WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Ah, youth. This next phase of the book seems to be dramatising a conflict that can be recognised by us all, indeed which is deserving of emblematic good/evil status. Yes, it's The Fight Against The Cool People.
Instead of competing on trainers and ringtones, though, in Rowlingland the teens aboard the Hogwarts Express are vying moodily for the attentions of Professor Slughorn. In compartment C on the journey north Slug hosts some kind of campily Evelyn Waugh-style luncheon for the bright young things of the school. Perhaps Potter – and, intriguingly, Neville – are being groomed for MI5? Or Freemasonry?
Not that this stops Harry from yet another nasty run-in with Draco in chapter seven. In an attempt to sniff out what lies behind Draco's sneaky behaviour in Diagon Alley a little earlier – he seems to want something "fixing" there, not yet clear what – our hero dons an Invisibility Cloak and overhears yet more alarming revelations about Draco's career ambitions regarding You Know Who. Malfoy gets wise, though, and HP ends up with a bloody nose (literally). Then Tonks is forced to pick up the pieces (literally). Now, that's, like, way uncool.
So is Slughorn the long-awaited new Dark Arts supremo, then? Well ... no! It's revealed in chapter eight that he's got the Potions job. Which means that – gasp, terror – none other than our old pal Snape is finally getting his hands dirty with the dark stuff. Cue mass hand-wringing and lip-biting. What can this bode? Ill, we fear.
Other news? Hogwarts seems to become more Blairite and target-orientated by the second: lots of talk of O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts in chapter nine, with some surprise subject selections by the gang (they'll make management consultants yet, I betcha).
Yet bigger fish are being fried, albeit turgidly. Hermione is discomfited by some excellent potion gimcrackery from Harry towards the end of the chapter, but it turns out he's getting a little extra help from a borrowed textbook. Who does the textbook belong to but, of course, our new friend, the portentous Half-Blood Prince? And who he, you whine? Time for HP to head to Dumbledore's quarters for Further Revelations ...
