Discovering The Half Blood Prince:
Part I

Those of you who have visited the forum probably know that I haven't read anyone's articles on the Half Blood Prince. Half of this is because I wanted to make sure that whatever I wrote down was something I came up with, and the other part was that I wanted a clear head in thinking about who it is. I do, however, give credit to those who were on the boards, as I could not help but read their ideas. Now, at last, I have finally forced myself to sit down and write my own predictions on who this mysterious character, entity, or persona could be.

I have decided not to write an article about a particular person as there are plenty of articles out there who have done much more research than I myself am going to do for this post. Instead, I am going to sum up the whole of my thoughts in this area. Part I will deal with debunking the Tom Riddle theory (even if it is Rowling's route) and lining up suspects. Part II will begin more generalizations and redefinitions.

First, let's start by examining what I think is the most likely reference that the Half Blood Prince refers to, that being the person Tom Riddle versus the persona of Voldemort. The reasons that I give this the most likely emphasis is because Book Two was all about Tom Riddle and his role as the heir of Slytherin. I know that Rowling has said that it is neither Voldemort nor Harry, but it can be argued that Tom Riddle is one of Voldemort's personas and therefore not Tom Riddle himself. In the books we are even given an example of this when Dobby comes to visit Harry in Little Whinging.

”Hang on—this hasn't got anything to do with Vol---sorry--with You-Know-Who, has it? You could just shake or nod,” he added hastily as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.
Slowly, Dobby shook his head.
”Not—not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir--”
Book Two, Page 17, US Edition

As we know, the plot did have something to do with Tom Riddle in the end, but supposedly Dobby said no because Tom had yet to become He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. However, I must point out that this is shabby evidence at best for it to be Tom Riddle. Why? I think Dobby was only able to shake his head no because of the way in which Harry had refered to him. If Harry had kept on with just naming Voldemort, than Dobby could not have shook his head no. As we see at the end of Book Two, Tom Riddle has already taken the name of Voldemort upon himself and the two are now indistinguishable if ever there was a time that they were distinguished.

So I started this part out by saying that Tom Riddle was the most likely choice for Rowling to name the Half Blood Prince after. I really don't intend to waste your time by naming each piece of evidence that supports this. Let it suffice to say that Riddle is a Half Blood leading Pure Bloods and the subject of Book Two. Rowling has said that Book Two carries many hints towards Book Six and that Book Six contains a lot of which she would have put in Book Two, but it didn't fit. However, keep in mind that this does not mean that Book Two must show us the Half Blood Prince, for a hint may be a hint but she may have taken out a whole character if they were better suited to enter later.

While the chances of it being Tom Riddle are high, I must now plead with Rowling not to go with this (dare I say corny?) route. If she does, she will have to convince me that this was a feasible plan, and that won't be easy.
So without to much ado, let us now talk about why Voldemort and Tom Riddle are indeed the same person and not likely to part company anytime soon. First, Tom Riddle chose to be Voldemort like from an early age. Already in Book Two he had fashioned himself a new name, and for all we know he may have fashioned it long before he was was a teenager. His choices were clear, and nothing, absolutely nothing about him tells us that he would wish to be anything else.

I do not believe that Tom became Voldemort but rather Tom embraced the part of him that was Voldemort. Anything left that was not Voldemort I believed has already died by now. For even Hagrid tells us in Book One that he believes there wasn't enough human left in Voldemort to die. What's more he fed off unicorns and entered a cursed life. No, if Tom Riddle was ever separate from Voldemort, that part is dead. There is no way it could live among such evil. I've always said there is always hope for someone, but it stands to reason that Voldemort is no longer truly a someone.

(Note: Where Book Two would have us believe that Harry Potter and Tom Riddle were similar characters, separated by their choices, I maintain that Harry and Tom were very different before they ever made their choices. For Harry could always look back at his parents and think of love; Tom may have looked back at his mother with love but was always haunted by his father's abandonment. A very different starting place.)

A last note on the Tom Riddle issue is that the fall of Grindelwald is close to when Tom would have been in the process of becoming Voldemort. In this sense, to think of Tom as a prince might not only coming from his heir of Slytherin position, but also from his position as Grindelwald's successor. One has to wonder if maybe Grindelwald was the Half Blood Prince? Okay that's just an offhand thought. Never-the-less it does add dimension to Voldemort's position.

Before I continue going through possible characters, I would like to point out how the title seems to work. First, there is a prince of one type or another that we can assume with enter the books. Second, this prince is Half Blood. This emphasis on the princes genealogy can have either a bad or good taste about it, but we can be assured the fact that the person is a Half Blood is important. Is it a Half Blood among Pure Bloods, as is Tom Riddle, or is it a Half Blood to lead other Half Bloods. If the latter, why the emphasis on the leader being a Half Blood rather than the community. Wouldn't a better title be “The Prince of the Half Bloods” or “The Half Blood's Prince”. I'm going to go with the prior as the more likely choice. That the title is referring to a Half Blood out of place.

Okay, time to line up a list of whom it may be dealing with. For this post, I'm going to only deal with those that fit in the prior category. Maybe later I'll deal with those in the latter. Those in the list may not be known Half Bloods, but their pure blood has yet to be proven to me or others. Other's may have a different definition of what it means to be a Half Blood.

Some Suspects: Anyone of the Dursleys (I know it's not likely, but something is definitely going on with them!); Pettigrew; Hagrid; Justin Finch-Fletchey; Seamus; Filch; Snape... eegads the list goes on and on. Forget a full list... I can't name the entire wizarding community! I'll get back to you all when my head is clear!

So to sum up: There is a Half Blood Prince and it could be bad or good and could really be anyone. I could seriously make a case for almost any male wizard!