The Short Version
Fair warning, this video is full of spoilers for the whole book, and near the end I will flag a few payoffs from book seven, so skip that part if you are still reading. The short version is this. The Prince’s identity, Draco’s mission, the Horcrux hunt and even Dumbledore’s fate are all planted in the first half, if you know where to look.
The Prince’s Book
Start with the title clue. In Harry’s first Potions lesson, he is handed a battered, scribbled copy of Advanced Potion-Making from the store cupboard. The class meets in the dungeon that had, for so long, been Snape’s.
Inside, the margins offer shortcuts, and one of them wins Harry the Felix Felicis. Hermione says the handwriting looks like a girl’s. Harry insists it is a boy, because of how he writes. The signature says only that the book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince.
Now count the hints. The Prince invents spells. One is Levicorpus, which Harry has already seen James use on Snape in the Pensieve. Another is Muffliato. When Ron is poisoned, the Prince’s bezoar tip saves him, and Harry realizes Snape mentioned bezoars in their very first Potions lesson. And Lupin says plainly that James never asked anyone to call him Prince.
Even Hermione’s guess is half right. Eileen Prince is Snape’s mother.
Snape And The Vow
Now the biggest Snape clue of all. In chapter two, Snape swears the Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa Malfoy. Three promises, and the third is to finish Draco’s task if Draco fails.
Harry is not in that room, but he gets a second chance. He listens through a keyhole at Slughorn’s Christmas party. Snape tells Draco that he is trying to help him, and that he swore to Draco’s mother to protect him. Harry thinks that proves Snape is a villain. Ron thinks the same.
Look at the other clues. Hagrid overhears Dumbledore and Snape arguing in the forest. Snape says Dumbledore takes too much for granted and that he does not want to do it anymore. Dumbledore replies that he already agreed.
And Dumbledore keeps saying one sentence over and over. I trust Severus Snape completely.
Draco’s Secret
Draco’s mission is the best planted secret in the book. Watch the order.
On the Hogwarts Express, Draco boasts that the Dark Lord may want a job from him that does not need qualifications. In Madam Malkin’s, he jerks his left arm away from the tailor. In Borgin and Burkes, Harry overhears him asking how to fix something that must stay where it is, and telling Borgin to keep another item safe. He threatens Borgin with Greyback.
Then there is the cabinet. In book five, a Slytherin named Montague gets lost inside a broken Vanishing Cabinet. Harry sees it in the Room of Requirement when he hides his book. Draco’s mission, in the end, is that cabinet.
And the small clues keep coming. Harry cannot find Draco on the Marauder’s Map. Trelawney hears someone whooping in the Room of Requirement. Fred and George sell Instant Darkness Powder in the same chapter, and Draco uses it on the night of the attack.
The Memories
Every memory Dumbledore shows plants a Horcrux.
In the Gaunt cottage, Marvolo waves a ring with the Peverell coat of arms, and Merope wears a heavy gold locket. Marvolo calls it Slytherin’s. Later Caractacus Burke recalls buying it from a pregnant young woman for ten Galleons, and Hepzibah Smith shows Tom Riddle her locket and a golden cup, with a badger on it.
Voldemort’s eyes flash red when he touches them. Hepzibah dies two days later. Her house-elf takes the blame.
And at the orphanage, Dumbledore points out a young Tom Riddle’s box of stolen trinkets. He says to remember this magpie-like tendency, because it will matter later.
It does. Ring, locket and cup are exactly the kind of treasured objects Riddle collected.
The Diary
Rowling also remembers book two. On the first day of Potions, Ginny hears that Harry is following instructions written in a book. She is alarmed. Harry tells her it is nothing like Riddle’s diary.
That is a nice clue about how dangerous a mysterious book can be, but the real payoff comes later. Dumbledore tells Harry that the diary was a Horcrux. A memory that thinks and acts, and drains the girl who holds it, was the first sign that Voldemort had split his soul.
Dumbledore adds that Voldemort was strangely careless with the diary, sending it into the world as a weapon. A man with only one piece of soul would never do that. It is the clue that says there are others.
Luck And The Cave
Next, Felix Felicis. Slughorn says he has taken it only twice in his life. Harry hides the prize in a pair of socks, and he uses it to win the Slughorn memory.
At the end, he gives it away. The unused bottle is shared between Ron, Hermione and Ginny, and Ginny says everything just seemed to miss them. That luck helped save lives.
The cave has clues too. Mrs. Cole mentions two children who went into a cave with Tom Riddle on a summer outing. And before they leave, Dumbledore names that very cave as the place where Tom Riddle terrorized two children.
The Inferi are set up even earlier, in the Ministry leaflet, and in Snape’s first Defense lesson, where a picture shows what an Inferius does. Dumbledore says fire is the answer. When Harry panics, Dumbledore uses it.
Dumbledore’s Warnings
Finally, the signs around Dumbledore. His hand is burned black in chapter three, and he will not explain it. His wand arm is fragile. When he takes Harry to Slughorn, he asks to be held on his left.
He also mentions the ring that cost him his hand, and that Snape’s timely action saved his life when he returned. Remember that line.
Trelawney draws the lightning-struck tower card. Dumbledore makes Harry swear to obey every order. And on the Tower, he silently freezes Harry in place, so that Harry cannot interfere.
Clues For The Rest Of The Series
Now a series spoiler warning. This part is for readers who finished all seven books.
First, R.A.B. The note in the locket is signed by Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius’s younger brother. The book mentions Regulus three times, but gives us no answer. Kreacher, the elf Harry sends after Draco, is part of that story.
Second, the ring. The Peverell coat of arms is a clue to the Deathly Hallows, and the stone in the ring is one of them.
Third, the Elder Wand. When Draco disarms Dumbledore, the wand’s allegiance changes, and that matters in the final battle.
And fourth, Snape. In book seven we learn the truth about his love for Lily and where his loyalty really lay, and why Dumbledore trusted him. Hagrid’s overheard argument and the Vow both look very different after that.
Your Turn
So that is how Rowling hides a murder, a mission and a villain’s secret in plain sight. Which clue did you spot on your first read, and which one only after the tower?
Tell me in the comments which clue surprised you most. And if you haven’t seen it yet, my ending explained video walks through the whole finale. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one.
