Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter Eighteen:
Birthday Surprises

Notes by Steve Vander Ark and Michele L. Worley
Synopsis and links by John Kearns

U.S. hardcover edition: pages 373 - 398
U.K. hardcover edition: pages 350 - 373
Timeframe: 7 January - 1 March, 1997 [Y17]

In which Harry gives Slughorn a bezoar instead of an antidote in Potions class, then asks him unsuccessfully about Horcruxes. The sixth-years then have their first apparition lesson, where Harry overhears Malfoy saying Crabbe has been acting as his lookout, and Harry starts watching the Marauder's Map. Then, on Ron's birthday, Ron accidentally consumes Romilda Vane's love potion and Harry takes him to Slughorn to get an antidote; there, Slughorn gives Ron some poisoned mead and Harry saves his life with a bezoar.

The usual sense of a "birthday surprise" would be a surprise gift, not accidentally being fed candy spiked with love potion, then poisoned mead...

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

Still to come....

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• Twycross, Wilkie (as Dogbreath and Dunghead)

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Bones, Susan

• Brown, Lavender (as Lav-Lav)

• Crabbe, Vincent

• Flitwick, Filius

• Granger, Hermione

• Longbottom, Neville

• Macmillan, Ernie

• Malfoy, Draco

• McGonagall, Minerva

• Potter, Harry (as Slughorn's Little Potions Prince)

• Slughorn, Horace

• Snape, Severus (as the Half-Blood Prince)

• Sprout, Pomona

• Weasley, Ron (as Won-Won)

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Bell, Katie

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Fat Lady, the

• Finnigan, Seamus

• Golpalott

• Goyle, Gregory

• Parkinson, Pansy

• Peeves

• Pomfrey, Poppy

• Potter, Lily Evans

• Riddle, Tom Marvolo (as Voldemort)

• Scarpin

• Thomas, Dean

• Vane, Romilda

• Weasley, Arthur

• Weasley, Ginny

• Weasley, Molly

• Zabini, Blaise

• (unnamed) other sixth-years in Potions class and Apparition lessons

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Great Hall

  • Gryffindor Tower

    • common room

    • Harry's dormitory

  • Library

  • Potions dungeon

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • hospital wing

  • Slytherin common room

  • Snape's office

• St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

/ul>

Exceptional character moments:

• Still to come....

Spells and Potions:

• Anti-Apparition

• Apparition (and splinching)

• Conjured items: Twycross makes practice hoops appear

• Felix Felicis

• Levicorpus

• Love Potion, and its antidote

• Specialis Revelio

• Vanishing Spell: Twycross vanishes the practice hoops

Links and Resources:

• books

  • Advanced Potion-Making

  • Magick Moste Evile

• Daily Prophet, the

• food and drink

  • butterbeer

  • mead

• Potions

• House points - HBP

• items and devices, magical

  • bezoar

  • Cloak, Invisibility

  • Horcrux

  • Marauder's Map

• Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Memorable lines:

• Meanwhile, the Hogwarts library had failed Hermione for the first time in living memory. She was so shocked, she even forgot that she was annoyed at Harry for his trick with the bezoar.

• A little way to his left, Ernie Macmillan was contemplating his hoop so hard that his face had turned pink; it looked as though he was straining to lay a Quaffle-sized egg.

• They were temporarily detained by Peeves, who had jammed a door on the fourth floor shut and was refusing to let anyone pass until they set fire to their own pants.

• Frustration was running high and there was a certain amount of ill-feeling toward Wilkie Twycross and his three D's, which had inspired a number of nicknames for him, the politest of which were Dogbreath and Dunghead.

• Friends they might be, but if Ron started calling Lavender "Lav-Lav," he would have to put his foot down.

Strictly British:

• cheek

• fussed

• mead

• necessary, the

• pick-me-up

• prat

• snogging

• trainer

• turf out

Timelines/Calendar:

The chapter begins the day after Harry's lesson with Dumbledore, which means Tuesday, 7 January. We then skip forward to what seems to be a Saturday at the beginning of February, likely either the 1st or 8th. For the end of the chapter, we of course jump to Ron's birthday, which we know to be Saturday, 1 March - the only hardfast date in the book so far. Somewhat uniquely, this fits the calendar that has students taking the Hogwarts Express on 1 September. It's wonderful when these things work out.