100 Fun Facts About Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Bloomsbury published Half-Blood Prince in Britain, but which company released it in the United States?

Scholastic. It printed a record 10.8 million copies for launch day and still had to rush another 2.7 million into print after the first weekend.

Half-Blood Prince's first-day sales broke which earlier book's record?

Order of the Phoenix. The fifth book sold 5 million US copies on its first day; the sixth sold 6.9 million, a launch that took in more money that weekend than any film in American cinemas.

Which 2006 prize passed from The Da Vinci Code to Half-Blood Prince?

British Book of the Year. Half-Blood Prince took the awards' overall prize, while their children's category went that year to Anthony Horowitz's teenage-spy novel Ark Angel.

In Half-Blood Prince, who makes an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy to protect Draco?

Severus Snape. The vow also binds him to carry out Draco's mission if the boy fails, and on the tower it is Snape who steps in and kills Dumbledore.

Which spell from the Prince's textbook does Harry cast on Draco in their bathroom duel, nearly killing him?

Sectumsempra. The Prince's note said only 'For Enemies', so Harry had no idea it would slash Draco open, and the detentions that followed made him miss the Quidditch final.

Which of Hagrid's creatures dies in Half-Blood Prince, giving Harry his chance to win Slughorn's memory?

Aragog. Slughorn comes to the giant spider's burial for its valuable venom, and after an evening of toasts with Hagrid he finally hands Harry the true memory.

In Half-Blood Prince, what is the luck potion Harry wins in Potions class called?

Felix Felicis. Harry only pretends to slip some into Ron's drink before a Quidditch match, and Ron plays brilliantly on nothing more than the belief that he is lucky.

In Half-Blood Prince's Pensieve memories, where did the young Voldemort grow up?

A Muggle orphanage. His witch mother died there within an hour of giving birth, so nobody around him understood his powers until Dumbledore arrived to offer him a place at Hogwarts.

In Half-Blood Prince, what did the teenage Voldemort ask Slughorn about in the memory Harry must retrieve?

A Horcrux. Slughorn was so ashamed of having explained them to the boy who became Voldemort that the version of the memory he first handed over had been tampered with.

Which cursed heirloom leaves Dumbledore's hand blackened and withered throughout Half-Blood Prince?

Marvolo Gaunt's ring. Dumbledore tracked it to the ruined shack of Voldemort's mother's family, and the curse he set off by putting it on withered his hand for good.

In Half-Blood Prince, which Gryffindor student is nearly killed by a cursed necklace?

Katie Bell. Under the Imperius Curse she was carrying the package to Dumbledore when it tore, and she lived because the necklace only brushed her skin through a tiny hole in her glove.

In Half-Blood Prince, whom does Ron start dating to spite Hermione?

Lavender Brown. She takes to calling him 'Won-Won' in public and sends him a gaudy chain spelling out 'My Sweetheart' for Christmas, a present Ron cannot stand.

In Half-Blood Prince, what nearly kills Ron in Slughorn's office on his birthday?

Poisoned mead. Slughorn had meant the bottle as a Christmas present for Dumbledore, and Ron survives only because Harry shoves a bezoar down his throat.

In Half-Blood Prince, Ron turns cold towards Hermione after learning she once kissed whom?

Viktor Krum. Ron's sister throws it at him in a row after he catches her kissing Dean Thomas, jeering that he has about as much experience as a twelve-year-old.

Whom does Harry begin dating late in Half-Blood Prince?

Ginny Weasley. In the novel Harry kisses her in front of the whole party after Gryffindor win the Quidditch Cup without him, then breaks it off at the end of term to keep her from becoming a target.

Which spell does Draco cast at Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower, unknowingly winning the Elder Wand?

Expelliarmus. Draco only disarms the weakened headmaster, yet that simple charm, not the Killing Curse that follows minutes later, decides the Elder Wand's loyalty in the final book.

In Half-Blood Prince, what does Harry discover about the locket he and Dumbledore took from the cave?

It is a fake. Dumbledore had drunk a whole basin of tormenting potion to reach it and came home too weak to defend himself, all for a copy somebody had swapped in years before.

In Half-Blood Prince, what initials sign the note hidden inside the locket from the cave?

