Here is the third installment in our synopsis of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series — your essential cheat-sheet for diving into the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. See chapters 1-5 summarized here and 6-10 summarized here
Chapter 11 - Hermione's Helping Hand
Despite having more free periods, Hermione, Harry and Ron are completely swamped with work. They are expected to do nonverbal spells in all their classes, among other difficult tasks. They think Hagrid is avoiding them because they decided not to follow through with Care of Magical Creatures for their N.E.W.T. level studies. Harry receives the brand-new copy of Advanced Potion Making via owl from Flourish and Blotts. Hermione encourages him to return the Half-Blood Prince's copy to Slughorn, but Harry refuses to give it up and instead switches the cover of his new book with the Prince's book. They find out that Stanley Shunpike, conductor of the Knight Bus (see Book 3), has been arrested by the Ministry. It seems unlikely that Stan is a Death Eater and they suspect that the Ministry is just arresting people to make it look like they are doing something. Harry and Ron head off to the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts where loads of students are waiting to try out (more to see Harry rather than play Quidditch). Despite the frustration of tryouts, Harry finally picks out a team with Katie Bell (Gryffindor Quidditch alum) and Ginny as Chasers and Ron as Keeper, beating out Cormac McLaggen who is rather upset that he was booted. Ron makes a remark that it seemed as though McLaggen was Confunded during his tryout, which makes spectator Hermione blush hotly. Hermione, Harry and Ron head over to Hagrid's for a visit where Buckbeak (now renamed Witherwings to avoid the authorities) is residing. Hagrid is very grumpy at them but eventually breaks down and reveals that Aragog (the big scary spider from Chamber of Secrets) is extremely sick and he's been taking care of him. On their way back to the castle, they bump into Slughorn who invites Harry and Hermione to dinner with the other members of the Slug Club. Harry quickly declines saying that he has to complete the detention that he had postponed with Snape. After dinner, they find out that Mr. Weasley had searched the Malfoys' residence again for dark objects (because of the hunch Harry shared with him at the train station), but nothing was found. Harry starts thinking about Draco's secretive activity, but Ron rudely tells him to drop it. Harry tells Ron that it's not his fault he and Hermione were invited to Slughorn's, but Ron stomps off. Harry receives a message from Snape about serving detention.
Chapter 12 - Silver and Opals
Harry begins to wonder where Dumbledore spends his time -- he is absent often and it seems like he's gone for days at a time. Harry continues to read his annotated copy of Advanced Potion-Making, where he discovers that the Prince has also written instructions for jinxes, hexes, and other spells that he seems to have come up with himself. This includes the Muffliato spell, which fills the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing that allows people to have lengthy conversations without being heard. Another one he discovers is Levicorpus, which he accidentally tries on Ron while he's asleep, instantly hoisting Ron into the air dangling by his ankle. At breakfast, Harry and Ron tell Hermione about Levicorpus, but she is not amused. She is worried that the spells are not Ministry approved and some could be bad. They all wonder who the Half-Blood Prince is. Harry mentions that his dad had used Levicorpus (from the memory in the pensieve of James using it on Snape when they were students at Hogwarts), but it seems unlikely hid dad is the Half-Blood Prince since James was a pure-blood. They also speculate the Prince might be a Death Eater, but that also seems unlikely since a Death Eater probably would not boast about being a half-blood. Harry receives a note from Dumbledore about their next meeting, which cheers him up. The day comes for the first trip to Hogsmeade, but it's miserable since the weather sucks. Much to Harry's dismay, they bump into Slughorn, who chides him for avoiding his dinners. Harry manages to avoid yet another dinner because of his meeting with Dumbledore. They bump into Mundungus Fletcher and discover that he has been looting Sirius' house and selling all that stuff. Harry angrily grabs Mundungus and threatens him, but Tonks happens by and stops him from doing much more. They go to the three Broomsticks with Harry still fuming about Mundungus. They eventually decide to call it a day with the weather being so bad. On the way back to the castle, they notice Katie Bell and her friend Leanne fighting over a package. When Katie grabs the package away from Leanne, she drops it and starts floating in the air and screaming in pain. Leanne, HRH, manage to get Katie to the ground and Harry runs to get help. Hagrid carries the cursed Katie back to castle. Harry and the others notice a green sparkling necklace through a rip in the package. They recognize the necklace from Burkes and Borgins (Hermione had inquired about it). They suspect Katie was cursed when she touched the necklace so Harry carefully wraps the package in his scarf to bring back to school. Professor McGonagall takes the necklace from Harry and brings him and the others including Leanne to her office. Apparently, Katie went into the bathroom of the Three Broomsticks and came out with the package and started acting a little funny. When Leanne tried to take the package away from Katie fearing that it was something bad, the package ripped and the necklace touched Katie who was then cursed. Harry suspects Draco had something to do with this and lets McGonagall know his suspicions. McGonagall lets Harry know that Draco was not in Hogsmeade but doing detention with her. Harry, Hermione and Ron leave her office and Harry keeps obsessing about Draco's involvement. Hermione and Ron try to ignore him and get him to drop the subject.
