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05-24-2005, 03:49 PM
| | |  The HBP Essay Challenge - July 3 - Sa9+
The Half-Blood Prince Essay Challenge
In 400 words or less, write an essay identifying The Half-Blood Prince. Give supporting reasons and credit your sources. All entries must have a unique title and be prose, in grammatically correct english. _____________________________________________ Only submissions are allowed in this topic. Discussion or comments are to be posted in the Writers' Week Discussion Thread.
Questions about this challenge may be posted in the Writers' Week Guidelines Thread.
This thread will open at 8am Mountain Time on July 3rd and be closed 24 hours after opening. There will be no extensions.
Voting will begin as soon as it's closed, and last 24 hours. Choose your favorite essay based on quality of writing and content.
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07-03-2005, 03:19 PM
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#2 (permalink)
|  Official -()- SeekerMooncalf
Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: It's raining ducks man!!! Play Duck Duck Dare...
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The Goblet of the Prince
Seamus Finnegan is the Half-Blood Prince because in the books he says his mom is a witch and his dad is a muggle. Then he must be a Half-Blood so his dad could be King of England and mom be the Queen of Bulgaria. Seamus has been very quiet a few books and movies ago and well he must not know yet that he might be a prince yet. Seamus has not really been on the speaking terms on account that Seamus wasn’t in OotP a whole lot so for all we know he could have known eons ago. Harry and Seamus are best friends and we also don’t know why Seamus wouldn’t have told Harry that Seamus is maybe a prince. Seamus usually hangs around the Great Hall so he could be teleporting by Floo Powder to his parents and just maybe they are taking his memory to avoid him not knowing he his a prince.
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Last edited by Harry456; 07-03-2005 at 07:28 PM.
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07-04-2005, 12:57 AM
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#3 (permalink)
| | Red Cap
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 88
| He's Pretty Quiet These Days...
Winning Entry! He's Pretty Quiet These Days...
*Or* Why Regulus Black is the Half-Blood Prince
By: maggie3990
From the World Book Day Chat, March 4, 2004:
Cathedral: Will we be hearing anything from Sirius Black's brother, Regulus, in future books?
JK Rowling: Well, he's dead, so he's pretty quiet these days.
Is Jo just being sarcastic? Or is there a clue hidden there? I believe that if Regulus isn’t dead, he just might be the Half-Blood Prince.
We heard about Regulus in OotP, during Sirius's conversation with Harry about the family tree.
“He was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, most likely. I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out."
It might seem like Regulus is just another Mark Evans: mentioned in passing, but not crucial to the story. After all, he is dead… right?
Unless its sarcasm with a clue! He’s pretty quiet, but not completely dead and gone.
Most names in Potterverse are symbolic, and I don’t believe Regulus is any different. We know that Sirius is the dog-star, and that Sirius’s animagus form was a dog. Well, similarly, Leo is the lion-star. This quote is from an astronomy website:
“…Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, has been associated with the concept of royalty or kingly power.”
So Regulus, brightest star of the Lion, is linked to royalty, kings, and power. What a perfect name for a prince….
Or a wizard who’s a lion animagus, and has been hiding in that form for years.
JKR describing the HBP:
He looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of grey in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp.
My theory is that Regulus hid, pretending to be killed, because Voldemort wanted him to. Voldemort would know that Sirius was James’s best friend and that he might know where the Potters were hiding. Who better to shadow Sirius than his own brother, who would likely know his whereabouts?
Remember another Death Eater, supposedly dead, who was really hiding in his animagus form? I’d say Pettigrew was pretty quiet as a rat.
I know some people are going to dismiss this theory because it’s a little farfetched  But remember Jo’s style of using sarcasm and slight mentions as a means of hiding truths.
A/N: Sources Used, in order:
- Quick Quotes Quill
-JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Souled Out
- JKRowling.com
-Just a side note, what originally led me to believe that Regulus Black is the HBP was this editorial on Mugglenet: Why Regulus Black is Not the Half-Blood Prince. However, it is obvious to see that I deviated from what the author says in her editorial.
Last edited by evlpez; 07-05-2005 at 02:35 PM.
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07-04-2005, 02:23 AM
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#4 (permalink)
| | Augurey
Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Here
Posts: 11,990
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The Blood of Slytherin
The Half-Blood Prince may be Salazar Slytherin. A fair few things hint in that direction. Consider the fact that Tom Riddle is Slytherin’s true heir. One might presume that the Slytherins have all been purebloods and who then is more likely to be his true heir than the one that is like himself? Voldemort marked Harry, whom he considered half-blood, his equal.
