Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Doesn't Make Sense? 

Clearly my dyslexia got me on that Katie Bell being moved to the hospital line. Sorry about that one!

I've just came to the conclusion that the wizard world's justice system is awful.

Slughorn was carrying all that potion because he was selling it illegally as a side hustle

I think trace and serum are major instances of "JKR didn't think this through" :D

On vanishing charms: “Where do vanished objects go?" "Into nonbeing, which is to say, everything," replied Professor McGonagall. (Book 7)

"I just like physically reading books." Same here

A dear author suggestion. Things protagonist do that we dislike.

Harry, who is polyamorous, was able to get Dumbledore to safety by relying on his mermaid lovers. You don't see them because they deserve privacy.

I can believe that Slughorn would have a cauldron full of the Liquid Luck brewing because I bet, if he makes it well, he probably sells it to people. That’s just the kind of person he is. He likes to make a quick buck selling things.

Funny, it's my favorite book in the series and my least favorite movie in the series. All they had to do was cut back on their love lives and give Tom Riddle more screen time. Ending the movie with Dumbledore's funeral would have also been a great way to end it. And if they had just done those few things, this could have been the best movie along with the best book.

Katie was like “Oop, guess I’m out of the hostpial.” *gets magically teleported back there* Katie: throws hands up in frustration

What if Snape had been brewing those potions in preparation for that class and slughorn just used his "stash". Cuz Snape didn't know he was getting the DADA post until month before start of term

Next up: Harry Potter & the Joys of Camping.

Hermione was carrying around a whole library, a camping set and a closet full of clothes for 3 people during their roadtrip in 7th book all in that little bag of hers. I can imagine Slughorn lugging at least 10 cauldrons full of handy potions in a similar bag/trunk at all times lol

I guess the ministry detected magic when Harry did it because he was The ONLY underage wizard at 4 private drive so it was easy to blame him if any magic happened around this region.

Dumbledore "swam??" through the water with his wand in his mouth with lumos on. So you can use magic outside of the cave. I suppose Harry could have used the spell Sirius used to carry Snape out of the Shrieking Shack. So Harry would only have to drag Dumbledore from the middle of the Island to the boat, sail over the pond in the boat and drag him out of the cave. He is also able to use magic in the cave, he is magically drying Harrys clothes in there and still has lumos on his wand, and he burns the inferi after he wakes up. Harry can't use aquamenti on the bowl with the horcrux, because the bowl is enchanted. Sorry for my spelling errors i'm from scandinavia.

I've always wondered how three children under the age of ten could have gotten to this remote, dangerous location, and how after two of them were traumatized there they all still somehow got back safely.

At 8:22 it says "Katie was removed TO St. Mungo's Hospital" not from so the narative makes sense IMO. As I understand she is removed from Hogwarts to St. Mungo's from which she later in the books still hadn't returned from

Where do vanished things go? "Into non-being, which is to say, everything." McGonagall answers this question to.get into the Ravenclaw common room next book 😊 just in case you were interested.

My question is why is the Avada Kedavra curse so easy to perform. Like we see students struggling to learn regular spells in their classes...like they don’t get it on the first few times...screw it up (except...well of course Hermione because she’s a genius), but somehow the Killing Curse is so easy to execute that we see different underaged characters trying to perform it or using it on instances with such ease throughout the books. Shouldn’t it be a little difficult to kill someone and require a lot of ‘practice’ to do?

I feel like we see a little more of Harry’s Slytherin side in this book. Many people have already pointed out multiple times that harry would be a good fit for Slytherin (including the sorting hat) and he is extremely sassy, determined and sarcastic in this book. Sadly a little more mean too. I personally loved to read the potions classes and the story behind the horcruxes. My favourite book by far.

I haven’t read this book in a long while but didn’t Dumbledore also say that he couldn’t use Veritaserum to get information from Slughorn because he wanted him to give it freely. He wanted to keep Slughorn around at Hogwarts so didn’t want to use tricks to get him to spill secrets or any method that may offend him in some way and make him leave.

I have no problem believing that even the teenage version of the most clever and powerful dark lord of all time could foresee the trace issue and devise a magical method to overcome it. It's a good point to raise, but I believe Voldemort simply outwitted the Ministry during this teenage killing spree/coverup.