R.A.B. The final book reveals them as Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius's younger brother, a Death Eater who lost faith in Voldemort and went to his death trying to undo his master's work.

Rowling had once considered the title Half-Blood Prince for which earlier book?

Chamber of Secrets. Rowling pulled crucial information out of that book's first draft because its proper home was book six, and the discarded title waited there with it.

Who succeeds Cornelius Fudge as Minister for Magic in the opening chapter of Half-Blood Prince?

Rufus Scrimgeour. He later asks Harry to be seen backing the Ministry and is turned down flat, sneering that the boy is 'Dumbledore's man through and through'.

Bets on Half-Blood Prince's big death were suspended after wagers from a town handling which job?

Printing. A flurry of bets on Dumbledore came from Bungay in Suffolk, home of a big book printer, so a bookmaker froze the market for fear the manuscript had been read.

Bloomsbury printed Half-Blood Prince on part-certified, forest-friendly paper after a campaign by which group?

Greenpeace. Its campaign had held up the Canadian edition, printed entirely on recycled paper, as the model, and Bloomsbury answered with paper that was 30 per cent Forest Stewardship Council certified.

A supermarket accidentally sold 14 copies of Half-Blood Prince early in which Canadian province?

British Columbia. The province's Supreme Court then barred the 14 buyers from even reading their own copies before release day, and they were asked to hand the books back.

What new title does the Daily Prophet give Harry at the start of Half-Blood Prince?

The Chosen One. A year earlier the same paper had smeared Harry as an attention-seeker; once the Ministry admitted Voldemort was back, it began hailing him as the one wizard who could finish the job.

Which retailer reported a record 1.4 million advance orders for Half-Blood Prince days before its release?

Amazon. The figure pooled orders from its websites around the world, and before a single copy had shipped the retailer declared the book its biggest new product launch ever.

Stephen Fry reads the British Harry Potter audiobooks, but who narrates the US edition of Half-Blood Prince?

Jim Dale. America's voice of Hogwarts is an Englishman too, best known at home for the Carry On comedies, and his reading of the sixth book sold more than 165,000 copies in its first weekend.

Which stand-in Keeper cracks Harry's skull with a Beater's bat during a Quidditch match in Half-Blood Prince?

Cormac McLaggen. Playing while Ron is in the hospital wing, he grabs a Beater's bat to show the team how it is done and knocks out his own captain, all to Luna Lovegood's dreamy commentary.

Which film moved into the November 2008 release slot that Half-Blood Prince vacated?

Twilight. Summit pulled its vampire romance forward from 12 December into the empty weekend, with Robert Pattinson, Hogwarts' own Cedric Diggory, in the lead.

Half-Blood Prince's five-day worldwide opening broke a record set by which superhero film?

Spider-Man 3. The costliest Potter film, at an estimated $250 million, sat finished on the shelf for eight months and still opened bigger worldwide than any film before it.

Which film kept Half-Blood Prince from being the highest-grossing release of 2009?

Avatar. Half-Blood Prince out-earned every other 2009 release worldwide, until James Cameron's film opened that December and went on to pass his own Titanic as the biggest earner ever.

Half-Blood Prince is the only Potter film nominated for which Academy Award?

Best Cinematography. Bruno Delbonnel's soft, drained look so unsettled Warner Bros. that the team had to put some colour back, yet it earned the series its one nomination in the category.

Who plays Horace Slughorn, the new Potions master, in the film of Half-Blood Prince?

Jim Broadbent. He makes his entrance disguised as an armchair, the trick the professor uses to hide from Dumbledore in a Muggle house he has wrecked to look like a crime scene.

Which family is cut from the Half-Blood Prince film entirely, despite appearing in the book?

The Dursleys. Screenwriter Steve Kloves wanted to break the pattern of Potter films opening with them, so the film instead finds Harry flirting with a waitress in a railway cafe.

Who plays the 11-year-old Tom Riddle in the film of Half-Blood Prince?

Hero Fiennes Tiffin. He is the nephew of Ralph Fiennes, the adult Voldemort, and David Yates called the family resemblance 'a clincher' while insisting the boy won the part on merit.

Why did David Yates decline to bring back Christian Coulson as the teenage Riddle in Half-Blood Prince?

