Everything Wrong with Half Blood Prince.
Stereotypes and Bigotries.
As always, Ableism is present. The Prime Minister has a point. He should decide who works for him. I understand that they want him to be safe and secure, and that Humans won’t be able to put up much of a one to one fight against wizards. However they should have discussed this together, earlier before Kingsley was assigned to him.
Additionally by this time the statute of secrecy should be over, unless They believe Humans will go back to hunting Witches/wizards, in which, that implies they secretly agree with the death eaters.
Sexism and Classism undertones.
In general, Tom Riddle is depicted as much less sympathetic than his abuser. He’s stated to be a rich jerk and we are supposed to pity Merope when he naturally ran away from her. We are supposed to feel sorry that he didn’t want to raise Voldemort even though he didn’t want him in the first place and he would likely be reminded of his trauma. (Kind of like a Snape and Harry situation.) Furthermore considering the time period, even if he wanted to, news of Voldemorts birth likely didn’t spread far. Not to mention That he had no reason to believe Merope wouldn’t harm him again.
Merope is treated as the main sympathetic one. She came from a poor family and was mistreated. Her father calls her a traitor for liking Tom Riddle, even though She was likely only attracted to him because she wanted his life/money. However she had forced Tom Riddle to be with her, and I think she even realized it too since she named Their son after him. (Though arguably she also chose Marvolo after her father.)
Furthermore Romilda Vane used a love potion and this gets glossed over and treated as a joke. Fred and George sell love potions and this is ignored.
Not to mention, The Lovegoods are treated often as conspiracy theorists and even Harry barely tolerates Luna at times.
I should have mentioned this earlier but Kingsley does have an unfortunate name. His first name Kingsley seems to have come from Martin Luther King Jr. However his last name can make people think of racism due to the suffering they suffered.
There’s also how Harry dumped Cho and Ginny split with Dean so that they could be together. Cho gets treated poorly in general. Dean’s father abandoned him and his best friend is Seamus, an Irish kid who blew stuff up and Bill used to work at Egypt.
Then we have Blaise Zabini and Rowling couldn’t resist implying that his mother kills people.
Draco Malfoy’s Framing and Double Standards.
Throughout this entire franchise, Slytherins and especially Draco are always at the receiving end of double standards and always receive the short end of the stick. However This book mostly belongs to the Slytherin. Everything goes back to them and we finally started seeing Slytherins other than Draco/Snape and occasionally Pansy having dialogue.
Rowling hates Draco so she takes every chance she can to mock or criticize him. However the problem is, it doesn’t work well under scrutiny.
“Draco is too prideful and conceited to ask for help!” All of the previous books had Draco be demonized or be made fun of whenever he wants/gets help Meanwhile The Trio gets praised for trying to take matters into their own hands. So which is it? Is asking for help bad and not getting help is good? If that’s the case, Draco is right for not getting help and he’s clearly “learned” from his mistakes. Also Harry was too prideful to report Umbridge’s actions.
“Draco was too privileged and needs to learn humility!” Arguably while at Hogwarts, Harry is far more privileged than Draco was. Not to mention, Draco almost never used his privileges irresponsibly other than his time as a prefect and member of the Inquistral Squad. Even then, Harry and his allies do similar stuff. In this book, Ron even steals an item that Hermione confiscated.
“Draco is lashing out at Snape and that’s bad” Draco has legit reasons to distrust Snape; He witnessed Snape raising a wand against Harry and how Snape might have helped get Lucius Malfoy arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, which was kidnapping Sirius. Also Harry lashed out at Snape When he was grieving too and unlike Harry, Draco didn’t have any good people to calm him down and explain things. Instead He had McGonagall humiliating him and he doesn’t understand Snape was being watched too.
“Draco was often using his father to get special treatment!” Exaggeration. He was attacked and humiliated many times, but he only threatens to tell his father when his life is in genuine danger. (Hagrid, Barty Jr.) While He was bought onto the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Harry was bribed on Quidditch and at an early age first so it was fair and most children complain about things they don’t like when they are with their family no matter how little the family might like it.
“Draco should have trusted Dumbledore or The Order!” We have seen multiple times that Draco tries to be nice to the teachers and trust them but it always fails and he gets humiliated at best, his life in danger at worst. Why should he trust them now when it never worked before? They are Also hypocrites. As we can see, Draco did consider when Dumbledore finally stopped ignoring him. Furthermore Harry’s fighting now caused more deaths and he doesn’t express remorse for it, instead Harry continues to brag and smirk. So how is Draco supposed to believe that Harry won’t get more people killed by fighting?