”Things that vanish go into non-being, which is to say, everywhere.”

Vanished objects apparently go into non-being, which is to say, everything. (Source: McGonagall, in book 7.) Maybe he bought/borrowed the potion/s from another Potions Master just for display purposes? I'm not sure JKR explicitly stated that Slughorn himself brewed the potion/s.

Two things I’d like to add, not specifically about this book. Apparating isn’t consistent across the series. Sometimes it’s described as a loud crack unless the situation calls for quiet and then it’s a faint pop. Moving on to splinching in book 2(?) Arthur is talking about it and everyone shudders. Then in this book one girl does it in practice and it’s more of a funny situation, she’s hooping on one leg and they fix her immediately. In book 7 when Ron does it’s back to being a really bad thing and he can’t travel for days. I’ve never seen anybody talk about those two thing and I wondered why. I love the series but even as an adult they are above my reading level so I would never have made it through them without the audiobooks. And I tried I really tried I “read” all of them but I didn’t realize just how much I didn’t comprehend until I listened to the audiobooks as an adult.

Another thing. You'd think the ministry would have a way to detect memory charms given how common they are in the books.

I see three possibilities with Slughorn and Felix Felicis. The first is that he simply bought it. The second is that Snape already had some in storage or already being brewed at Hogwarts for teaching purposes. The third, and I think more likely, is that he was carrying it with him. Like you said, it was a whole cauldron, but we have seen bigger-on-the-inside magic (timelord technology, if you will) before in this magic world. It seems completely plausible that they have a system for transporting whole cauldron-loads of potion around, otherwise it seems a lot would go to waste. Additionally, we know Slughorn to be a collector or valuable and praise-worthy things, so I could see him having the lucky potion with him, even if he didn't plan to actually drink it.

Re: The Trace It is entirely possible that the way the trace worked in Tom Riddle's day and in Harry Potter's day are completely different and not directly comparable. My guess is that prior to Tom Riddle the trace was simply to make sure teenager wizards weren't blowing themselves up with magic but once Tom Riddle turned evil the ministry thought it might be better to keep a closer track on all child wizards in case they showed signs of being Tom Riddle version 2.0. It might be why the ministry was slow to work out what Tom was up to. Of course, it is entirely possible too that considering Harry's well known back story, that the ministry is purposely keeping a closer eye on any extra curriculum activities.

It’s been ages since I read Harry Potter-so take this with a grain of salt-butI can think of two reasons why the trace wasn’t effective when Voldemort killed his family: 1.) He’s the future “most dangerous dark wizard of all time” and took countermeasures against being traced (lazy answer). 2.) The trace did work, but no one was monitoring it (Voldemort) closely. Let me explain: in the instances regarding Harry, at that point, Harry was arguably the most important wizard in the world (or at least the European portion of it) and was definitely the most important underage wizard as far as the Ministry of Magic was concerned. So, it is likely that Harry’s trace was under constant, active surveillance, which is why the MoM knew exactly when, where, and how Harry broke wizarding law and was thus able to respond so promptly. Voldemort, on the other hand, was a talented only an extremely talented and charismatic student at Hogwarts when he killed his parents, and although he undoubtedly had the trace, and despite what others in the Ministry might have thought Of his promise at the time, I doubt he was a high priority subject at that point in his life-certainly nowhere near as important as Harry ever would be during his childhood-and was thus not an underage wizard worthy of active surveillance. I would guess, then, that even though Young Tom triggered his trace, by killing his father, it likely did little more than set off a general alarm rather than a high alert, or, at the least, by the time a ministry wizard noticed much of the specific information the trace recorded of the event had likely been brushed aside by other instances of underage magic also triggering their own alerts shortly thereafter. Put simply, Tom wasn’t very important yet, and the Ministry can only closely monitor so many underage wizards at one time with the number of wizards available to them.

I get so excited every time you post one of these videos. I like every one of them before even watching 😂

I just like to imagine the series semi-addressing the plot holes when Harry or anyone else asks about them. Harry: "But Professor Dumbledore, didn't Voldemort have the Trace on him when he killed his father? How does that work?" Dumbledore: "Damn it Harry, the Trace works when it wants to work! Okay? Now we haven't got more time for interruptions..."

