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Abigail Soik
Mr. Conrad
EWRC
8 February, 2016
Inquiry Project Book #1 (Fiction) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
In life we are faced with everyday questions that make us choose between the easier and
what's right, just as the characters in J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
published in 2005. As humans, especially teenagers, are faced daily with what to choose, what
we believe even if it may be hard, or the easy, and sometimes in making those decisions, we
make the wrong one, but we all do. Situations like peer pressure, newfound freedom and going
along with the wrong crowd. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the sixth book in a series
dealing with magical kids at a boarding school, and the return of an evil sorcerer. At this point in
the series everyone has the choose to do what is easy or do what is right. Unfortunately, Draco
Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape are faced with this dilemma in direct and life
threatening ways.
Draco Malfoy is faced with an unimaginable dilemma- kill the headmaster of his school
and earn the respect of the most evil sorcerer in history, or risk his own death. Malfoy is hopeless
when he tells Snape I don't want your help don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to
kill him or he is going to kill me. Draco was chosen to kill Dumbledore because as revenge for
his father's disloyalty and to cement his loyalty to Voldemort. It is clear that Draco is torn. At
heart he is not an evil person but I don't believe he has the courage to not go through with it.
Thanks to Snape, Draco does not have to make that choice.

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Albus Dumbledore, on the other hand, headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and
wizardry is a much more complicated character. At his core he does what is right in spite of
personal sacrifice, but he is not above sacrificing others for the greater good. When Dumbledore
explains Harry Potter's role in defeating Voldemort, Snape replies I have spied for you, I have
lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was suppose to be to keep Lilly
potters son safe. Now you tell me that you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter.
Dumble knows the only way to defeat Voldemort, the greatest evil in the world, is to have Harry
Potter kill him. He has known from day one, that this is the battle, but is Harry up to the
challenge? Dumbledore believes he is, and that conviction drives his actions. As Dumbledore
says, It's the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.
Dumbledore sees the conflict between what is easy and what is right, and chooses right.
Severus Snape faces the dilemma of doing what is right versus what is easy on a daily
basis. He has been living under the masquerade of a Voldemort follower most of his life, while in
reality doing what is right at the expense of everything in his life. He more than any other
character understands the sacrifices to be made in doing the right thing. "Severus... Please. Snape
raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore "Avada Kadavra. "" Snape agreed to
Dumbledore's dying wish in order to save Malfoy from becoming a murderer and at the expense
of his own salvation. Snape has been living a double life in order to protect Harry Potter and
honor his loyalty to Dumbledore. Snape is perhaps the best example of choosing right over evil
at all cost to himself.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince show three characters dealing with life changing
decision in three different ways; making a decision to protect yourself but harm others, doing
what seems wrong at the time to better others future and living a double life because one knows

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it must be done. Choosing between what is right and what is easy can sometimes seem
impossible at the time, but I believe in the end, we all make the right choice for us, and for
others.