“Draco got the dark mark” That was Because Voldemort went to him and also because of The Orders Negligence. They got rid of Lucius, who kept Draco away from Voldemort and then upon hearing the news of what happened, McGonagall only humiliated Draco and said he should be outside and said that it was a happy day. Dumbledore also knew fully well that Voldemort was angry. He should have had Draco be checked on sooner in the 5th book or the ministry have Draco sent to live with Tonks or Andromeda.
“Draco tried using the Cruciatus!” So did Harry, who did it First and more. Who knows what Bellatrix could have told him. (This is why Draco shouldn’t have been ignored for so long.) Additionally Harry’s incompleted curses were shown to be more powerful. Not to mention it was in context of Harry already having a history of arresting his father, trying to use unforgivables, stalking him and getting innocent people killed because he was fighting like a Gryffindor. How is Draco supposed to believe that Harry was not going to hurt/arrest him and get more people killed?
“Draco is used to being favored and needs to learn he’s just another student!”. Draco was treated like that for years, as we can see in the books and by Rowlings own admission on his profile, Draco hated his time at Hogwarts since Harry was always being more blatantly favored. Snape never once buys Draco anything, gives him points, special attention or let him cheat until Dumbledore made him in this book. (While he does praise Draco in the first book, that was just early installment weirdness as later Hermione is confirmed to have got better grades.)
“Draco is classist and shallow” Yet he tried befriending just Harry, worked with Filch and now cried to Myrtle. Also so is Harry. Just the previous book, Harry was embarrassed to be seen with Neville, Ginny and Luna. Harry’s logic behind them being cool now is partly because they seeked power. Harry also regularly insults people’s appearances both in the narrative and out loud. Not to mention Ron and Ginny only wanted to befriend Harry due to his fame.
Additionally the Slytherin’s were often isolated and neglected in order to boost and benefit Harry. As proven in this very book, and arguably even Philosophers Stone, if Dumbledore took his eyes off of Harry for just 5 minutes and looked at the series objectively instead of with Harry Bias, Draco might have considered going to them. Especially if he hadn’t spent the last 5 years being relentlessly demonized and made fun of for getting help.
Rowling doesn’t like acknowledging the double standards and does whatever she can to make Draco appear worse, which is probably why His profile skipped over the first time he met Harry and goes straight to the second time as she likely can’t think of a way to somehow make Draco’s first attempt at befriending Harry appear shallow or selfish. (Unless she made a mistake based on the movies again. Since starting from Order of the Phoenix, The movies will get referenced even if it doesn’t make sense and the books contradict it.)
Writing wise. Is Dumbledore meant to be sincere about Draco not being a killer or not? Draco’s earlier attempts did seem to have precautions and he avoids direct violence even though it would be easier. Not helping is that his Pottermore page also supports both. During the conversation, Draco originally doesn’t deny it, and only asked how Dumbledore knew and appeared to be trying to convince himself that he is a killer.
Dumbledore had since Order of the Phoenix to have Draco be watched or cared for yet he doesn’t say anything until it’s too late.
Harry’s suspicions get dismissed, potentially as a somewhat parallel to Snape getting victim blamed and silenced when Sirius nearly had him killed. However the logic was somewhat weak since his friends already were told about Regulus being marked at 16 and that Lucius was no longer around to keep Draco under control.
I suspect that the implication is that Regulus and Draco are the only ones to ever get marked underaged and The Trio spent the previous year being told they were too young. However Meta Reasons, Rowling likely doesn’t want to admit that unless provoked, Draco was often just a cheerleader when it comes to actual damage.
Is Draco meant to be a Manipulated and possibly vengeful Villain or Forced/Pressured One? Both have evidence. In Favor of manipulated, Draco does believe that he and his parents will be rewarded if he succeeds, he does voice that he might not go back to Hogwarts and he does originally appear to brag. In favor of Forced/Pressured, Draco began crying to Myrtle and feared for his and his family’s safety. In general, he becomes uncomfortable when seeing violence and he stops supporting deaths altogether in Deathly Hallows.
I am curious to know how Draco’s and Myrtle’s relationship came to be. Like did she catch him crying one day and comforted him?
Also I was inspired by a different post but What exactly was Voldemort’s punishment to Lucius? 1. That Draco was given a task that Voldemort believed he would fail at and then be punished either by expulsion, arrest or harmed by Voldemort himself. 2. That Draco was marked so young since everyone reacts as though it’s unusual for someone so young to be marked. 3. That Draco was marked at all Because Lucius appeared to not want Draco to get his hands dirty or be involved much.