I think it was mentioned that an antidote to veritaserum existed in the Harry Potter universe. That would explain why it would be unreliable to use on Slughorn or on a accused at a trial. It would also explain why it would work on Barty Jr. It would also explain why Dolores seemed to believe that it would work on Harry Potter in book 5 when Dolores asked a vial from Snape in front of Harry after he was caught in her fireplace.

I have been waiting for this video! Thank you a lot!

Literally 4:46AM where I live and I have no issue with waking up to watch these videos as soon as I can!! Love your perspective!

I love all your videos!!!😊 Thank you. Was so happy this morning when seeing the title of your video😊❤ I love to hear you talk about harry potter😍

Thanks for the video, I have been a fan ever since I stumbled upon your channel

If memories could be modified wouldnt that make confessions unreliable and they should know that

My favorite book in the whole series. It was such a breath of fresh air after two extremely dark chapters in the story.

So excited to see you hit 100k!! Your channel is growing so fast!! I'm so happy you're getting bigger because you clearly deserve it! Your love for books and discussions is precious. I still can't believe you agreed to review my Novel! See you at 100k!

Regarding Slughorn's felix felicis, the only thing that makes sense to me is that he bought the potion. Surely teachers can get funds from Hogwarts to buy things they need for lessons (i.e Professor Sprout is probably buying plants, like the mandragoras, for her classes using the school's funds). And I can't imagine there not being brewed potions on sale in the market. Not every wizard is good at potion making, and some wizards are excellent at it, so it's only logical that some of them open potions shops where you can buy small flasks or even an entire cauldron, and they're probably brewing stuff all the time.

I love your Harry Potter doesn’t make sense series. They are a great episode by episode follow up to each of your reviews of the series. It’s great to be able to see the flaws in something you love, and yet still love it anyway.

Was just wondering the other day when you were going to do the final 2 books. Thanks for making my morning!

"Where does vanished objects go?" that's a quote from book seven and McGonagall answers that question

One thing that always got me is why when harry was at aragog's funeral Hagrid said he never had much to do with Slughorn, when Riddle and Hagrid went to Hogwarts at the same time, you have potions at least your first 5 years. Also when Hagrid got expelled from Hogwarts he was allowed to stay on as gamekeeper, in Harry's firs 2 years Hagrid still ate in the great hall with the teachers at meals. Would Hagrid not have had plenty of interactions with Slughorn before Slughorn retired.

My favourite part of this video is when you throw the book up into the frame 0:02 So smooth :3

For once I had actually finished this book before you uploaded the video ! Makes me so happy 🤣

I love how you come up with really original ideas for things that don't make sense! I'm not sure if anyone else has commented this, but if you're interested in how to pronounce Felix Felicis, in the movies, it's feel-ix fel-ees-is.

The other potions too took a long time to brew. Hermione took half the term to make Polyjuice potion. The book does say the Felix Felicis cauldron was a small one, bubbling merrily. Maybe small quantities can be brewed sooner.

Wow Merphy!!!!!! You are really close to 100k subscribers! Congratulations 🎊🎉

Did anyone else love the dissapparation training in this book, when one of the students (can't remember which) closed his eyes, turned in a circle inside his hoop and did a sort of pirouette jump into the other hoop without realising it and thought he'd managed to dissapperate until he looked over and saw (I think) Seamus laughing at him

Perhaps Veritaserum does have a certain effect on your body, and Barty Jr. just didn't notice? I seem to remember he was in some sort of trance, completely enthralled by everything going on (and, if I'm not mistaken, Dumbledore had cast some sort of spell on him?). I guess a suspecting person like Slughorn would be alert all the time and would notice the effects immediately? Just a thought 🤷

Liked and subbed because I need more Merph in my suggested vids.

Got a head canon on the potions for Slughorn, Snape was brewing the batch we saw for his 6th year and when he got promoted to DADA professor he gave the finished potion's to Slughorn

Do we know exactly how old Voldemort was when he killed his father and grandparents? If he was 17, the trace would be gone, but he’d still be in school.

