Half Blood Prince

[Nobby]

disagree with this because it is completly possible to introduce a new character and develope that character quite well in the space of only one book.
Novelists who do not write seriues books do it all the time

yeah look at the new characters in book 5- tonks, luna, kingsley, mundungus, umbridge - all of which are detailed characters!!!

im still leaning towards colin creevey! a little clue here and there makes JK happy! i think that colin himself says in GoF how strande it is that his brothers is a wizard too!!!

[Alice I]

I for my part don't think that prince has got anything to do with royalty but points out that this person is, umm, "on top" in some way and possibly not the nicest.

This quote got me thinking.
Perhaps the half blood prince is someone close to the top in Voldemorts ranks. This would be unusual because of LV's pure blood facination but he himself is a halfblood.
Perhaps he has taken some wicked little beasty under his wing who will do battle with Harry.
JKR said in an interview that LV is like all evil dictators and has other's do his dirty work.
It would make sense for the Title:
Harry Potter and The HBP
for it to be a story revolving around a fight with Harry and this person.

[carsten]

...Perhaps the half blood prince is someone close to the top in Voldemorts ranks. ... It would make sense for the Title: Harry Potter and The HBP for it to be a story revolving around a fight with Harry and this person.

Very bright comment! But who could be the prince of the half-blooded LV? Or should it be the half-blooded's prince? Again it should be someone from book 2. Maybe another villain besides LV in a calendar was supposed to do the job there, but was replaced by JKR during the writing of the book?

Carsten

[Alice I]

I was not refering to the HBP as being related to LV.
I was thinking along the lines of Eco...
that the term prince is being used for a person who is high up in the social structure but not necessarily the son of someone.

JKR said quite clearly that LV never had children. I was thinking of someone maybe he (LV) looked upon as the son he never had sort of thing hence the name HBP because he is what Voldemort might consider his heir.

[carsten]

...that the term prince is being used for a person who is high up in the social structure ... is what Voldemort might consider his heir.

The more I think about it, the better it sounds to me. Kudos, Alice I! Such a villain might be the proper opponent for Harry in book 6. Harry will succeed, of course, and learn a lot about fighting bad guys as a preparation to tackle the great problem. Harry is, after all, a schoolboy. You cannot expect him to come out cold and kill someone. He made a first attempt against Bellatrix, but failed. He has to build his strength. And shaping up against the prince of LV would be a nice sparring-match, before the final showdown comes.

Carsten

[Phinea Rogue]

At the moment (it changes every day) I've got the feeling that the HBP is Snape. We don't know much about him and the fact that he's a Slytherin doesn't necessarily mean he's also a pure-blood (besides, he wasn't on that Black tapestry). But I guess I have this feeling only because I like Snape so much and would like to see him more often...

I was looking for some definitions of the word "prince" and found this in Webster dictionary:

1. The one of highest rank; one holding the highest place and authority; a sovereign; a monarch; - originally applied to either s*x, but now rarely applied to a female.
2. The son of a king or emperor, or the issue of a royal family; as, princes of the blood.
3. A title belonging to persons of high rank, differing in different countries. In England it belongs to dukes, marquises, and earls, but is given to members of the royal family only. In Italy a prince is inferior to a duke as a member of a particular order of nobility; in Spain he is always one of the royal family.
4. The chief of any body of men; one at the head of a class or profession; one who is preëminent; as, a merchant prince; a prince of players.


So the prince doesn't have to be a son of someone, it can only be someone important, high ranked. I don't think it's someone like Mark Evans, but someone adult who will either help Harry (Snape, Dumbledore, Lupin... some of my choices for HBP) or someone fighting him (a heir to Voldemort or someone like that...).

[TDM]

you know, Cartsen, i was just thinking about that Hagrid being the HBP when i was scrolling down, reading all of the posts. and let me elaborate:

perhaps JKR does mean the half-human thing. because in the last threee books, we've become very aware of the fact that most of the world doesn't like half bloods. look at Umbridge: she hated Hagrid, Firenze, Lupin, anyone that wasn't 100% human. and Hagrid was cast into a different light in the second book. with the story of him being expelled. perhaps DD knew that he was the HBP, and kept him on for that reason (besides the fact the DD's just a good guy). also, he sent Hagrid to the giants, which is basically an ambassador, which is the closet thing you'll get to royalty here. but, that's my views.

[paintballdecoy]

Yeah, but what if JKR was going to include the person, but held off becuase she changed the title?

[Athena Appleton]

I still keep coming back to the thought that when she was going to use the title for the second book, the prince was Tom Riddle... for this one, though, it's a different person, but the same title...

In that case, I still think it's someone we don't know of yet...

I suppose it could be Hagrid, but I don't think Hagrid is any more likely than anyone else... while he's an important character in some aspects, I don't think he'd be so major that he'd be a title character... *shrug* I could be wrong... but I still lean towards an unknown...

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Wow, show's how long I've been gone, I had no idea the new title had been released!

