I am a rather huge Harry Potter fan, and I have been ever since I watched the movie at the cinema back in 2001 when I had just turned 4 years old, now it's 17 years later and I love Harry Potter more than I ever have. Having these stories with me while I was growing up has felt like I've had a friend with me and a whole world that I could escape to and become encapsulated in when I didn't want to be in the real world. The story of Harry Potter has always been there for me, it makes me feel warm and happy, it makes me laugh and it makes me cry, and every time I read or watch it I get so caught up in it as though I am actually there on Harry's journey with him. Although I'm a rather *ahem* avid fan of the Wizarding world, that doesn't mean I don't have my favourite and least favourite books, and while I'm not going to admit which one I find the dullest, I will tell you that the Half-Blood Prince is by far my favourite, which is an opinion I find most other fans don't agree with.
I find the sixth instalment to be the best book and movie of the series, with the Prisoner of Azkaban a close second. I see it as the starting point for the huge and dismal journey that Harry has to embark on; much like the Order of the Phoenix, it's much less cheerful than the previous stories, it's where mysterious things start taking shape. We learn about the Horcruxes and about Tom Riddles past and this is where we can see, chapter by chapter, how Voldemort came to be such a dark wizard and what purpose he had to created the Horcruxes, giving us a better understanding of what the trio will have to encounter on the journey ahead.
Probably my most favourite things about the Half-Blood Prince is how much of the focus Draco gets (if you didn't know, he is my ultimate favourite HP character). Draco is finally more than just a whinging school bully; he is entrusted with a task given to him by Voldemort, and yes, he becomes a Death Eater. In all honesty, I feel kind of sorry for Draco in this book, and although we only see glimpses of what he's actually doing for Voldemort, we can see throughout the book how it is physically changing him - 'dark shadows under his eyes and a greyish tinge to his skin', we can see here that Draco is becoming stressed over his task. One of my favourite scenes ever in Harry Potter is the fight in the bathroom between Draco and Harry, when poor Draco gets cursed by Harry, who hits him with Snape's own spell, Sectumsempra; I'm not quite sure why I love this part so much but I do.
We also start to see emotions and relationships flourish amongst the Hogwarts student, which we haven't seen much previously apart from Harry and Cho's relationship in the Order of the Phoenix. Although we've know it all along, we finally see Hermione admit that see has feelings for Ron; we see her jealous and distressed when she finds that Ron has started a relationship with Lavender Brown, and these are emotion we have never seen in Hermione before. Although this is the relationship I hate the most, Harry starts to realising he has feelings Ginny, who we know has always had a crush on Harry, remember the poem that she wrote about him? One thing that does bug me about this is how unexpected it was that Harry and Ginny ended up together, personally I kind of think Hermione should have ended up with Harry instead of Ginny, but I see how their relationship makes sense. Regardless of this bizarre pairing, I love how we start getting a glimpse of everyone's relationships in a way that we haven't yet seen.
There are plenty of other factors that makes the Half-Blood Prince so significant to the series, like Dumbledore's death and the devastating feeling of knowing Hogwarts will never be the same without him, we get to meet Horace Slughorn, a brilliant and important character in Harry Potter, without whom we wouldn't know about the creation of the Horcruxes, and there is also the whole scene where Harry drinks the Felix Felicis, which I think is the most hilarious scene ever. We see Harry being forced to grow up so fast, he has already lost a lot of father figures in this life by this point, such as James, Sirius and now Dumbledore, but at the end of the Half-Blood Prince, Harry knows what is ahead of him and that there's nothing left to do now apart from destroy the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort. He's had to prepare for this journey for years and here is where it finally begins.
I hope you all enjoyed this blog post, which is your favourite Harry Potter book and why? Leave a comment below, I's love to know your opinions.
India X
