HBP - Chapter 9 The Half Blood Prince

[cheeringcharm]

Chapter 9 - The Half Blood Prince or Harry's first day of classes, year six

There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor." Ah, probably the best line of the series - definitely the highlight of this chapter. We are greeted with the requisite trip to the Great Hall for breakfast, Ron's bad table manners and McGonagall inexplicably setting schedules

Comments

[scarah2]

I thought the schedules/books were actually explained pretty well... NEWT level students choose their own subjects, based on which OWL scores were good enough.

In Harry and Ron's case, they didn't have the correct supplies, because they didn't realize they could take Potions. Thus the whole Half-Blood Prince thing.

[monkeyshine4616]

I thought the schedules/books were actually explained pretty well... NEWT level students choose their own subjects, based on which OWL scores were good enough.

That's what I thought, too. :) Though, I can't for the life of me figure out why McGonagall didn't set the schedules before breakfast that morning. *shrug* Ahhh well.

[scarah2]

How would she know what they were taking? Harry's COMC grade was high enough to proceed, but he didn't want to take the class. She discusses it with all of them.

[cheeringcharm]

Well, you'd think that their OWL scores would have been forwarded to their school, wouldn't you? It just seems weird, from an administrative POV, to wait for them to pick their classes until 5 minutes before classes started. Why not the night before? So, the teachers don't know who's going to be in their class until they all just show up? How did any of the students have books for the start of term? Didn't they get owls telling them what books they needed? If so, then you'd think that their classes would have been determined, in advance, by their OWL scores.

[schtroumph_c]

* I wonder what Snape would have said if Harry used non verbal Protego.

He’s giving detentions for the insolence, not the attack, like in Occlumency, where it was also a Protego by the way (no, I'm not saying he want Harry uses Protego), and there again, he was more bothered by the method than the spell or the attack.

* you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.

must not make jokes, must not make jokes,…

* Draught of Living Death.

That, plus the bezoar and the Wolfbane are mentioned in the book, and were the three first potion things Snape said to Harry.

We saw the Wolbane and the bezoar in action; shall we wait for a role for the Draught of Living Death in the next book?

* It’s just fun to think that Snape and Harry worked perfectly together, without knowing it.

[agnes_bean]

We saw the Wolbane and the bezoar in action; shall we wait for a role for the Draught of Living Death in the next book?

Interesting. I bet we do.

[house_elf_44]

We saw the Wolbane and the bezoar in action; shall we wait for a role for the Draught of Living Death in the next book?

Some think we saw it at the bottom of the astronomy tower.

[annearchy]

You mean with Dumbledore??

[cadesama]

You know, I just don't get the point of the Heads of Houses. They seem like they're supposed to be half chaperons for the dorms and half advisers for students' behavior and academics. But, really, McGonagall comes off like my High School counselor -- not a compliment, as all out counselors did was organize schedules, not counsel for actual problems. Neville is exactly the kind of kid who needs some extra attention from the staff to cope with his school work and social pressure and this chapter is the very first time we see McGonagall make a gesture toward that.

Ahh, Snape's classic "teaching" method. Tell the students to do something, and then dress them down for doing it wrong.

"There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor." -- Repeated because I love it. Best. Line. Ever.

Slughorn got a perfect day out of two tablespoonfuls of Felix Felicis? Doesn't Harry take a "gulp"? Now, I don't know how that measures up, but it's probably at least one tablespoonful, and Harry likely weighs far less than Slughorn did either time

[geezer_also]

Hmm, seems to me Ginny was commenting on the "extra" stuff written in the book.....see we really do read the books differently...:D

[cadesama]

That's how I see it, actually. I just think that it's stupid to get upset over scribbled words, since publishing doesn't magically make what's written in a book safer or more valid.

[geezer_also]

Well, it's cool, and you are right, but the comment by Ginny was in perfect harmony with the septology, considering what she had gone thru, and she was refering to the notes. Sorry was just being light hearted, or jesting....I know theris a word, but am drawing a blank...normally I"d say I was just being cute....but we have not corresponded enough yet, for you to understand my humor. at anyrate, I wasn't looking for a fight, I do apologize if I offended you!

[muggle_prof]

the students try to cast spells without saying the incantation. Of course, Snape doesn't tell them how to.

In this case, I really don't think there is any "how," it's just a matter of practice and concentration. It says a few chapter on (chapt 11) that "nonverbal spells were now expected" in charms and transfiguration, as well, and everyone is having a problem with them, so I don't think it's Snape's teaching that's the problem, but that it is advanced magic that takes a lot of practice.

[cadesama]

Eh. Other professors having bad teaching methods (and they all do, imho) doesn't justify Snape's bad method to me. There are ways to teach concentration and focus, otherwise no one could ever learn to meditate. At the very least, I imagine that describing the feeling of casting the spell would aid students in their focus.

[muggle_prof]

Ernie MacMillan, who's the closet thing we have to an unbiased observer, says it was a good lesson. (now granted, he's used to how they teach at Hogwarts, but at least relatively speaking, for Hogwarts it was a good lesson)
I was trying to come up with an analogy, and the best I can come up with is reading -- When kids start reading, they do it out loud; they need to sound out the word in their brain, make it go through their mouth, to their ears and back into their brain. When they get better at it, they can just do it in their brain, without all the other steps. But in between, they do a lot of what the kids were doing with nonverbal spells, mumbling or mouthing the words, until they get used to just doing it in their head. But as far as I know, there's no way to teach how to just do it in their hedas except practice.
(I may be completely off, but that's how I see it until someone presents evidence to the contrary.)

[cadesama]

Ernie's a suck up if there ever was one. Your analogy may be valid -- although, it may be more like meditation, we can't really know. My point is mostly, though, that this is how Snape teaches all of his lessons, and I think that it has far less to do with what is appropriate for the topic and far more to do with his personality defects. Snape likes feeling superior, and while you'd think that would be easy to come by as a teacher, it's even easier to come by when you set your students up to fail.

[hplurker]

We find out later in the book that Felix Felicis takes six months to brew. So Slughorn had to have started working on it before he was offered the job. ALternatively, he may have had a stock of it from the last time he brewed it.

Harry manages to create a perfect potion by following the HBP's instruction. I think this shows that he is quite a good brewer. He does not have Hermione's capacity for memorizing whole books. But for later in life, if he has to brew a potion, even a moderately difficult one, he would be able to do it without too much problem.