Chapter 13 - The Secret Riddle
Katie Bell is transported to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. Harry discusses the incident at Hogsmeade with Dumbledore at his lesson, but Dumbledore is not too interested and moves on to the penseive. So they left off where Tom Riddle has just abandoned Merope in London, pregnant with the future Voldemort. Dumbledore swirls the contents of the pensieve and the ghost-like form of Caratacus Burke appears. Burke says that a young pregnant witch had entered his shop desperate for money. She showed him her precious family heirloom locket and Burke immediately recognized the priceless value of that locket. He offered her 10 galleons for it, which she took. Burke notes that it's the best bargain he's ever made. Dumbledore gives the pensieve a shake and Burke disappears. Harry is rather disgusted by the fact that Merope was obviously cheated and inquires as to why Merope didn't just help her situation by using magic. Dumbledore thinks that either she had no desire to be a witch after Tom had abandoned her or that he unrequited love and despair had sapped her powers. She didn't even use magic to save her life, choosing death despite having a baby. They enter the pensieve this time which contains a memory of Dumbledore. He is younger and visiting the orphanage of (Tom Riddle Jr.) Voldemort. He talks to Mrs. Cole who is in charge and says that he would like Tom to matriculate into Hogwarts, but he will have to spend his summers at the orphanage. This is completely fine with Mrs. Cole. They start drinking gin and she starts to talk about Tom and his past. She mentions that Tom's mom (Merope) had come to the orphanage and had her baby within the hour. Merope insisted that he be named Tom Marvolo Riddle and that was the last thing she said. Mrs. Cole says Tom is odd and has done what can be interpreted as malicious things to the other children, notably at summer outings in the countryside or by the seashore. Dumbledore meets Tom and Tom accuses him of being a doctor from the asylum. Dumbledore denies this and lets Tom know that he is a professor at a magic school. Tom become intrigued and confesses that he always knew he was special (able to do magical things). He also says that he can make people hurt if he wants them to. He demands that Dumbledore show him something to prove himself so Dumbledore sets a wardrobe on fire. Tom is shocked and raged, but Dumbledore immediate puts out the fire leaving the wardrobe unharmed. Tom is impatient and greedy to know where he can get a wand. Dumbledore demands that Tom take a box down from the wardrobe and then tells Tom to return the items in the box to their original owners. He will not tolerate stealing at Hogwarts. Dumbledore tells Tom that he must acquire all this school supplies in Diagon Alley and that he will attend Hogwarts on scholarship. He gives Tom a bag of gold to buy supplies and also offers to accompany Tom to Diagon Alley, but Tom refuses and says he can do it himself. Dumbledore notices that Tom is irritated by his own name. Tom says he thinks his name is too ordinary and asks if his father was a great wizard and says he thinks that his mother was not magical, otherwise why would she have died. Dumbledore says he doesn't know and bids farewell to Tom. Before he leaves, Tom mentions he can speak to snakes and asks if that is normal for a wizard. Dumbledore says it's unusual but not unheard of. They shake hands and the memory ends.
Harry and Dumbledore chat about the memory. Dumbledore says he didn't know what Tom would turn into but Tom intrigued him and he knew that Tom had well-developed skills for a young wizard. Dumbledore wants Harry to note a few things:
1) Tom was ready to believe he was "special"
2) Tom was instinctually cruel, secretive, and domineering
3) Tom had contempt for the ordinary (i.e. his plain name Tom) and made a point to set himself apart from the others
4) Tom wanted to do things alone (i.e. going to Diagon Alley alone). He's self-sufficient, secretive, and friendless. Although, people claim to be his friend or close to him, he chooses to remain friendless
5) Tom liked to collect trophies (i.e. box of stolen items in his wardrobe) especially from people he bullied
On Harry's way out, he notices that the black stone ring is no longer on the table where Dumbledore had left it last.
Chapter 14 - Felix Felicis
Harry fills Hermione and Ron is on the previous night's lesson on their way to Herbology. They wonder why Dumbledore is showing all this to Harry, and Hermione notes that it makes sense for Harry to understand Voldemort's strengths and weaknesses. Harry asks about Slughorn's dinner, and Hermione reports that it was fun and that they met Gwenog Jones (captain of the Quidditch team for the Holyhead Harpies). Professor Sprout scolds them for chatting and not getting started on the assignment (acquiring a pod from a Snargaluff), so they get to it. Hermione mentions that Slughorn will be having a Christmas party and Harry won't be able to avoid that. Ron is irritated that he's left out of all this Slug Club business and gives Hermione a hard time about it. She shoots back that she was hoping that Ron would attend the party with her, but since he thinks it's stupid she won't bother asking him. Harry in the meantime is trying to avoid the conflict and is working on breaking open a Snargaluff pod. Ron suddenly changes his attitude when Hermione says she was going to invite him. Harry senses the tension between his two friends. He wonders if they start going out, if their friendship will survive. For the next few days, they are polite to each other.