Rowling has told us that the working title of The Chamber of Secrets was The Half-Blood Prince and that its name was changed because she couldn’t work it into the story, but she admits that we almost touch the subject in the book. You should note that the chamber is called The Chamber of Secrets, not The Chamber of the Secret or The Secret Chamber. She uses plural, suggesting that there is more to the chamber than what we’re told. She describes a huge statue of Salazar Slytherin where he kept his Basilisk. The huge statue might be a symbol of Slytherin’s real status and you should also take into account that the Basilisk is the king of serpents, which hints towards royalty.
Voldemort had found out a lot about the Chamber of Secrets and he made himself a lord. It seems to me that he thinks Slytherin above himself and lord ranks lower than a prince. Voldemort alludes to that Slytherin is royal by speaking of his noble work.
One could argue that it is more likely that Godric Gryffindor is the Half-Blood Prince; the ruby set sword, the Gryffindor lion and the combination of gold and scarlet. Red was considered a king’s colour and lion is a symbol of power that often appears in connection with royalty, i.e. Norway’s coat of arms (Norway is a monarchy). The obvious conclusion is that Gryffindor, not Slytherin, is the prince, which I think is too see-through for such a clever writer as JK Rowling, who loves to surprise us. I think what mentioned above speaks of a king, not a prince. Also: a prince is second to a king like silver is to gold.
On the grounds of Voldemort ennobling himself in honour of a half-blood Slytherin, that one of the chamber’s secrets is that its one of a prince and that the hints dropped on Gryffindor symbolises a king is a design to distract us from the real object, I’d say Slytherin might just be the prince. ~*~
Sources:
+ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
+ Cappelen-krefing.no
+ www.jkrowling.com
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07-04-2005, 04:51 AM
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#5 (permalink)
|  Reality PoliceOfficial -()- Seeker
Conspiracy TheoristBlast-Ended Skrewt
Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: The world's bottom!
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Second Year | The Essay that did not give a Straight Answer.
NOTE: This is a descriptive essay focusing on options, not answers. I'm a phylosopher at heart =P You have been warned. What makes the Half-Blood Prince a Half-Blood Prince? (1) Part of the Wizarding World government? Basing it on the British Monarchy organization, this Prince might act the same upon the Ministry of Magic, the wizarding governmental organization. But. In previous books, Minister Fudge appears as the main governor. As well, the Bulgarian Minister was invited to the Quidditch World Cup (GF8), not a Queen, King or Prince; and these countries seem to have the same system of government. A Prince is an important figure and it’s doubtful that it had never been mentioned in the books before. Or may it be that his blood caused him to have his authority undermined? (2) Prince from another culture? Many have said “Hagrid”. Objection to this is that Giant Tribes doesn’t seem to have that power structure: they have “Gurgs” and they are taken out of power every time a stronger giant kills the one before (OP20), not by heritage. Goblins and House-Elves we know to be inserted human’s society (PS5, CS3), and Centaurs and Merpeople, we know not enough of them to tell how their society hierarchy works. (3) Past Sovereign (Medieval Times)? Sadly we don’t know much about royalty of the wizarding world, save for Queen Maeve (Chocolate Frog Cards). Others: The Founders, possibly Gryffindor. (See following) Who’s the lion-guy? (Supposing he is the Half-Blood Prince) 1) Godric Gryffindor. Explanation: Described as “an old lion”, makes reference to Gryffindor crest. Objection: In the description this person is walking, with a limp. Could Gryffindor be walking in the portrait? Has Gryffindor somehow managed immortality? Or found a way to record himself and be found (let’s think of Riddle’s diary CS13,17)? 2) Gryffindor’s heir. Explanation: Slytherin got one, right? Objection: One might wonder where he has been all along, and why Dumbledore had Gryffindor’s sword in his possession and not him. 3) An Animagus. Explanation: The human appearance of Peter Pettigrew described that “something of the rat lingered” (PA19); as well the lion-like description might be referring to this “lion-ness” that remained after the transformation back to human. It’s not common to have people with “yellowish eyes” either. Could be Gryffindor/’s heir be hiding as a lion? Objection: …Where would you find a lion in the story? The Forbidden Forest?  So what’s the conclusion? What’s the point of this essay? That these are the options, now it’s your time to guess =) Sources: - Harry Potter books - JKRowling.com - HP-lexicon.org
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07-04-2005, 02:44 PM
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#6 (permalink)
|  Potterwatch! Momma Chizpurfle
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