He was too old by then. Coulson had already been 23 when he played the 16-year-old Riddle in the second film, and though he said he would love to return, he was nearly 30 by casting time.

Which actor was David Yates's first choice for the new Minister for Magic, a role cut from the Half-Blood Prince film?

Bill Nighy. He had joked that he was the only actor in England not yet cast in a Potter film, and when the cut character returned one film later the part was his.

The outside of the sea cave in the Half-Blood Prince film was shot at which Irish landmark?

Cliffs of Moher. Only the outside is real: the cave within, with its island of crystal rock, was built against green screen on a studio stage and finished with months of effects work.

The Half-Blood Prince film shot its snowy Hogwarts Express scenes in which country?

Norway. Britain had no usable snow when the scenes were due, so the Rauma Railway near Bjorli stood in for the Scottish Highlands the train usually crosses.

Which London landmark do the Death Eaters destroy in the opening of the Half-Blood Prince film?

Millennium Bridge. The book only reports a fictional Brockdale Bridge collapsing offstage; David Yates wanted audiences to watch the Death Eaters do it, so the film tears down a real one.

Which scene from the end of the book was left out of the Half-Blood Prince film?

Dumbledore's funeral. The film says goodbye another way: staff and students raise their wands together until the Dark Mark fades from the sky, a tribute that is nowhere in the book.

Which action scene did the Half-Blood Prince film add that is not in the book?

An attack on the Burrow. With the book's closing battle cut to avoid repeating a later film's finale, the makers wanted danger mid-story, so Death Eaters set the Weasleys' home ablaze at Christmas.

Which Potter star was reported to have refused the final films before signing on for Half-Blood Prince in March 2007?

Emma Watson. Days after reports that she had turned down the last two films, she signed for both, saying 'I could never let Hermione go' and that she wanted to finish what she had started.

Who composed the Grammy-nominated score for the Half-Blood Prince film?

Nicholas Hooper. He came to Potter with David Yates, having scored the director's television dramas State of Play and The Girl in the Café, and this was the second of his two films in the series.

Which film broke Half-Blood Prince's record for the biggest midnight opening later in 2009?

New Moon. Potter's record lasted barely four months before the vampire sequel passed it with $26.3 million from midnight screenings, and New Moon's own follow-up beat that the next summer.

The first 15-second teaser for the Half-Blood Prince film played in cinemas before which 2008 blockbuster?

The Dark Knight. That film's huge summer then helped persuade Warner Bros. to pull Half-Blood Prince out of November and give it the same July weekend a year later.

In the Half-Blood Prince film, where is Harry hiding the Prince's textbook when he shares a first kiss?

The Room of Requirement. The book stages that kiss in front of a cheering crowd after a Quidditch win; the film moves it to a hushed, private moment as the textbook is hidden away.

In the Half-Blood Prince novel, which 'family friend' does Draco threaten the shopkeeper Borgin with?

Fenrir Greyback. The name alone is enough to cow Borgin: Greyback is a savage werewolf in Voldemort's service, the one who bit Remus Lupin as a small boy.

In Half-Blood Prince, Draco links the Vanishing Cabinet at Hogwarts to a twin located where?

Knockturn Alley. The twin stands in the Dark-arts shop Borgin and Burkes, so once Draco has mended the broken cabinet at school, Death Eaters can step from the shop straight into the castle.

Who plays Narcissa Malfoy in the film of Half-Blood Prince?

Helen McCrory. She had been cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in the previous film but withdrew when she became pregnant, so she joined the series a film later as Bellatrix's sister instead.

Guillermo del Toro reportedly passed on directing Half-Blood Prince to make which of his own films?

Hellboy II: The Golden Army. While del Toro was said to have chosen his comic-book sequel, Alfonso Cuarón, who had made the third Potter film, was saying he would love the chance to return.

What piece of furniture is Horace Slughorn disguised as when Dumbledore and Harry find him in Half-Blood Prince?

An armchair was Slughorn's hiding place in a house he had staged to look as if Death Eaters had attacked it. Dumbledore was not fooled and jabbed the seat with his wand, and the chair cried out.

Whom does Harry invite, just as friends, to Horace Slughorn's Christmas party in the Half-Blood Prince novel?

