Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter Twenty: Lord Voldemort’s Request Summary & Analysis

The silver lining of Ron’s poisoning is that Hermione has abandoned her grudge and is now friends with them again. Even better, she tells them that Ginny has fought with her boyfriend because Dean laughed at Harry’s injury. As Harry digests this information – claiming to a suspicious Hermione that he only cares about the dynamics of his Quidditch team – Hermione stops before a terrified first-year girl who has dropped her brass scales and quickly repairs them.

Luna arrives with a message from Dumbledore, summoning Harry to another lesson. Ron is flustered to see Lavender approaching behind her. Harry and Ron speed away from the incipient argument; although Ron gives no details once he rejoins them, he doesn’t talk to Lavender for the rest of the day. Hermione is in an exceptionally good mood and helps Harry with his homework, even though she knows he’ll let Ron copy.

Harry arrives in Dumbledore’s office as he’s finishing a meeting with Professor Trelawney. When Dumbledore asks Harry what progress he’s made with Slughorn, he’s abashed, having largely forgotten about it since Ron’s poisoning. Although he makes some feeble excuses, Dumbledore remarks sternly that after Ron’s recovery, Harry should have remembered the importance of his task and exercised his “considerable ingenuity” to fulfill it. Harry feels that this “cold disappointment” is much worse than anger.

After an uncomfortable silence, Harry apologizes sincerely for not having given the matter more attention. Dumbledore quietly acknowledges this and changes the subject to Voldemort’s murky life after Hogwarts. Having become a top student and Head Boy by his last year at school, Tom Riddle confounded expectations by going to work at Borgin and Burkes. He also approached the current headmaster about teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Dumbledore theorizes that he wanted to influence a new generation of students, or that he had a genuine attachment to the school, which was “the first and only place he had felt at home.”

At Borgin and Burkes, Voldemort quickly rose through the ranks and was often sent to persuade people to sell their valuable antiques. Standing by the Pensieve, Dumbledore draws Harry into the memory of a house-elf Hokey, who is tying the shoelaces of her mistress, Hepzibah Smith, in the midst of a living room overstuffed with luxurious furniture, books, and statuettes. The doorbell rings and Tom Riddle enters; more handsome than ever, he presents a bouquet of flowers, which Hepzibah flirtatiously accepts.

Riddle begins to negotiate for some armor that Burke wants to buy, but Hepzibah interrupts him, offering to show him treasures that no one else knows she owns. She orders Hokey to bring over two leather boxes. In the first is a golden chalice that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff; letting Riddle hold it briefly, Hepzibah doesn’t seem to notice “the shadow that crossed Voldemort’s face” as she takes it away.

The second box reveals a large golden necklace; holding it up, Riddle immediately deduces that it once belonged to Slytherin. Hepzibah says she bought the necklace from Burke, who himself acquired it from a poor woman who had no idea what it was worth. Harry sees Riddle’s eyes go “scarlet,” and for a moment he thinks that Riddle won’t return the locket. However, after a minute he lets it slip back into the box.

Dumbledore pulls Harry out of the memory and tells him that Hepzibah Smith died two days after this episode. Having admitted to putting a substance she thought was sugar but was actually a lethal poison in her mistress’s cocoa, Hokey herself was convicted of the crime. Harry remarks that the Ministry was probably predisposed to blame her because she was a house-elf. Meanwhile, Hepzibah’s family notices that her two most valuable possessions are missing and Tom Riddle suddenly vanishes from his job.

Thinking over this episode, Dumbledore remarks that Riddle killed not for revenge, as with his father, but to gain trophies – the same reason that he bullied children in his orphanage. Harry remarks that this behavior is insane, but Dumbledore says he probably thought the locket was rightfully his and wanted to own the cup as a stronger connection to Hogwarts.

Finally, Dumbledore produces one of his own recollections, the last thing he has to share with Harry until they obtain Slughorn’s memory. Harry dives into the Pensieve and finds himself back in the same office, looking at a younger version of his professor. The door opens and Riddle enters; no longer a handsome young man, his face seems “waxy and oddly distorted.” Dumbledore politely refuses to address his pupil by the new name he has adopted. Riddle unctuously commends Dumbledore for remaining at Hogwarts, rather than seeking a more glamorous job, before announcing that he has returned to seek a teaching position at the school.

With composure, Dumbledore says that frightening rumors have reached him about Riddle’s activities; Riddle dismisses this, saying that people are jealous of his greatness and his knowledge of magic. Dumbledore remarks that, while his former pupil is knowledgeable in some areas, he’s “woefully ignorant” in others; Riddle responds leeringly that no evidence supports Dumbledore’s famous theory that love is the most powerful form of magic.

Dumbledore remarks on the sinister group of acolytes Riddle has cultivated. Many of them, calling themselves Death Eaters, are waiting for him in Hogsmeade at this minute. It’s odd that he would return to his old school surrounded by henchmen. Seeing that he’s not going to get a job, Riddle stands up to leave; Dumbledore sadly wishes that Riddle were young again and could be frightened into repenting of his actions.

As Voldemort leaves, Harry and Dumbledore exit the memory. Dumbledore says that he doesn’t know exactly why Voldemort wanted the job, but will share his hypotheses after Harry acquires Slughorn’s memory. He believes the school’s subsequent inability to retain a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Voldemort’s revenge.