Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Summary Dumbledore dies. Snape used Avadra Kedavra on Dumbledore (which should mean
instant death) and he subsequently fell from the Astronomy Tower. The school closed before final exams but the Hogwarts Express did not arrive to bring students home until after Dumbledore’s funeral, which was attended by many characters we have met throughout the books, Dumbledore’s body was on display and it burst into flames for a short time, after which a white tomb appeared around his body.Throughout the year,
Harry has private lessons with Dumbledore. They use the pensive to look at memories from various people to see Voldemort’s history.Previous generations had squandered away the family fortune, and Voldemort’s mother, brother, and father lives in poverty and filth in a small hut. His uncle used magic on muggles and the ministry locked him up for it.Voldemort’s mother was then left to her own and used a love
potion to make a handsome muggle marry her. Voldemort had already become aware of his magic and had began using it for malicious purposes at the age of 11. Malfoy was mysterious throughout the book. Harry noticed him acting strangely before school even started and followed him around. He knew Malfoy was up no good. He suspected that Malfoy was a Death Eater (which turned out to be true) and that he was trying to do something with a dark objectHarry and Dumbledore set off to find a Horcrux. They leave the castle and walk to Hogsmeade (with Harry under his cloak) so as to not let on to what their actual destination is. They pass by Rosmerta before finding an empty alley and Apparate away. The place they go to is a cave where Voldemort had visited as a child. The orphanage would take a trip every year to the beach. The cave was on the shore and inaccessible unless you either knew magic or were an experienced mountain climber. Harry and Dumbledore go inside and find it completely dark. There is a huge lake with a glowing light at the center. It should normally only hold one wizard, but Dumbledore says that Harry’s powers are so minor in comparison to his own that the boat doesn’t know the difference and thinks they are just one person. On their way to the island, they find that there are dead bodies floating in the water. Once there, they find the locket in something that looks like the Dumbledore’s pensive and a potion that they cannot reach through surrounds it. No spell Dumbledore tries will work, so he conjures a cup and begins to drink the potion. He is fine at first, but has he drinks more and more he becomes more and more weakened. Harry has to force the last few cups into Dumbledore’s mouth.Harry conjures cups of water over and over again, but every time he tries to empty it into Dumbledore’s mouth, it disappears. Finally, he is forced to fill the cup with water from the lake. As soon as he breaks the surface, the inferi beneath the surface awaken. Harry’s spells have no effect on them.The final battle takes place immediately after Harry and Dumbledore’s excursion into the cave to retrieve the locket they believe to be one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. After Harry manages to Apparate them back to Hogsmeade, they see the dark mark glowing over the castle. The immediately borrow a couple of brooms from Rosmerta and fly up to the astronomy tower. When they arrive, Dumbledore orders Harry to put on his invisibility cloak and go get Snape, who is needed to heal Dumbledore who is in a weakened state after drinking the potion to retrieve the locket Before Harry could get inside, the doors burst open, Malfoy came through and disarmed Dumbledore. Dumbledore had cast a spell on harry to paralyze him instead of casting some spell to protect himself.. Harry continues to chase Snape and Malfoy and they end up running away from the castle (No one can Apparate on Hogwart’s grounds).Harry catches up at this point and attempts to take down Snape, but Snape blocks every spell and tells Malfoy to run on ahead. Snape indicates to all of the Death Eaters that Harry belongs to Voldemort and that they are to leave him. Snape becomes enraged when Harry calls him a coward and attacks him. Buckbeak attacks Snape at this point and by the time Harry can get back to his feet, Snape has made it to the gates and Disapparated. We find out that the Death Eaters were able to get through the enhanced security that Dumbledore had in place around Hogwarts because of Malfoy. One was already inside Hogwarts at the start of the year.