Luna Lovegood was delighted, because nobody had ever asked her to a party before. She arrived in spangled silver robes and left her radish earrings behind.

What does Harry grab from Horace Slughorn's bag and force down Ron's throat to save his life in Half-Blood Prince?

A bezoar is a stone taken from a goat's stomach. Harry had learned the trick weeks earlier from a note scribbled in the margin of his second-hand Potions textbook.

Which Hogwarts ghost comforts a frightened Draco Malfoy in secret during Half-Blood Prince?

Moaning Myrtle lets slip to Harry and Ron that a boy has been coming to cry. Harry later finds Draco there, terrified that he cannot finish the job Voldemort set him.

Ron fails his Apparition test in the sixth Harry Potter book because he leaves which small part of himself behind?

Half an eyebrow was all the examiner needed to fail him. Leaving a body part behind is known as splinching, and Hermione passed the same day.

What name is given to the reanimated corpses that try to drag Harry into the cave's lake in Half-Blood Prince?

Inferi are corpses animated by Dark magic, and they shun light and warmth. Dumbledore drives them back under the water with a wall of flame.

In the Half-Blood Prince novel, who finds Harry lying paralysed on the Hogwarts Express and frees him?

Nymphadora Tonks was one of the Aurors posted to guard the school that year. The two have to leap from the train as it starts back towards London.

What sign hanging over Hogwarts sends Dumbledore and Harry racing back to the castle on brooms in Half-Blood Prince?

The Dark Mark is the sign Death Eaters cast over a place where they have struck. The pair land beneath it on the Astronomy Tower, where Draco Malfoy bursts in moments later.

Which of Ron's brothers is left permanently scarred by a werewolf during the Hogwarts battle in Half-Blood Prince?

Bill Weasley was mauled by a werewolf who was not transformed at the time, so he probably escapes the full curse. His only lasting change seems to be a new taste for very rare steaks.

The opening chapter of Half-Blood Prince takes place in whose office, where Cornelius Fudge arrives by fireplace?

The Muggle Prime Minister is told that the week's disasters were Voldemort's work. He also learns that his capable new secretary is really an Auror sent to guard him.

In Half-Blood Prince, how does Dumbledore use Kreacher to test whether Harry has inherited Sirius Black's house?

He must obey an order from his rightful owner, and the house-elf does so under loud protest. Dumbledore had feared an old family enchantment might hand everything to a Death Eater cousin instead.

In Half-Blood Prince, which potion does Harry brew best in Horace Slughorn's first lesson using his textbook's notes?

Draught of Living Death earned Harry the lesson's prize because the handwritten changes in his borrowed book worked better than the printed method. Hermione was furious when he admitted it.

In Half-Blood Prince, what does Harry deduce Crabbe and Goyle take to stand guard for Draco Malfoy unrecognised?

Polyjuice Potion, which Harry guesses was stolen from Slughorn, lets the pair pose as a string of different students. Harry keeps passing small girls in the corridors who drop things in fright.

Which houseguest of Ron's family is nicknamed Phlegm behind her back in Half-Blood Prince?

Fleur Delacour is staying because she is engaged to marry into the family, and the other women find her very full of herself. Ron, still plainly smitten, gets flustered whenever she walks in.

Whom does Harry seize by the throat in Hogsmeade over silver looted from Sirius Black's house in Half-Blood Prince?

Mundungus Fletcher drops a suitcase that spills a goblet bearing the Black family crest. He vanishes on the spot, and Dumbledore later promises that nothing else will be taken.

In Half-Blood Prince, whom has Draco Malfoy put under the Imperius Curse to smuggle cursed gifts into Hogwarts?

Madam Rosmerta had been bewitched into passing on Draco's deadly packages from her pub, the Three Broomsticks. Harry warns the Hogwarts staff about her that same night.

In Half-Blood Prince, which spell from his annotated textbook does Harry try out, hoisting a sleeping Ron into the air?

Levicorpus hangs its victim upside down in mid-air and needs no spoken word. Harry recognises it as the jinx his own father once used on a schoolmate.

In a Half-Blood Prince memory of Voldemort's mother's home, her brother greets a Ministry visitor in which language?

Parseltongue, the language of snakes, runs in a family that boasts of descending from Salazar Slytherin. The young Tom Riddle later uses it to talk to the same uncle.