I think Voldemort would have taken steps to remove his trace or block its detection as early as possible.

The Super Carlin Brothers have a video where they theorize that the Felix Felicies is a placebo

Half Blood Prince is one of my two favorite books in the series. It makes me wonder, however, how many re-reads Merphy has done to see the plot inconsistencies. I mean, good work on it Merph! This takes a lot of effort to do, and never I see myself doing it. I am a character-driven bookworm; therefore, I don't remember much about the plot once I finished reading.

I think Harry was able to apparate them to Hogsmeade from the edge of the cave. Dumbledore couldn't during the TO journey because he wasn't familiar with the location and didn't wanna take risks of inaccurate Apparition

Katie was removed TO the hospital, not "from"

I didn't know that Harry knows lifeguard tricks to get Dumbledore through the water ^^

How I understand the Trace to work is that it is placed on the individual (and most likely linked to where that individual lives) and only activates when the child starts schooling. The Trace is also basically useless in wizarding families because the wizards and witches in that family overpowers the child's magic and thus the Ministry will not know who really did the magic. With Voldemort, what I understand is that he disarmed his uncle Morfin and then used Morfin's wand to kill the Riddle's (thus when the Ministry check Morfin's wand to determine the last spell used they will see that he used the Killing Curse). Then Voldemort used his own wand to change Morfin's memories and let him believe that he killed the Riddles. And since Voldemort was in a wizarding house (i.e. The Gaunt residence) the Ministry would not have picked up on underage magic being used.

Merphy, have you ever read any Hans Christian Andersen?

If Voldy's uncle Morfin was a powerful wizard you could call him Mighty Morfin.

An easy way to fix that trace plothole would be by saying that instance was when the trace was officially enacted on minor witches.

Did anyone notice that the Hand of Glory was mentioned in the book after four whole books and it just seemed to pop in because no one had ever talked about it before.

In the book the ministry knew it was Morphin because I think they monitor an area like a city. because earlier at Harry’s hearing someone mentioned that they only have a record of one wizard in Harry’s area Of Little Whingeing. which is why they didn’t know about Mrs. Figg.

With the Felix Felicis problem, I reckon it's a pretty standard lesson to show NEWT students in their first lesson all those amazing potions. So I reckon Snape had been brewing them the past 6 months to show the students. He wouldn't have known he'd be teaching DATDA instead.

Do you offer beta reading or developmental editing services? It would be awesome if we had your eagle eyes to catch all of this stuff before a book goes to print!

I regards to Tom Riddle's underage magic, I just assumed he had found a way to disable or trick the monitoring system. (Also, this is my favourite book of the seven :) )

I wanted to talk about Katie Bell she said she went to her parents but then I saw your comment. Concerning Vanished objexts, in chapter 30 of books 7 McGonagall is asked where they go by the Ravenclaw common room door. Her answers, which was right was: "Into nonbeing, witch is to say everything." The door replies: "Nicely phrased."

I love that "okay so" finally got acknowledged in a video hahaha

They coundn't skip the water the first time becouse you can't apparate to a place you have never been to. So the inside of the cave (that part were they needed blood to enter) was impossible to apperate in. But the river was just in the way becouse both never where behind that river before.

‘Twas gunna say your thumb nail made me mad but your into made me happier thanks for clearing that right off the bat 😁

Isn't it stated in the books that you can't make most things appear, but you can multiply if you have some to start with (at least it is about food, so it should apply here as well). This would mean that if Slughorn had one vile of Felix Felices, he could turn it into an entire cauldron, right?

Couldn't slughorn have found the veritaserum from someone else. Does the book say that only he can brew it?

