Flight of the Prince (HBP)
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Flight of the Prince is the twenty-eighth chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Chasing Snape
Harry Potter feels at a complete loss. He cannot believe that Albus Dumbledore has just been killed (HBP27).
Severus Snape orders his fellow Death Eaters out of the Astronomy Tower, and Harry suddenly realises that he is now able to move; shock has kept him in place, not magic. He throws aside the Invisibility Cloak and uses the Body-Bind Curse on the last Death Eater before the brutal-faced man can leave the room.
Harry hurries down the staircase. The corridor he finds himself in is full of dust, and some of the ceiling seems to have collapsed. The battle is still going on in the distance, but Harry hears Severus instructing his men to leave.
When Harry approaches the duelling wizards, one of them leaps at him: Fenrir Greyback. He is on top of Harry, and the stench of sweat and blood fills the teenager's nostrils; Greyback is about to bite his throat when Harry uses Petrificus Totalus on him as well.
Harry ducks a jet of green light, and nearly slips on a puddle of blood (there are two bodies on the floor, but he does not stop to identify them). Ginny is duelling with Amycus ("Crucio — Crucio — you can't dance forever, pretty..."), and Harry jinxes him with Impedimenta. Amycus hits the wall with a squeal and falls out of sight.
McGonagall, Ron and Remus are each fighting one Death Eater; Tonks is battling another enormous blond wizard, Thorfinn Rowle. Ginny asks Harry where he's come from, but he does not stop to answer her. He continues to run, obsessed with the idea of catching up with Snape.
He catches a glimpse of Alecto further down the hallway, with her brother close in tow. Harry then stumbles on Neville, who is fallen and clutching his stomach. Longbottom assures Harry that he is all right.
Before getting up, Harry aims a hex at the blond wizard who is throwing spells everywhere and causing mayhem. The Death Eater is hit on the face by the jinx, and staggers away. He follows the same corridor through which Alecto, Amycus, Snape and Draco have already ran.
Studiously ignoring others' requests for him to stay, Harry sprints on, and leaves the Tower. Harry fears that Snape might have already arrived at the Room of Requirement, and wonders whether the Order of the Phoenix has done something to prevent Death Eaters from using that exit route.
He continues to run, and soon meets several bewildered Hufflepuffs; Ernie Macmillan asks him what's going on, but Harry shoves students aside and soon arrives at the Entrance Hall.
The Gryffindor hourglass was hit by a curse, and the rubies are falling to the ground. Harry can make out the three figures running towards the gate, beyond which Apparition is allowed: Snape, Draco, and the blond Death Eater.
Harry sees several flashes of light and realises that Hagrid has left his cabin and is trying to prevent the wizards from escaping. The teenager fiercely hopes that Hagrid is not hurt—not him, too.
Something hits Harry in the back and he falls through the ground, bleeding from the nostrils: the two siblings are closing in on him. He hexes one of them with Impedimenta, and the one affected falls, causing the other to stumble.
The blond Death Eater is aiming several curses at Hagrid, but the toughened skin that the half-giant inherited from Fridwulfa protects him. Snape and Malfoy, however, are dangerously close to the gates.
The Half-Blood Prince
Harry attempts to Stun Severus, but misses; Snape orders Draco to run and turns to face his most despised student, who is twenty yards away. Harry never manages to finish saying "Crucio"; Snape knocks him off his feet.
The blond Death Eater yells, "Incendio!" and the gamekeeper's hut bursts into flames. Hagrid angrily bellows that Fang is inside; the dog starts yelping.
Harry tries once more to use the Cruciatus Curse, but Snape blocks it with a sneer, shouting, "No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter! You haven't got the nerve or the ability—"
The teenager then tries to use Incarcerous, but Snape deflects it. "Fight back, you cowardly—" Harry screams, to which the Death Eater replies, "Coward, did you call me, Potter? Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one (PS17), what would you call him, I wonder?"
When Harry makes one more attempt at the Stunning Spell, Snape says, "Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!"
He then orders the blond wizard to join him and leave before the Ministry shows up. Harry utters half of yet another Impediment Jinx when he is hit with a Cruciatus Curse.
Snape furiously orders the Death Eaters to stop. Their orders, he states, were to leave Harry alone ("Potter belongs to the Dark Lord — we are to leave him! Go! Go!").
Amycus, Alecto and the blond wizard obey, and run towards the gates. Harry yells with helpless, inarticulate rage; he hates Snape as much as he does Voldemort. He dashes towards Severus and starts saying, "Sectumsempra".
The curse is repelled, but the teacher is no longer sneering, but enraged. Harry tries Levicorpus. With a loud bag, Harry soars backwards, his wand flies out beyond his reach, and Snape approaches.
"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them - I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father (OP28), would you? I don't think so ... no."
Harry reaches for his wand, but Snape makes it fly out of sight.
"Kill me, then. Kill me like you killed him, you coward—"
Severus' face becomes nearly inhuman with pain and fury. "DON'T CALL ME COWARD!"
Harry feels a white-hot, whiplike curse hit him across the face. Just then, Buckbeak, screeching loudly, attacks Snape, who staggers away towards the gates, with the Hippogriff close in tow.
Meanwhile, the teenager blindly looks for his wand; by the time he finds it, Snape is already gone.
Hagrid
Harry's first instinct is to call for Hagrid. The gamekeeper comes out of his torched house with Fang on his back, and Harry, shaking, kneels with a cry of relief.
Rubeus helps Harry to stand up. The student tells him to use Aguamenti to put out the fire, and Hagrid does so, using his pink umbrella.
Hagrid says that he had been binding bowtruckle legs when the Death Eaters arrived. Harry has a hard time announcing the events of the evening, but he finally blurts out that Snape killed Dumbledore.
Rubeus does not believe him, and credits the statement to post-duel confusion. The two walk towards the Hogwarts castle; several windows are lit now.
They notice dumbstruck teachers and students congregating the foot of the Astronomy Tower, and walk in their direction. There is something on the ground, directly below where the Dark Mark had been conjured.
Harry does not stop when realisation hits Hagrid; he kneels next to Dumbledore's spread-eagled, broken body. He straightens the half-moon spectacles on the deceased Headmaster's nose, and wipes droplets of blood away with his sleeve.
After a long time, Harry notices that he is kneeling upon something hard: the locket they retrieved a few hours ago (HBP26) has fallen from Dumbledore's pocket and opened. He numbly notes that there is something wrong: this does not resemble the object he saw in the Pensieve (HBP20). There is no sign of Salazar Slytherin's mark on it.
There is also nothing inside it with the exception of a scrap of folded parchment, which reads:
- To the Dark Lord
- I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.
- I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more.
Harry's eyes burn with tears as he realises that Dumbledore weakened himself for nothing; the locket is not a Horcrux.
| Previous chapter | This chapter | Next chapter |
|---|---|---|
| The Lightning-Stuck Tower | Flight of the Prince | The Phoenix Lament |
