The sixth book of the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, has been on the market since 16th July. J.K.Rowling has given the answers to some questions we were asking ourselves and she has also laid out other mysteries, which will be probably solved in Harry Potter seven, the final book of the saga.

The death of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, has been a very big blow to all the fans of Harry Potter. Perhaps some cried over it. This book has brought a lot of surprises and one of them is the betrayal of Severus Snape, the potions master. While all of us thought that Severus was on the side of Dumbledore, he was secretly betraying the only man who had given him the chance to change for the better and to fight against the Dark Side. It was Snape himself who killed Dumbledore with the killing curse, Avada Kedavra. Snape was, as Draco had told Dumbledore when he had cornered the latter, a double agent.

He was teaching at Hogwarts on Voldemort’s orders to spy on Dumbledore. He was telling all the plans of the Order of Phoenix to Voldemort. But there is something that Voldemort said when he was re-incarnated that we need to wonder about. He said that one of his servants had betrayed him. He should be Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang, another school of witchcraft and wizardry, as when he was caught by the Auror Alastor Moody (Mad-Eye Moody) he betrayed Lord Voldemort by revealing the names of other Death Eaters. He also said that one servant had left him forever and that servant would be punished. Who could that servant be? Not Snape as he has not deserted Voldemort and he joined his inner circle two hours after the re-incarnation of his master. So we still have to wonder about that servant. But what other surprise has the book brought to us?

Apart from the betrayal of Snape, there is the fact that Draco Malfoy has become a death- eater (death-eaters are Lord Voldemort’s followers). However, it does not seem that he has become a death-eater willingly. He often went in the toilets to cry because he was not able to fix the broken vanishing cabinet that no one had used for years, which led to the cabinet in Borgins and Burkes, a shop found in Knockturn alley, so that other death-eaters could come to Hogwarts through it and when Amycus, another death-eater, asked Draco to kill Dumbledore he could not do it. We all know that Lucius Malfoy, the father of Draco, is in Azkaban, the wizards’ prison, because Voldemort had punished him for the mistake he had made. Perhaps Draco was forced to become a death-eater and Voldemort was using him to take revenge on Lucius Malfoy.

But the biggest surprise was the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. He was SEVERUS SNAPE! We all thought that the prince could be Lord Voldemort or Tom Riddle but he turned out to be Snape, the person whom we had least expected to be the Half-Blood Prince.

<B>What about Voldemort’s Horcruxes?</B>

First of all we should know what a Horcrux is. It is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul. When a person splits up his soul and hides part of it in an object outside the body, that object becomes a Horcrux. So, when a person creates a Horcrux for himself, his soul remains earthbound and undamaged even if his body is attacked or destroyed. To create a Horcrux a person must perform an evil action. He must kill someone. By killing you rip apart the soul from the body. And the person uses the damage to his advantage by encasing the torn portion of the soul in an object. You encase that portion by making use of a spell.

By going in the pensieve and looking at Slughorn’s memory, Dumbledore and Harry found out that Voldemort or should I say Tom Riddle created HorcruxES. He did not content himself with only one Horcrux but he split his soul into seven portions, as seven is the most powerfully magical number. Harry destroyed one: the diary of Tom Riddle that Lucius Malfoy had put in Ginny’s cauldron so that the monster that was hidden in the chamber could be freed.

<B>Objects with powerful magical history</B>

Dumbledore also destroyed one. Riddle had used the ring of Gaunt, one of the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry, as a Horcrux and Dumbledore destroyed it. Now there are still four Horcruxes left as the fifth Horcrux forms part of Voldemort himself. Dumbledore thought that Voldemort would like objects with powerful magical history that is objects that are worthy of the honour.

Dumbledore thinks (or is certain) that the other Horcruxes could be Salazar Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup and two objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. We can be sure that the only object owned by Gryffindor is safe. The sword of Godric Gryffindor remains intact in Dumbledore’s… sorry McGonall’s office. However we cannot be sure that Voldemort has ever managed to find any of Ravenclaw’s possessions.

When Harry went with Dumbledore to find the Horcrux, they did not find the real Horcrux. They (OR Harry only as Dumbledore was dead before he could examine the locket.) only found a fake locket. But when Harry opened the locket, he found a note that was addressed to the Dark Lord initialed R.A.B. In the note R.A.B said that it was he who discovered the Dark Lord’s secret and that it was he who stole the real Horcrux and that he intends to destroy it as soon as he can. He also said that he faces death in the hope that when the Dark Lord meets his match, he will be mortal again.

That means that there is a fourth person apart from Harry, Dumbledore and Voldemort who knows about the existence of the Horcruxes. Perhaps R.A.B is the servant who left Voldemort forever as only Death Eaters call Voldemort by the term “The Dark Lord”. But we still need to worry about four Horcruxes, as we are not certain that R.A.B has indeed destroyed the Horcrux that he stole. He said that he “intended” to destroy it not that he destroyed it.

However Harry said that he would go to find the Horcruxes and destroy them and after that he would go after Voldemort. He also said that if he found Snape, Dumbledore’s murderer on the way he would finish him. Good Luck Harry!

<B>Eshna JEEBAUN</B>