Snape is having the question of Can he be trusted or not? Again. This time by most of the characters.
Draco believes Snape is benefiting from His father’s arrest however Draco doesn’t realize that Snape was likely actually being spied on.
Harry is confirmed to have biases against Snape and Harry is officially called the favorite student of Dumbledore’s. (Snape and the students might be jealous of this.)
Snape is stated to have appeared to be trying to keep Harry away from Ginny, however Harry had quite recently risked killing multiple people. Draco directly, Snape Because of the vow, Also Harry himself because the dark mark is implied to be linked to the persons life which is probably how they knew Regulus died and why Harry didn’t see the mark when getting the fake locket. So If Draco did die, the dark mark would have probably died with him. So Harry would be seen as killing because of prejudices and a mistaken belief. Sure, Myrtle is a witness but who would she side with and considering her young age, She likely doesn’t know what spells either were casting did so for all she knows, Draco’s might have been a minor attack while Harry’s was a deadly one.
Question. Was Snape intended as the one who made the order and Dumbledore confront and speak to the Dursleys?
There’s something that I want to point out about Snape’s most notable tantrums.
Most of them are related to Snape’s trauma.
Chamber of Secrets. Harry hurts half of the class so his friend could steal.
End of Prisoner of Azkaban. The marauders get away with endangerment yet again.
Order of the Phoenix. Harry watched his worst memory and then he was caught admitting to cursing Draco, who was wandless at the time and was freshly dealing with his fathers arrest. Not to mention Harry gets rewarded for making things worse and escalating the war.
This book. Harry starts passing Snape’s notes as his own, takes credit for Snape’s genius and starts using Snape’s spells. He even used “Levicorpus” causing Snape to lose it despite it being the least harmful spell. Additionally similar to the marauders, Harry never accepts responsibility for how he caused things to get so awful.
Snape is definitely ambiguous and a hypocrite. He criticizes Tonks’s patronus change despite his also changing, though it’s arguable that’s why he did it as he was reminded of Lily’s death and there’s also his treatment of Draco and Harry. How much is his cover is debatable.
During the year, he has an argument with Dumbledore because he didn’t watch Draco enough. However as revealed later, He did warn Dumbledore about how Draco’s lashing out earlier and how Snape was partly responsible for Lucius’s arrest. I’m kind of with Snape on this argument. (I want to clear up a common misconception. The fandom says Dumbledore underestimated Draco, but his problem was actually the opposite: Draco was always expected to behave/think like an adult since he arrived in Philosophers Stone. It’s not until at least halfway through this book that Dumbledore finally started showing signs of seeing Draco as a child.)
I am curious about the detention to Crabbe and Goyle that Draco tells Snape off for giving. According to the vow, he’s supposed to help Draco yet Nothing happened when he caused Draco to not have backup and he was reporting to Dumbledore without problems. So does it mean that the person has to consciously work against the vow for it to kill them? Or Is it because technically The Plan was for Dumbledore to be killed and Draco to not get killed by Voldemort?
Despite what Slughorn claims, he also has biases. When it comes to students who don’t have currently famous relatives or have just one relative with a bad reputation, Slughorn often dismisses. Even when Ron was poisoned, Slughorn couldn’t be bothered to remember his name.
Slughorn has his club and when he picks his favorite students, he allowed Harry to be one despite him not deserving it and over the kids who actually worked hard to deserve it. Harry actually resented Slughorn and tried ditching him whenever he doesn’t want to use him. Harry also cheats in Class, while students like Ron and Draco, did the work themselves and unlike Harry, they actually wanted Slughorn’s attention but get ignored.
Yet, he’s supposed to be our Good Slytherin who isn’t biased like Snape is? Here are multiple favoritism that Slughorn does that Snape does not:
His club full of influencers and Slughorn obviously doesnt check whether or not a family is prejudiced or bad considering he let Blaise Zabini in.
Tries to Get Harry out of detention or at least detentions switched to a different date.
Praises based on who students are related to.
Gives certain students special attention.
Actively encouraging hexing/bullying/cheating. (Question. Is this Why so many of his students became death eaters?)
All Snape does is, well Nothing. He’s mostly indifferent to his students. Even Draco almost never received compliments, has to deal with any detention he gets, gets graded fairly and he actually called Snape out for not favoring and putting Crabbe and Goyle in detention. See the difference? Who gets more favored? Draco with Snape or Harry and his friends? (And that’s not even considering that the headmaster favors Harry.) I’m not denying Snape hates Harry but it’s quite hypocritical to criticize Snape for favoring when he does it the least. Even with Quidditch, The Gryffindors acted the exact same way.