Some things in Half Blood Prince that are pretty minor, but kind of amusing: 1) The cost for apparition lessons was 13 galleons, per student. A Wand costs 7 galleons.The omnioculars in Goblet of Fire cost 10 galleons each which neither Ron, nor Hermione could afford in their dreams. Perhaps this is the cost of all the lessons put together, but keep in mind these are fulll-time students at a borading school. What student, other than Harry, and maybe some wealthy Slytherins, would have that kind of money lying around. Wouldn't apparition lessons be part of school fees, so paid for by the students' parents? 2) We're expected to believe that the Gryffindor Quidditch team haven't finished last (out of four) in 200 years? How OP has Gryffindor been? It's also kind of funny that no matter what team is assembled they never seem to have any problems with inexperience, team chemistry or skill level (aside from Ron's confidence issues). It's just: team turns up, scores a few goals, opposition scores, Harry catches the snitch, the end. Gryffindor win... unless Harry's knocked out mid match. 3) I also find Rowling's take on teenage romance quite fascinating, as she seems to think that most teenagers go through their entire high school life being infatuated with just one or two people. She does this quite frequently too (Snape in particular). While this may be the case for some people. Most will move on pretty quickly if they feel they are getting nowhere with their current crush. I feel like Ginny, having gotten no attention from Harry previously would have moved on and come to consider Harry as more of a friend or brother overtime. Also, when was Ginny established as being "popular"? Amongst Harry, Hermione and that, sure. But she's always seen hanging out with like Neville and Luna etc, and aside from a brief fling with Michael Corner, who else does she hang out with? She's really only as popular as Hermione, or Ron. 4) It;s been established a couple of times, that Peeve's is susceptible to some spells. Why doesn't Harry invest in these whenever he is cornered by the Poltergeist? Langlock, that spell Lupin used to throw chewing gum into his outh and i'm sure, if these spells work on Peeve's then the silencing charm would also work. Get better at spells Harry! 5) It also bugs me that Harry, among other wizards, barely of age, are able to take on fully grown Death Eaters and live, while master wizards, some of whom are aurors barely make it out alive. Case and point: Harry seems to be the only one able to aim a curses (albeit, most of the time when the opponent isn't looking or from under an invisibility cloak). He stuns Yaxley down a flight of stairs and aims a curse at Rowle, who was raining down curses. Am I to believe that out of McGonagall, Tonks, Lupin etc only Harry had the inclination or the ability to do this? Also, in Deathly Hallows we see Parvati and Dean duelling Dolohiv and Yaxley. Dolohov had presumably just killed Remus Lupin at this point and I'm to believe Dean or Parvati were able to hold him off, until Harry arrived, cursing, again, from under the cloak?

You made some great points as always! You should do these for Cursed Child after you do the main series ;D

On the monitoring of minors use of magic, I think and it´s hinted at in the books is that it´s not the child that i monitored but regions. So the block Harry lives in is monitored, probably the region/block where every part on GB where there are residents is monitored. Putting the monitoring together with the documentation of where every magic-user lives, makes it possible for the ministry to guess who produced the magic. That could also be how the ministry finds new magic-users. This is what I think and how I after reading the book interpreted this.

Thank you for this video. About the veritaserum: I always imagined that its use is limited. If sb doesen't know that he's put under the imerious curse, there's no way he could answer that question (as in Book 4 is shown that the casting wizard doesen't have to but may give verbal orders). Therefore the wizard-community is portraied as still one full of prejudice about blood-status (everybody mentions lineages throughout the series) in the HP-Series. They may decided to drop the topic before looking too close at the actions done by everybody. That would be very similar to the handling of the nazis after WWII.

Even though there’s all these videos plot holes in Harry Potter is still live this series, I really enjoy listening to the audiobooks when I’m falling asleep at night. There’s something about Jim. Dale’s voice that’s very soothing

I mean, Harry is basically a pro athlete by sixth year, so carrying a frail old man while swimming through breaking waters is slightly plausible...

How many copies of the Harry Potter series do you have?

About Felix Felicis at 8:45; since this is taught to every 6th year wouldn't it make sense for the school to have a supply/start preparing in advance for classes of the year? As Snape was still the effective teacher then he could've started that brew only for Slughorn to come and take over when he was rehired.

What i think about the Veritaserum working diffrently on Slughorn vs Crouch is the fact from what i can remember is that Dumbledore fed Crouch Veritaserum when he was knocked out so that he couldn't put uo a fight to it vs if he did it to Slughorn is that he would have time to take an antidote in time to prevent it from having a full effect. That is just what i think but i could be wrong

Maybe the tide was in when they swam to the cave and out when it was time to leave the cave... Tide flats are fairly easy to walk on and in some areas the tide can go out a 1/4 mile or more. Happens a lot on Puget Sound

Merph, Slughorn is always trying to make a knut. He brews a cauldron full of Felix to make Galleons

I always thought the trace was a newer law that wasn't in place in V's time.

