Harry Potter is definitely one of the most popular book series of all time. It has expanded to an entire world filled with movies, two theme parks, spin-off books, and more. With millions of fans around the world, there’s a lot of love for the franchise. But while Harry Potter is something that many people will always be fond of, there are some things about the series that don’t make a lot of sense. When looking at the books more closely, some things stick out as being outdated or confusing.
We’ve collected a list of ten things from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that haven’t aged well.
RUFUS SCRIMGEOUR TRYING TO EARN HARRY’S HELP
After Rufus Scrimgeour takes over as Minister of Magic, he takes quite a different tactic to Harry than his predecessor, Cornelius Fudge. Now that there’s no denying that Voldemort is back, Scrimgeour sees the value of having Harry’s help. But, given what the Ministry put Harry through just the year before, the fact that Scrimgeour thinks he could ask this of Harry is pretty ridiculous. It’s no wonder that Harry wouldn’t want anything to do with the Ministry.
HOW RON TREATED HERMIONE
Half-Blood Prince is the book that is most focused on romance of any in the series. This makes a lot of sense given that the trio and most of their friends are about 16 years old in this book. As high schoolers, hormones are high and relationships are being figured out. While it makes sense they would make mistakes, Ron doesn’t treat Hermione very well at all. He gets jealous and then starts dating Lavender just because he can’t handle his emotions.
HERMIONE USING MAGIC TO HELP RON GET ON THE QUIDDITCH TEAM
Hermione and Ron clearly have a developing romantic relationship in this book, even if it is a bit messy. Hermione cares a lot about Ron and wants him to be happy. When tryouts are held for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Ron and Cormac McLaggen are both trying out for Keeper. Hermione uses a little bit of magic to sabotage McLaggen and get Ron onto the team. While she might have been doing this out of love, it’s not a very fair to McLaggen.
HARRY FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE BOOK
When Harry gets his hands on the Advanced Potion Making book, it’s filled with insider tips scribbled in the margins that conflict with the instructions of the actual text. When Harry follows those differing instructions, he does well in the class, so it’s no wonder he wants to keep using it. While it’s understandable that he would follow different, better instructions, the fact that he puts so much stock and trust into the book is concerning.
DRACO MALFOY
The entire story revolving around Draco in this book has a lot of issues. On the one hand, it’s shocking that he is even allowed to continue at school given that Dumbledore knows that he is basically a Death Eater. On the other hand, it’s clear that Draco is a victim of his family in many ways, based on how he was raised. It’s because of this that Dumbledore wants to try and protect him. Overall, it’s unfortunate that Draco couldn’t have been helped before he got into this horrible predicament.
RON REFUSING TO BREAK UP WITH LAVENDER
Ron’s relationship with Lavender is definitely a hot mess from the start. He enters this relationship primarily because he wants to make Hermione jealous. This isn’t really fair to Hermione or Lavender. Then when he’s over the relationship, he refuses to break up with Lavender and instead ignores her until she breaks up with him. This is pretty cowardly of Ron overall, as he should have just been honest about his feelings.
SLUGHORN’S SLUG CLUB
Slughorn is a fairly complicated character in the Harry Potter series. In many ways, he’s the best example of a kind-hearted Slytherin that is given in the books. But on the other hand, he has a bad habit of trying to collect successful people and is a total hanger-on. The Slug Club he creates at Hogwarts seems like a bad idea because it fosters division. It also doesn’t really seem like it should be sanctioned by the school.
HARRY USING SECTUMSEMPRA ON DRACO
When Harry and Draco get into a duel in the bathroom, Harry makes a bad move. While he doesn’t know what Sectumsempra does exactly, he does know that it’s meant to be used on enemies. While he didn’t mean to use something that almost killed Draco, using an unknown spell like that wasn’t smart at all. This is definitely an example of Harry being reckless and not thinking his actions through enough.
MEROPE GAUNT USING THE LOVE POTION ON TOM RIDDLE
The existence of love potions in Harry Potter is definitely messed up when you think about it. While these potions don’t seem to be illegal, they definitely should be. A love potion takes away a person’s agency to choose who they love. The fact that Merope Gaunt used this on Tom Riddle in order to get him to fall in love with her, marry her, and have a child with her is definitely disturbing. She completely took away his ability to consent.
SNAPE
Severus Snape is by far one of the most contentious characters from the entire series. While some people love his redemption arc, others still think he was a bad character overall. Snape in this book is definitely confusing. While on the one hand, we later learn that he murdered Dumbledore because Dumbledore told him to, Snape’s actions in this book are highly suspect at times. The only character whose motivations and choices are even more confusing and up for discussion is Dumbledore himself.