Anyways, I'm gonna throw this out here: Dudly. Now, I can think of 1000 reasons why it couldn't possibly be him but, isn't someone who hadn't had any magical powers shows them in this book? Maybe its the same person. Also, it could be Mark Evans. I'd hate for it to be a completely NEW character introduced so late in the series.

But of course JKR will undoubtedly blow our minds once again and the HBP will be someone that never even crossed our minds, but once we know who he is we will say, "ohhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhh, that makes sense."

[choki]

Well said, EWPZ...indeed JKR's HBP would be making so much sense than all of our speculations so what are we waiting for? I want Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince now!!!!!

Following on someone's point about HBP being someone who was in league with Voldemort, I couldn't help but to notice Voldemort seems to compare himself with half blood and not pure blood (seen in the case of choosing his equal - Harry and not Neville). It seems as if Voldemort would place more trust on half blood than pure blood. And so maybe this HBP is someone near Voldemort and have a rank close to a 'prince', probably Voldemort viewed him as a 'son'.

[Nobby]

The one of highest rank; one holding the highest place and authority; a sovereign; a monarch; - originally applied to either s*x, but now rarely applied to a female.

this got my thinking!!!!!! orginally applied to the other s*x, but now rarely applied to a female. We know that Jk likes to use origins of words so its really possible that JK is referring to a female when she says 'Prince'. that would really throw the cat among the pigeons! because who would guess she was talking about a female! this could make it quite possible that hermoine could be the prince! afterall wouldn't it be a huge suprise if hermoine wasn't a mudblood!

Or it could possibly be Luna (fairly major character) or maybe Tonks! Afterall tonks' pure-blood mum married a muggle!! Just think, we might not be searching for a typical prince afterall!!!!

I suppose it could be Hagrid, but I don't think Hagrid is any more likely than anyone else... while he's an important character in some aspects, I don't think he'd be so major that he'd be a title character... *shrug* I could be wrong... but I still lean towards an unknown...

However if something nasty were to happen to this prince or something good to come from this person, then i feel that any exisitent character could carry the title convincingly!!! Afterall Hagrid's death could be on the cards , we know about his past, his parentage and he has been cleared of all charges. So maybe this is a opportune moment for JK to kill him off, although how hard it may be!

I'd hate for it to be a completely NEW character introduced so late in the series.

i dunno, i like the new characters that were introduced in books 4 and 5 as they bring great depth to the books! if somebody new was introduced then i certainly wouldn't be complaining about it!

[Aberforth]

Hagrid's importance to the story seems to have diminished a bit through the series. in the first couple of books Harry was always at hagrids and getting advice and stuff, but in OotP its about 350 pages before Hagrid even appears.

I doubt its Krum as I'm sure I read a big hint from JKR that he wouldn't come back until book 7 - besides I think Ron and Hermione have to be going steady before he returns and stirs things up for Ron.

Maybe Grawp - nobody's mentioned him yet. Doubt it though.

I thought Justin Finch-Fletchley - many Royals in England have double barelled names and he certainly isn't pure blood.

I don't think the HBP will be an enemy of Harry - only the CoS has been 'bad' in the end all the other things mentioned in the titles have been on the good side.

[Athena Appleton]

Now, I can think of 1000 reasons why it couldn't possibly be him but, isn't someone who hadn't had any magical powers shows them in this book?

Okay... annoying question but: Does anyone know where this is from? It's one of those things that has spread and spread that I think it's possible that people have twisted the meaning a bit.

What if what Rowling said wasn't that someone would show magical powers, just that someone would suprise us... if this is the case, then she could have just as easily been referring to Petunia or Mrs. Figg...

If anyone knows from what interview or chat this is from, let me know, could ya, so that I can see it straight from Rowling?

this got my thinking!!!!!! orginally applied to the other s*x, but now rarely applied to a female. We know that Jk likes to use origins of words so its really possible that JK is referring to a female when she says 'Prince'. that would really throw the cat among the pigeons! because who would guess she was talking about a female! this could make it quite possible that hermoine could be the prince! afterall wouldn't it be a huge suprise if hermoine wasn't a mudblood!

Nobby, I love ya, dude, but I think you're way off base here... it sounds more like we're grasping at straws at this point.

The fact is, there's next to no evidence of who is the prince that is referred to in the title, so no matter who we come up with, each character is as likely (or as unlikely) as the next.

[imc130d]

Athena: The bit about a character who hasn't had any magical powers showing them later comes from a Barnes and Noble chat in March 1999...

In my books, magic almost always shows itself in a person before age 11; however, there is a character who does manage in desperate circumstances to do magic quite late in life, but that is very rare in the world I am writing about.

And as for Mark Evans, well, taken from the J.K. Rowling website...

Mark Evans is...nobody. He's nobody in the sense that Mr. Prentice, Madam Marsh and Gordon-Dudley's-gang-member are nobodies, just background people who need names, but who have no role other than the walk-on parts assigned to them.

The response is rather longer than that, actually, and quite entertaining. It's in the FAQ section, under the FAQ poll heading.[/url]