In Half-Blood Prince, how does Dumbledore believe Voldemort's mother won over the wealthy Muggle Tom Riddle?

With a love potion, Dumbledore suspects, and the pair ran away together to the scandal of the village. Within months Riddle was back at his manor alone, saying he had been hoodwinked.

What do the fleeing Death Eaters set on fire as they escape the Hogwarts grounds at the end of Half-Blood Prince?

Hagrid's hut is set alight while curses bounce harmlessly off its owner's massive frame. Harry helps douse the flames, and the gamekeeper cannot believe the news about Dumbledore.

At the end of Half-Blood Prince, which village does Harry say he will visit to see his parents' former home?

Godric's Hollow is where James and Lily Potter lived, and Harry has no intention of returning to school. He plans one last stop at Privet Drive first, and Ron and Hermione insist on joining him.

Who takes charge of Hogwarts as acting head on the night Dumbledore dies in Half-Blood Prince?

Minerva McGonagall gathers the heads of house, who agree the school should stay open if the governors allow it. They also honour Dumbledore's wish to be laid to rest in the grounds.

What new role does Harry learn he has been given when his Hogwarts booklist arrives in Half-Blood Prince?

Quidditch captain puts Harry on a level with the prefects, Hermione points out, so he may use their luxurious bathroom. At his trials he has to send away a crowd who only came to stare at him.

Which magical object does Harry use to track Draco Malfoy's movements around the castle in Half-Blood Prince?

The Marauder's Map shows everyone inside the castle, yet Draco keeps vanishing from it. Harry even wonders whether he is slipping out of school altogether.

What does a furious Hermione conjure and send to attack Ron after his victory-party kiss in Half-Blood Prince?

Canaries are circling her head in an empty classroom when Harry finds her. When Ron barges in with his new girlfriend, she sets the whole flock on him.

On the Hogwarts Express in Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy stamps on a paralysed Harry and breaks what?

His nose is broken as payback for Lucius Malfoy's imprisonment, after a glimpse of Harry's shoe on the luggage rack gave him away. Draco then throws the cloak back over him so nobody will find him.

Which living creature does Dumbledore suspect of carrying a fragment of Voldemort's soul in Half-Blood Prince?

Nagini is the pet snake Voldemort keeps close. Dumbledore calls it a risky choice, because a living thing can think and move for itself.

How does Dumbledore empty the basin of green potion guarding the locket in the Half-Blood Prince cave?

By drinking every drop, a goblet at a time, having made Harry promise to keep forcing it down him. The potion leaves him delirious, in agony and desperate for water.

In Half-Blood Prince, Narcissa Malfoy and her sister seek help at a shabby house on which mill-town street?

Spinner's End lies in a run-down mill town beside a dark, dirty river. One sister spends the walk trying to talk the other out of making the visit at all.

Which Death Eater is ordered about as an unwilling house servant in the second chapter of Half-Blood Prince?

Peter Pettigrew, better known as Wormtail, protests that he is nobody's servant but fetches the drinks anyway. His host then catches him listening behind a concealed door and sends him scurrying.

Which creature inherited from Sirius Black is renamed Witherwings and sent back to Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince?

Buckbeak the hippogriff passes to Harry along with the rest of his godfather's belongings. The gamekeeper tells Harry, Ron and Hermione they can say hello if they turn up early for his class.

Harry, Ron and Hermione open their O.W.L. results in Half-Blood Prince; what does the bottom grade, T, stand for?

Troll really is a grade, not a joke invented by Fred and George as their friends had assumed. Harry's own worst mark is a Dreadful in History of Magic.

In Half-Blood Prince, which joke-shop invention does Harry use on Draco Malfoy after trailing him to a Dark Arts shop?

Extendable Ears, one of Fred and George's products, pick up Draco asking how to repair something he will not name. Hermione then walks in posing as a customer and is promptly shown the door.

Whose imprisonment does Harry cite when he refuses to front the Ministry's publicity drive in Half-Blood Prince?

Stan Shunpike, the Knight Bus conductor, was arrested after being heard discussing Death Eater plans. Ron's father admits the Ministry is still holding him just to avoid bad publicity.

