Regarding the Identity of the Half-Blood Prince (Spoilers)

[Harry Benkiel]

Greetings and Salutations!

A touch of spoiler space.

I
SOLEMNLY
SWEAR
THAT
I
AM
UP
TO
NO
GOOD.

The potions textbook was fifty years old. Snape wasn't at Hogwart's
that long ago. Was the book his mother's? Once I heard how old the
book was I immediately eliminated Snape from suspicion and thought
that Slughorn was the HBP. He was probably the right age and was
obviously a potions master.

Hmmm...

Cheers, Harry

[deCadmus]

Simply because a book was printed 50 years ago doesn't mean that you
can't write in it today. Or that somebody else couldn't have written in
it 20 or 30 years after it was printed.

The fact that the *same* textbook -- evidently unchanged in even the
most recent printing -- suggests it's been the definitive potions text
for quite some time.

[Tom Horsley]

Post by deCadmus
The fact that the *same* textbook -- evidently unchanged in even the
most recent printing -- suggests it's been the definitive potions text
for quite some time.

Though considering how much better Snape's instructions work on
everything, you gotta wonder why he never published a new potions
book and made $100 million galleons in profits because it worked
so well :-).

[Jay]

Snape used second-hand textbooks =)

[JJ]

Post by Jay
Snape used second-hand textbooks =)

So who was the "Half Blood Prince"? Hermione said Eileen Prince was the
half blood prince because her mother was a witch and her father was a
muggle with the family name "Prince". Thus, she would be a half-blood
prince.

Later it was said that the book did belong to Snape's mother. It also
said Snape's mother (a half-blood) married Tobias Snape (a muggle),
making Snape 1/4 wizard, right?

[zgirnius]

I think maybe in the Wizarding community "half-blood" denotes any
wizard who is neither pureblood nor Muggleborn. We've never seen anyone
referred to as "quarter-blood", or "three-quarter blood", or whatever.
If your Muggle ancsetors are hidden in the mists of time, you're a
pureblood. If you are known to have both wizard and Muggle ancestry,
you are a hlaf-blood. If your parents are both Muggles, you're
Muggleborn.

Just my theory.

--zgirnius

[Jay]

The Half-Blood Prince was Snape =)

I believe you're mistaken when you say the book belonged to Snape's
mother. The name Eileen Snape first came up when Hermoine was trying
to explain to Harry that the Prince didn't have to be a male. Eileen
Prince didn't come up again until they were discussing the HBP being
Snape that Hermoine pointed out that Snape was the son of Eileen
Prince. It was from his mother's lastname that he derived his nickname
but I don't believe it ever says his mother owned the book - although
its very possible. He might have been using a second-hand book from
his mother.

[Opie]

Post by Harry Benkiel
Greetings and Salutations!
A touch of spoiler space.
I
SOLEMNLY
SWEAR
THAT
I
AM
UP
TO
NO
GOOD.
The potions textbook was fifty years old. Snape wasn't at Hogwart's
that long ago. Was the book his mother's? Once I heard how old the
book was I immediately eliminated Snape from suspicion and thought
that Slughorn was the HBP. He was probably the right age and was
obviously a potions master.
Hmmm...
Cheers, Harry

Yes, but the book may have belonged to Snape's mother, who passed it on to
him when he attended Hogwarts. Snape may owe as much of his reputation in
potions to the book as Harry does.

[Louis Epstein]

Harry Benkiel <***@mindspring.com> wrote:
: Greetings and Salutations!
:
: A touch of spoiler space.
:
: I
: SOLEMNLY
: SWEAR
: THAT
: I
: AM
: UP
: TO
: NO
: GOOD.
:
: The potions textbook was fifty years old. Snape wasn't at Hogwart's
: that long ago. Was the book his mother's? Once I heard how old the
: book was I immediately eliminated Snape from suspicion and thought
: that Slughorn was the HBP. He was probably the right age and was
: obviously a potions master.

Slughorn was nowhere near the right age.
He was a teacher both in Snape's time and in Riddle's
(which was before Eileen Prince's).

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[spit334]

Well for anyone who has gone to a public school, you see books with the
names of the people who used them before you did. More often then not
you can find a scribble or a calculation in the margin.

this is exactly what snape did, except he left a bit more of a present
than most of the people before him