Harry Potter Revealed

7. The Half-Blood Prince Revealed
We think that the lion imagery is key to working out who the Half-Blood Prince is.

The lion has a special place in the Harry Potter series, being the emblem of Gryffindor House. We already know that the emblem of Slytherin House, the snake, is no mere emblem, but also features large in the imagery surrounding Voldemort, who is the Heir of Slytherin , i.e. a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin. Voldemort’s ‘familiar’ seems to be a snake (Nagini), in Book Five he is shown ‘possessing’ a snake, he even looks rather like a snake with his red slit-like eyes, and most importantly perhaps, like Salazar Slytherin, Voldemort can speak Parselmouth. So the snake is also symbolic of Salazar Slytherin himself. We think that, for the sake of the story’s symmetry, the same must be true of Gryffindor: surely a man of lion-like appearance must be none other than Godric Gryffindor himself?

This idea receives backup from the fact that the man wears wire-rimmed spectacles, which suggests somebody intelligent or even intellectual, rather as one might expect a founding father of a school to be, particularly one in which, as the sorting hat says, the founders were aiming at excellence. A Half-Blood Prince with, one must assume, even more magical knowledge and wisdom than Dumbledore, is exactly what is required at this point in the story. With Sirius is (apparently) dead and Dumbledore about to be so, Gryffindor would be just the person to help Harry with the huge task ahead of him.

But Godric Gryffindor is long dead: surely this is enough to make it impossible for him to take any meaningful part in the story? The problem seems to be insurmountable and has been enough to make others discount him. We have come up with three potential solutions. The first one, that he, like Nicholas Flamell, has been taking the Elixir of Life all these years, we discarded immediately, because not only was there supposed to be only one Philosopher’s Stone still in existence prior to its destruction at the end of Book One, but also we don’t think J. K. Rowling would use the same idea twice! An alternative is that Godric Gryffindor will never actually appear in the flesh in Book Six, and that we only see an image of him, like in a Pensieve. Or maybe there is some way of meeting him despite the fact that he is dead, or even of bringing him back from the dead (permanently or temporarily).

We have mentioned in a previous post that we think the veiled arch is in fact a sort of gateway to the ‘underworld’, or place beyond death, and that one of Harry’s adventures will take him there. Our guess is that the real reason Harry will have to visit the ‘underworld’ will be in order either to go and get Godric Gryffindor, and bring him back to help fight the good fight, or else to visit him to seek his advice. Such a journey into the realm of the dead would have a direct counterpart in Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn is advised to seek help on the Paths of the Dead. A group of ghosts known as The Dead return with Aragorn to aid in the fight against the forces of evil. On this journey Aragorn is accompanied by his faithful companions Legolas and Gimli. Can we therefore assume that Hermione and Ron will also pass through the veil?

Whether Harry knows before he sets off the object of his quest, remains to be seen. It may be that he goes because he wants to find Sirius, and finding Godric Gryffindor is a sort of side-effect. Or maybe Dumbledore will send Harry off on the quest shortly before his (Dumbledore’s) death.. Incidentally we think this is where Sirius’ mirror will end up coming in useful. Harry wasn’t able to communicate with Sirius using the mirror at the end of Book Five, but we think that the mirror will work once Harry passes through the arch, because mirrors like this will only work when both parties are on the same side of the ‘divide’. The mirror will enable Harry to be guided by Sirius on what will undoubtedly be a treacherous journey.

Godric Gryffindor seems to us to fulfil more of the criteria than any other candidate. He is associated with the lion motif; he is probably of high birth, judging by his jewel-encrusted sword which looks as if it was intended to have a ceremonial function; he is a figure of authority; what we know of him makes us feel he must have been a man of wisdom, more so even than Albus Dumbledore; he championed bravery above pure-bloodedness and thus has the right moral credentials to take part in and possibly lead the ‘good fight’.

In the next post, we will provide more evidence to support this theory, not least of all in the form of a mediaeval painting depicting the final battle!