“Do you remember me telling you we are practicing non-verbal spells, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry stiffly.
"Yes, sir."
"There's no need to call me "sir" Professor."
The words had escaped him before he knew what he was saying.”
Harry is constantly at odds with Snape throughout the book and cannot help but reply with sassiness. Although he knows comments like this will inevitably get him in trouble, Harry can never help but say them if it means getting back at his abusive teacher.
“The thing about growing up with Fred and George," said Ginny thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.”
One of the central themes of Harry Potter is that, although they are children, the protagonists can succeed at anything as long as they have each other and a healthy amount of courage to attempt it.
“You'd think people had better things to gossip about," said Ginny as she sat on the common room floor, leaning against Harry’s legs and reading the Daily Prophet. "Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it’s true you’ve got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."
Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them.
What did you tell her?"
I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail," said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. "Much more macho."
Thanks," said Harry, grinning. "And what did you tell her Ron’s got?"
A Pygmy Puff, but I didn’t say where.”
The Harry Potter books focus the bulk of the story on the interactions of school children. J.K writes for her target audience by giving them situations and characters with whom they can relate, despite being set in a magical world.
“He accused me of being Dumbledore's man through and through."
"How very rude of him."
"I told him I was."
Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. To Harry's intense embarrassment, he suddenly realized that Dumbledore's bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knee. When Dumbledore spoke, however, his voice was quite steady.
"I am very touched, Harry.”
Harry is unendingly loyal to Dumbledore, almost to a fault, as he puts his life and education on the line to start Dumbledore’s Army. He believes that Dumbledore is their best hope in winning the war and trusts him far more than he trusts the ministry of magic.
“You could say sorry," suggested Harry bluntly.
"What, and get attacked by another flock of canaries?" muttered Ron.
"What did you have to imitate her for?"
"She laughed at my mustache!"
"So did I, it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen.”
Ron and Hermione's relationship takes a turn for the worse in the Half Blood Prince, as neither is willing to admit their feelings for one another. Harry spends much of his time at Hogwarts trying to mend their friendship. The HBP focuses on relationships far more than any other Harry Potter book, featuring a love triangle between Hermione, Ron, and Lavender Brown, as well as between Harry, Ginny, and Dean Thomas.
“It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there ... I can Apparate us both back ... don't worry ..."
"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you.”
Dumbledore has not always been a calm and good natured person, harboring angry prejudices in his youth. After the accidental death of his sister he tries to change, however when drinking from Voldemort’s poison he has all of his guilt dragged up for him.
“Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit.”
As the reader learns for of James Potter, he begins to appear as a bully and not a good person. However, many of the memories that suggest this a biased by Snape, and by constantly comparing the attitude and actions of Harry to James, Rowling assures us of his character having changed as he matured.
“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being--forgive me--rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.”
Dumbledore knows too well how big his mistakes were in the past, as is revealed in the seventh and final book. His past ideas about the absolute reign of wizards and witches of muggles are chillingly similar to the aims of Voldemort's reign of terror.
“But somebody else had spoken Snape’s name, quite softly.
“Severus . . .”
The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading.
Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.
“Severus . . . please . . .”
Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.
“Avada Kedavra!”
A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape’s wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Harry’s scream of horror never left him; silent and unmoving, he was forced to watch as Dumbledore was blasted into the air. For a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.”
To Harry, Dumbledore was a hero. Even Voldemort himself was afraid of him. Yet, here, Harry, and the reader, seems to come to the realization that Dumbledore is human as well, and thus can die. It also appears that Dumbledore had faulty judgment. Snape, whom Dumbledore had trusted, had betrayed him coldly.
“Oh, come and stir my cauldron,
And if you do it right,
I'll boil you up some hot strong love
To keep you warm tonight.”
This song playing on the radio is quite ironic and seems to hint at the attempt by Romilda Vane to slip Harry some love potion that eventually led to Ron drinking poisoned mead that was intended for Dumbledore.
“Montague's just been found in a toilet, Sir.”
Montague was stuffed in a vanishing cabinet by the Weasley twins. This same cabinet had its counterpart in Borgin and Burke's and eventually led to Malfoy hatching out a plan to transport Death Eaters into the school and murder Dumbledore.
"Is it true?" said Gaunt in a deadly voice, advancing a step or two toward the terrified girl. "My daughter – pure blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin – hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?" (10.149)
Here, interestingly enough, we find that Merope Gaunt, Voldemort's mother, was abused in the Gaunt household despite being a pure-blood witch. This also alludes to a history of heartbreak in Voldemort's family.
"Again, this is guesswork," said Dumbledore, "but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby's sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son." (10.179)
With the information we're given on Merope Gaunt and her heritage, she'd undoubtedly be a powerful witch. In spite of her power, she still couldn't help but fall in love with man she hardly knew. One would assume that a witch of her stature would be able to control their feelings , but the abuse and lovelessness she withstood weakened her. Perhaps, this is an example of how love is more powerful than even magic.
