what purpose will he serve? Now, I know that about 13 of these have been written under The Burrow, so I know you’ve heard what I’m about to say, so I’ll be quick. I am slightly disappointed in some of the theories that are going around, so this article is to shed some light on the HBP. First, let’s look at what the HBP may be.

(1) Some form of royalty.
This is saying that perhaps the HBP is actually from some royal family, that the ‘prince’ in its name is quite literal. I don’t buy this for a second. The Harry Potter series takes place in a time when Royalty has been abolished. Then again, it could be royalty as the Queen of England has royalty. Being as JKR is British this might make sense. But I doubt that Harry could have failed to hear about this in 5 years of the magical world. Let alone in company of Albus Dumbledore who seems to be aware of everything. And, in my opinion, this would be slightly cheesy. It would not tally with Rowling’s other brilliant story lines if it turned out to be so literal.

(2) An heir.
As most of you know, Half-Blood Prince was the original name for CoS. In that case it would have referred to Tom Riddle, who was to be revealed as the ‘Heir of Slytherin.’ He was the Half-Blood Prince. Prince being taken as meaning of ‘heir’ which can be linked to royalty in the form that Slytherin himself was very powerful and his lineage was to unlock the Chamber of Secrets. (I’m saying this while under the assumption the Storyline for CoS never changed; I am unsure if the story JKR was writing while the 2nd book had the name HBP is the same as the story of the CoS. Did that make sense?)

Well, I like this idea better than the first. It’s more creative than just an out right prince. It’s possible that we may see the ‘Heir of Gryffindor’ in this new book. Then again, an heir would be the same heir if they were pureblood. Then again, it may just be the heir we are focusing on is half-blood.

(3) A play on words. (title)
It’s possible that the HBP is just someone who will ally the magical world behind him for the upcoming conflict. They will be given the title of Half-Blood Prince. Someone everyone can respect and admire; someone that people will ally behind. Somewhat unlikely in my opinion, because, with Dumbledore and Harry on the scene, there will be little need for this person. But all the same, let us not rule out this option.

Now, I have said what I believe the HBP may be; now let’s move on to who it may be. We know it’s not Harry or Voldemort from JKR’s site. To rule out others, I will break down the title Half-Blood Prince.

(1) Half-Blood
The first part is quite obvious really. The HBP must be a Half-blood. Though we do not realize what bloods the HBP is half this does effectively rule out some.

-The Weasley family: pureblood
-The Malfoy family: pureblood
-The Longbottom family: pureblood
-Justin Finch-Fletchly: Muggleborn
-The Creevey brothers: Muggleborn

Being as the list of purebloods and Muggleborns goes on and on, and I am sure someone has already done this, all Muggleborn and purebloods are removed from the list indefinably. I have two people left to remove…

-Dumbledore: I think he is pureblood. It would build on his character. What sounds more impressive: a pureblood saying all bloods are equal or a half-blood saying all bloods are equal. It makes Dumbledore’s words nobler. Much like when Ron says it makes no difference what blood you are in CoS.

-Dudley: IF (and I put huge, gigantic emphasis on ‘if’) he is magical, he’s Muggleborn. Here’s my logic. In SS (Chp. 5, p 78) Harry is talking to Malfoy for the first time and Malfoy asks Harry if his parents were both magic and Harry replies ‘They were a witch and a wizard, if that’s what you mean.’ Now from that statement we can gather Harry is pureblood. However, this cannot be, because countless times throughout the series (though mainly in CoS, GoF, and OotP) Harry is called a half blood by Voldemort, Bellatrix, Dumbledore, and I’m sure there are others, though they allude my memory at the moment. So we must assume that on a big revelation such as this (I call this big because the fact that Harry and Voldemort are both half-bloods and that Voldemort chose the half-blood over the pureblood as an equal are both important to the series as a whole.), JKR’s word must be correct. Therefore, though Lily is magical, she must be counted as a muggle because of her muggle parentage, which must carry through to Harry, accounting for the ‘muggle’ half of ‘half-blood’ and making it impossible for him to be pureblood. Since Petunia cannot be anything more than a Muggleborn, if that, (I say this because she cannot be of Magic decent because that would contradict all the times Lily is called ‘mud-blood’ or ‘Muggleborn’ and would, in turn, make Harry pureblood.) that means that she would be counted as a Muggle as Lily would, and then she married a Muggle, Vernon, and therefore, Dudley would be a half blood. But I don’t buy the idea that there is magic in Petunia and Dudley at all, for that matter.

Now, this leaves many people still on the list, so I will move on to the rest of the title.

(2) Prince (male)
This means two things really. So I’m going to list it again. Its first, most obvious meaning is that it must be male, which thereby eliminates all females in the series.

(3) Prince (not king)
This may come as a bit of a stretch but I just thought of this today. This means the HBP must have a father, otherwise, they would the Half Blood King. This does many things: It eliminates Hagrid (no father; in fact, I would to eliminate Hagrid from any list, because I cannot see Hagrid with the title ‘prince’ because princes either have a father or are traditionally young. Hagrid is about 66 (he was in third year when the Chamber was opened and we are told that was 50 years ago) so therefore, he is neither.), Dean (no father, according to JKR; he may have a step-father but it would only matter that the father that made him a ‘half-blood’ were alive.), and Tom Riddle (as of now, Riddle would have no father making him the King, unless Voldemort was somehow counted as his father, which wouldn’t make much sense). This all assumes that the title is literal, not a play on words as I stated above.

(4) Prince (young)
The person must be young to be considered ‘prince’ and I think Seamus and Dean have reached an age when the title King could be theirs (unless again this applies to a play on words which would further complicate this theory). This also would put the ‘X’ on Lupin and Snape, and even Tom Riddle came back as a 16 year old, he could be considered a king too, Godric Gryffindor is dead and even if he weren’t he’s about 1000 years old, and since Mark Evans has been ruled as a nobody (I’m still laughing at that.) we are left with… no one…

I think the Half Blood Prince will be a new character entirely.