Harry and the Gryffindor Quidditch team start practicing a lot since their game against Slytherin is around the corner. Dean Thomas takes the place of Katie Bell who is still in the hospital. Ron is having a hard time during practices and his inconsistency only gets worse under pressure. On the way back from practice, Harry and Ron pass Ginny fiercely making out with Dean, and Harry starts to feel extremely jealous. Ron is embarrassed and mad that Ginny would do that so publicly and gives her a hard time. Ginny yells back and embarrasses Ron saying that he's never snogged a girl, Harry's snogged Cho Chang, Hermione's snogged Viktor Krum, etc. Ron stomps to bed, while Harry tries to convince himself that he's just mad that Dean is kissing Ginny because she is Ron's sister. Really, though, Harry wishes he was snogging Ginny. Ron asks Harry if he thinks Hermione has snogged Krum. Harry tries not to answer but Ron can tell from the look on Harry's face that Hermione probably snogged Krum. Harry goes to bed but can't get his mind off Ginny. He wakes up to find a ornery and grumpy Ron who proceeds to be mean to a bewildered Hermione throughout the day. Furthermore, Ron's bad attitude keeps affecting his Quidditch practice in a bad way. Panicked that they will lose the Slytherin game, Harry comes up with a plan. Harry goes down to breakfast the next morning and greets a glum Ron. He pours Ron a pumpkin juice and Hermione notices Harry holding a vial of something. Hermione tells Ron not to drink the juice because she saw Harry slip something into it, but Ron drinks the juice anyway. A very angry Hermione storms off. They head out to the Quidditch stadium and are greeted by some good news; two Slytherin players are sick (Vaisey and Malfoy) and the weather conditions are perfect. It suddenly occurs to Ron what Harry had slipped into his juice. They go out onto the field and commence playing. Ron plays beautifully and Gryffindor wins. After the game, Hermione confronts Harry and Ron and accuses Harry of spiking Ron's juice with the Felix Felicis potion he had won in the first day of Potions class. Harry says he didn't and holds up the vial. He had tricked Ron into thinking Ron was lucky which boosted Ron's confidence. Sick of Ron and his attitude, Hermione leaves. Harry goes to the Gryffindor party and sees Ron snogging heavily with Lavender Brown. He goes off to find Hermione and finds her in an empty classroom crying. Suddenly Ron bursts in with Lavender. A hurt Hermione leaves the classroom, but not before attacking Ron with a flock of birds she conjures up.
Chapter 15 - The Unbreakable Vow
It's Christmas! Hermione and Ron aren't talking to each other and Harry has to hang out with them separately. Hermione lets Harry know that a bunch of girls are dying to go to Slughorn's party with him especially Romilda Vane who wants to slip Harry some love potion. Harry starts to stress a little about finding a date for the party. The next day they start human transfiguration which proves to be difficult. Hermione laughs at Ron's disastrous first attempt (results in a handlebar mustache) and Ron does a rather mean impersonation of Hermione raising her hand in class which Lavender and Parvati find amusing but leaves Hermione in tears. Harry finds Hermione crying in the girls' bathroom with Luna Lovegood. Hermione thanks Harry for bringing her stuff from class and hurries off. Meanwhile Harry finds himself asking Luna if she will accompany him to Slughorn's party. Over dinner, Harry encourages Ron to apologize to Hermione but he won't. While chatting to Lavender and Parvati, she mentions that she is attending Slughorn's party with Cormac McLaggen (to get back at Ron). Harry meets up with Luna to go to Slughorn's party which is in full swing then they arrive. They bump into Hermione who is now trying to avoid her date since he is annoying her. Harry is then sucked in by Professor Trelawney, Slughorn and Snape. Slughorn brags abour Harry's potions abilities and Snape looks a little suspicious. Filch comes in and says that Draco had been trying to get into the party without an invite. Slughorn lets Draco stay but doesn't pay much attention to him. Snape takes Draco outside the party to talk and Harry follows with his invisibility cloak on. Snape and Draco are arguing. Snape is trying to get Draco to tell him what he is up to. Draco refuses because he doesn't trust Snape and doesn't want Snape to steal his glory. Snape tries to reason with Draco by offering his services and lets Draco know that he made an unbreakable vow with Draco's mother (Narcissa). Draco refuses again and walks away.
Chapter Recaps: 1 -5 [HuffPo]
Chapter Recaps: 6 - 10 [HuffPo]
Related:
Harry Potter: The Cheat Sheet [HP on HP]