The deatheaters claimed there were under the effects of the imperious curse. So they might confess but then just claim they were not in control, vold could have even at one point placed them under the curse for a short time to make them not lie when asked if they were being controlled.

The thing that confused be about the trace part, is that the ministry also seems to know WHICH spell is performed, they knew Harry did a Patronus, They knew it was a levitation charm that Dobby did, so when Tom modified his uncle's memory, they should know a memory modify charm was cast right? So they could have known that his memory was modified.

Also, veritaserum have a stronger effect in Targets that are unwaere, but it is works if they know they drink it

Haven't read the books in a couple of years, so there could be something to contradict this, but couldn't the felix felicis have been brewed the previous school year, and kept in stock? It would make sense to keep potions available, if they're on the curriculum. Assuming there is a curriculum.

Is Veritaserum mentioned to have taste? maybe slughorn, could recognize the serum's taste or maybe he's created a spell to help him realize when he's been given veritaserum? No idea actually, just speculating

Ok granted I've only read Harry Potter once, and that was probably two-ish years ago, so my memory of the magic system and spells is not real good. But regarding Slughorn's cauldron of potion he should not have, could he have just had a vial of it on him the whole time he was on the run and then used the replication charm on what he had left to make more for the class? I think it was one of your other videos that criticized the whole Harry, Ron, and Hermoine struggling to keep getting food thing when they could have just magically replicated what they had, so wouldn't the same charm work to multiply Slughorn's potion?

The trace isn't on the person, the ministry only detects magic, not the perpetrator. Harry is caught twice because the ministry are keeping close tabs on him, presumably they pay attention to the homes of other Muggle borns. Hermione is wrong in the 7th book when she says Harry can't use magic. The only hole is in the 5th book when adults use magic in his house but that could easily be that it's suppressed if an adult wizard is in the area.

Okay, a little explanation on how the Trace spell works. It is placed upon a wizard child, however, it is not specifically linked to that individual child. When the Ministry gets news that a spell has been cast around a child with the Trace on them, they have to work with other factors to know if it is legal magic or not. For Harry, they know that he lives in a muggle neighborhood and is the ONLY local wizard, so they instantly assume that he is the one doing magic at that location. The same thing goes for Hermione. Ron, however, lives with his magical family. Whenever a spell is cast by someone around the Weasley children, the Ministry knows the spell and location, but since it's a wizard house, they discount it. This is quite unfair, as many wizard children could do magic whenever they want to in magical locations, and never get caught. For example, in the films, Hermione does a Reparo on Harry's glasses, but since it's Diagon Alley, the spell won't be remarked upon, because so much magic is happening all around. Now, in the context of Tom Riddle murdering his family, the Ministry would only be monitoring his orphanage, since he is the only wizard there. When he is performing magic in Little Hangleton, the Ministry did not know which wizard child in the entire wizarding world was present, though they would have known a wizard family lived there, probably among others not mentioned. As a result, there would have been a delay in noting the horrible magic performed there. In addition, I would not put it beneath a wizard like Voldemort to even as a teenager be able to make his spells unable to be Traced.

on the trying to get back through the water one - maybe the tide went out? If not can't think how he managed it especially since in book 4 it's mentioned that he's not a strong swimmer, the only reason he managed with the second task was because he was using gilly weed

Btw, when Ron is splinched( donno how to spell it😁) in book 7 after running from the ministry, it's said that harry hasn't seen someone being splinched before... well, he has, in book 5 in their lessons Just something I don see a lot of ppl talking about 😅

the only resaon I can think of for Slughorn to have a cauldron full of felix felicis would be if he were brewing it in order to sell vials of it. iirc there are several times in the book where he will allude to selling valuable things for money (like didn't he want some of aragog's venom?), so maybe that's why he had it?

If Merphy wrote a Harry Potter offshoot it would be "The Chronicles of Voldy and Dumbles"