That’s when you realize that the reason why Slughorn is treated as more Fair is because HARRY, some of His allies, and Zabini who appears to have a rivalry with Draco, are the students who get favored and when Harry gets favored and gets Draco in trouble, it’s considered alright.
Writing wise, Slughorn had many decades to tip Dumbledore off, he doesn’t need to confess What he said. All Slughorn had to was just say “While Voldemort was in school, he expressed an interest in multiple Horcruxes.”
Also He’s kind of a hypocrite in the students he favors. Considering his background, you’d think he’d want to speak to the Slytherins about what’s going on and would be encouraging them instead of dismissing and pushing them away. (How is that supposed to avoid them becoming death eaters or at least supporters when they have no reason to. Did he learn nothing from the last time he was teaching at school?)
Draco’s plans involved poison, cursed objects, using the vanishing cabinet, sneaking death eaters into Hogwarts and using Unforgivables. Quite interestingly There’s not a single thing on This list that you will not find a “Hero” that did it.
Using Poisons? Fred and George. They sell love potions at their store. Also Hagrid got his venomous dragon which bit Ron.
Cursed Objects? Fred and George. They tried locking Percy up in a potentially cursed pyramid.
Using the Vanishing Cabinet to cause trouble? Fred and George. They stuffed Montague inside it, endangered him, he was gone for a while and had to apparate to save himself. Even then, he had to be looked after and nearly died. This happened just because Montague docked points. Yet They were not held accountable and Hermione was told not to tell anyone. If she did speak or had Fred and George not done it, Draco wouldn’t have been able to use it.
Sneaking Bad guys into Hogwarts? The Weasley’s often brought Scabbers to school though to be fair, they didn’t know he was Pettigrew. However Dumbledore definitely knew about Quirrel, Lockhart and Draco yet often left them alone.
Using Unforgivables? Harry.
Even for attempted murder, we also have Sirius Black who did it willingly and still brags about it in the present instead of accepting responsibility for his actions. Additionally Fred and George showed no signs of caring about what happened to Montague and Hermione was hoping the Centaurs would deal with Umbridge, with them thinking whatever they did funny.
In comparison, Draco interestingly enough, despite Harry nearly killing him and being a key player in the chain of events, Draco became more sympathetic towards The Trio. Even when facing Dumbledore, Draco does look when he hears a yell and was pleased by Dumbledore’s words until he began insulting him again.
Lavender Brown’s treatment and Ginny Weasley’s treatment.
They honestly should have better writing.
Lavender has been mad fun of and at the end of many “jokes” since the franchise began.
Philosophers Stone and Goblet of Fire? Weasleys call to her and make dumb jokes.
Prisoner of Azkaban? Hermione dismisses Her bunny’s death and She is mad fun of for liking Divination despite many of the predictions being true.
Order of the Phoenix? She is still mocked for liking Divination and now Firenze, who Hermione insulted.
This book, She Spends being mocked for liking Ron. Unlike Hermione, Lavender openly flirted with Ron and expresses interests in the things he likes. Yet Hermione is more “suitable” for Ron because Hermione isn’t as feminine and wouldn’t be as clingy. Not to mention Ron dated Lavender at least partly to get back at Hermione for being with Krum.
With Ginny, She was often ignored in Prisoner of Azkaban - Goblet of Fire. She goes back to being an extra in Deathly Hallows.
During Order of the Phoenix, she started dating and this gets pointed out but the thing is, is it really much more than anyone else?
Harry? Got together with 2 girls within 1 year.
Hermione? Liked 3 different guys in the same timespan as Ginny.
Cho? Had 2 love interests within 1 year.
Speaking of which, about the advice that Hermione gave Ginny, I can’t help but wonder if Hermione was trying to project her issues with Ron onto Ginny and Harry. Since around the same time, Hermione was with Krum because Ron wanted to dance with a girl more pretty than her and than Ron was getting jealous and insecure.
Ginny became more tomboyish in order for Harry to like her.
Ginny is also kind of hypocritical since she doesn’t like Fleur because she’s with Bill even though she was currently fighting with Ron because of her dating. (Speaking of which, I could have sworn that there was a line in Order of the Phoenix where She informs Ron that Shes dating Dean.)
The reason behind Ginny’s exclusion during the hunt is because Deathly Hallows is supposed to mirror Philosophers Stone and because Rowling doesn’t like females participating.