Which admirer gives Harry the doctored chocolates that Ron eats by mistake on his birthday in Half-Blood Prince?

Romilda Vane had spiked them in the hope that Harry would take her to the Christmas party. Ron later wolfs down several and becomes besotted with her instead.

What unpleasant Christmas present does the house-elf Kreacher send his new master Harry in Half-Blood Prince?

A package of maggots is the elf's way of showing what he thinks of serving Harry. Later in the year Harry puts him to work regardless, ordering him to tail Draco Malfoy around the castle.

Whose cup does the young Voldemort steal from an elderly collector, along with a locket, in Half-Blood Prince?

Helga Hufflepuff was claimed as an ancestor by the cup's owner, who was dead two days after showing it off. Her house-elf was left believing she had poisoned her mistress by mistake.

In Half-Blood Prince, which vessel for a piece of Voldemort's soul does Dumbledore say was also built as a weapon?

Tom Riddle's diary was made as a weapon as well as a soul-vessel, designed to possess a student and reopen an old terror at the school. Harry had destroyed it four years earlier without knowing what it was.

Which collector does the young Tom Riddle murder days after she shows him her family treasures in Half-Blood Prince?

Hepzibah Smith received him as a buyer for a Dark-arts shop, a job that surprised those who expected him to end up as Minister for Magic. Her treasures vanished when she died.

Which shop founder paid Voldemort's destitute mother just ten Galleons for a priceless locket in Half-Blood Prince?

Caractacus Burke co-founded the Dark-arts shop that later sold the locket on to a collector. Voldemort's mother was pregnant, alone in London and too wretched to use magic to help herself.

Who is jailed in Azkaban for murdering the Riddle family, a crime Half-Blood Prince pins on the teenage Voldemort?

Morfin Gaunt, Voldemort's own uncle, confessed readily, and Dumbledore believes a false memory had been planted in his mind. He died in prison before his case could be looked at again.

Amycus and Alecto, the Death Eater siblings who corner Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince, share which surname?

Carrow is the name of the pair, who taunt Draco Malfoy for hesitating on the Astronomy Tower. Harry jinxes the brother minutes later as he duels a student at the foot of the stairs.

Which headmaster turns down the young Tom Riddle's first request to teach at Hogwarts, as Half-Blood Prince reveals?

Armando Dippet told him he was too young at eighteen, so Riddle went to work for a Dark-arts shop instead. Years later he applied again and was refused by the next headmaster.

Whose memory takes Harry and Dumbledore to the cottage of Voldemort's grandfather in Half-Blood Prince?

Bob Ogden worked in Magical Law Enforcement and had come to serve a summons on the son of the house. He was jinxed before he could even state his business.

Which Slytherin in Harry's year is invited to the Potions master's lunch on the Hogwarts Express in Half-Blood Prince?

Blaise Zabini is the only Slytherin there, and Harry tails him back to his carriage under the Invisibility Cloak. Draco Malfoy is annoyed at having been left off the guest list.

Which Dark object is Draco Malfoy carrying as he leads Death Eaters through a blacked-out corridor in Half-Blood Prince?

The Hand of Glory is in Draco's grip as he hurls something that plunges the corridor into darkness. Ron and Neville, on watch outside, hear people running past but cannot see to jinx them.

What does Dumbledore set alight to prove to the 11-year-old Tom Riddle that magic is real in Half-Blood Prince?

His wardrobe bursts into flames and is unharmed a moment later. Dumbledore then makes the boy fetch out a small hoard of stolen things and tells him to return them to their owners.

Which creatures fire a volley of arrows in salute as Dumbledore is laid to rest in Half-Blood Prince?

Centaurs pay their respects alongside the merpeople of the lake. Dumbledore is laid in a white tomb in the school grounds, as he had asked.

Half-Blood Prince's record for copies sold in its first 24 hours was eventually broken by which later book?

Deathly Hallows, the series finale, took the record. Half-Blood Prince had itself gone on sale with a record first print run of 10.8 million copies.

What is Professor Trelawney trying to hide when someone unseen hurls her into a corridor in Half-Blood Prince?

Her sherry supply was the secret, and she had heard someone whooping with glee in the dark before she was pushed out. Harry guesses it was Draco Malfoy celebrating a finished task.