Student Essay on Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book of the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling, which depicts the story of an orphaned boy who discovered of his Wizarding roots on his eleventh birthday when a letter arrived from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to inform him of his admission to the school. Since then Harry has never looked back, maturing with the closure of each academic year, battling the evil in the form of Lord Voldemort and his legion of followers known as Death Eaters along the way. However, Harry Potter is much more than a simple story of good vs. evil. It is also about the uncertainties of growing up, the values of friendship and the pain of losing the loved ones. Since the launch of the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in 1997, J.K Rowling has mesmerized us all with her magic and millions of readers around the world are spell-bounded, eagerly waiting for the launch of the next book. Harry Potter series has since become part and parcel of our lives, a status that could only be achieved by the most outstanding of novels (or franchises) such as the Star Wars Series. Befitting of such a legacy, book 6 of the series is by no mean a mediocre novel. It is as captivating, if not more, as its predecessors.

The summary of book six is as follows: Harry is in his sixth year at Hogwarts. Lord Voldermort and his followers are beginning to make their presence felt more in the Wizarding Community and are openly carrying out their operations and causing chaos in Britain, to the point that even the Muggle Prime Minister has to be informed. Security had been increased at Hogwarts. Snape is given the Defence against the Dark Arts post while Horace Slughorn replaces Snape as Potions teacher. Harry Potter, with the help of an old and tattered "Advanced Potion Making" belonging to the Half-blood Prince, fared exceptionally well in Potion Classes. Albus Dumbledore showed Harry details of Voldemort's past. They discovered that Voldemort created six Horcruxes and divided his soul into seven pieces to become immortal as long as they exist. While two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed, Dumbledore believed that there were four more that must be destroyed. Dumbledore and Harry set off to retrieve one of the Horcruxes but Dumbledore was heavily weakened by drinking the potion guarding it. The two returned to find the Dark Mark over Hogwarts and Death Eaters attacking students and teachers. As they investigated, they were surprised by Draco Malfoy. Dumbledore cast a freezing charm on Harry, who was wearing his invisible cloak. Draco revealed that he let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts through a magical cabinet. Snape then arrived and killed Dumbledore with The Unforgivable Curses, Avada Kedavra. Harry chased Snape, who identified himself as the Half-Blood Prince before fleeing from Hogwarts. Harry discovered that the locket he and Dumbledore recovered is a fake. The actual locket was taken by the mysterious R.A.B. After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry decided not to return to school so that he could devote his time to destroying the remaining Horcurxes and defeating Voldemort. And so, book six came to an abrupt end.

I personally feel that Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince has raised the bar for the Harry Potter Series as the story line became more complex and got darker. To begin with, I find the opening chapter of this book "The Other Minister" much more captivating than the other books. "The Other Minister" tells of the meeting between the Muggle Minister, Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour, the new minister of Magic. After reading the first chapter, I know that this book is going to be "unputdownable." This book is also very important in the development of the story of the whole series as it reveals plenty of information on the life of Lord Voldemort among many other things. Thus, after reading the book, I have that sense of satisfaction as I could now see the whole story much clearer. However, I also feel that this book is also very dark now (hardly a bed time story for children) because of the death of Dumbledore under Snape's hands. It is very saddening to read about this outright breach of trust and betrayal by Snape. It was downright sickening and disgusting to say the least. Furthermore, book six left many questions unanswered, most important being the identity of the mysterious R.A.B, who possesses one of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort.

As a conclusion, I can confidently say that reading Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince is definitely not a waste of time. I can guarantee that it is as entertaining as any book can be, filled with mystery and suspense. After reading this book, "regret" would be the last thing on your mind.