Kevin's Watch

'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' will be sixth of popular series, agent confirms.
June 29, 2004: 8:45 AM EDT



NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The sixth book in the popular Harry Potter series will be titled "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," the books' author J.K. Rowling has announced.


The title of the sixth Harry Potter book will be "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."
Rowling made the announcement on her Web site, JKRowling.com, although it took some knowledge of her site by dedicated fans to reveal the title. The path to find the title was explained on a fan's site, WizardNews.com, and was confirmed Tuesday by her literary agent, Christopher Little Agency, which was reached in London by CNN/Money.

Rowling is still in the process of writing the book and no release date has been set, according to her agent.

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A "rumors" section of the site had included a post from fans Monday that the new title would be "Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge" but Rowling dismissed that idea on the site, saying, "I am trying very hard not to be offended that anyone thought this was possible."

Another posting in the rumor section said that the title would be "Harry Potter and the Toenail of Icklibogg" to which Rowling responded, "Well, if you believed the Storge one..."

On her site's main "Daily News" page Rowling wrote, "Well the door opened at last and I showed you the title of book six - the genuine title, the title that will appear on the published book, the title I have been using in my head for ages and ages. Unfortunately, however, the door opened on the very same day the "Pillar of Storge" hoaxer struck."

Rowling said that she had once considered the new title for her second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."


"Certain crucial pieces of information in book six were originally planned for 'Chamber of Secrets,' but very early on I realized that this information's proper home was book six," she wrote on the home page.

She seemed to confirm the Half Blood Prince title on the Daily News page by adding "The HBP is neither Harry nor Voldemort," she wrote. Lord Voldemort is the series' villain.

WOW OMG OMG OMG!!!! Thanks FizbansTalking_Hat!!! You RULE!!!!

Man... I wonder what's THAT about, eh?

Interesting. I have Books 1-4 at home (as well as the 1st 2 dvd's), but have yet to read them (or watch them). I'm taking off work from 7/1-7/5; maybe I'll educate myself during that time, and come back an older, wiser lion.

Like I told you in PM, my daughters found this out yesterday.

Now, the guessing game begins...who is the half blood prince. We think it's Neville.

dANdeLION wrote:Interesting. I have Books 1-4 at home (as well as the 1st 2 dvd's), but have yet to read them (or watch them). I'm taking off work from 7/1-7/5; maybe I'll educate myself during that time, and come back an older, wiser lion.

LOL! Yeah.... you should read them! It would be great to have you in this forum!

So... any ideas what it is about? My guess is it's a new character...

FizbansTalking_Hat wrote:It'd make for a better story if it were Malfoy. Cheers.

LOL! NO! That would be terrible! lols.

Well, the girls and I were talking about and we remembered the prophecy in OotP. Which states that thing about the one who will vanquish the dark lord will be born in the 7th month...blah blah blah. And remember, Neville has the same birthday as Harry. Dumbledore said it could have been either Harry or Neville that Voldie attacked...Voldie chose Harry. The thing is...what part does Neville have to play out yet? Rowling would not have set all this up to just have him stand around gawking...

Anyway...that's why we think the title may refer to Neville...

Furls Fire wrote:Well, the girls and I were talking about and we remembered the prophecy in OotP. Which states that thing about the one who will vanquish the dark lord will be born in the 7th month...blah blah blah. And remember, Neville has the same birthday as Harry. Dumbledore said it could have been either Harry or Neville that Voldie attacked...Voldie chose Harry. The thing is...what part does Neville have to play out yet? Rowling would not have set all this up to just have him stand around gawking...

Anyway...that's why we think the title may refer to Neville...

Nah Furls... I don't think that's it Furls. It's not like Rowling to name the title after a character... Only in "The Prisoner Of Azakan" has she ever done that... And she's not likely to name it after someone who's going to appear through the whole book.

FizbansTalking_Hat wrote:I got it, it has to be Hermoine, she comes out that she's been this half boy, half girl hermophodite prince(ss). It has to be her, I know it.

LOL! Your just getting silly...

Darth Revan wrote:

Furls Fire wrote:Well, the girls and I were talking about and we remembered the prophecy in OotP. Which states that thing about the one who will vanquish the dark lord will be born in the 7th month...blah blah blah. And remember, Neville has the same birthday as Harry. Dumbledore said it could have been either Harry or Neville that Voldie attacked...Voldie chose Harry. The thing is...what part does Neville have to play out yet? Rowling would not have set all this up to just have him stand around gawking...

Anyway...that's why we think the title may refer to Neville...

Nah Furls... I don't think that's it Furls. It's not like Rowling to name the title after a character... Only in "The Prisoner Of Azakan" has she ever done that... And she's not likely to name it after someone who's going to appear through the whole book.

But Darth, what if the main reason for naming it after our proposed prince Neville, is that she'll kill him off. The books are becoming darker and to have Neville die could serve to make Harry stronger, angrier, more scared for a future storyline. Cheers.

yes.

I'm afraid for Neville

FizbansTalking_Hat wrote:

Darth Revan wrote:

Furls Fire wrote:Well, the girls and I were talking about and we remembered the prophecy in OotP. Which states that thing about the one who will vanquish the dark lord will be born in the 7th month...blah blah blah. And remember, Neville has the same birthday as Harry. Dumbledore said it could have been either Harry or Neville that Voldie attacked...Voldie chose Harry. The thing is...what part does Neville have to play out yet? Rowling would not have set all this up to just have him stand around gawking...

Anyway...that's why we think the title may refer to Neville...

Nah Furls... I don't think that's it Furls. It's not like Rowling to name the title after a character... Only in "The Prisoner Of Azakan" has she ever done that... And she's not likely to name it after someone who's going to appear through the whole book.

But Darth, what if the main reason for naming it after our proposed prince Neville, is that she'll kill him off. The books are becoming darker and to have Neville die could serve to make Harry stronger, angrier, more scared for a future storyline. Cheers.

Furls wrote:yes.

I'm afraid for Neville

I don't particularly care for Neville. And I don't think Harry does either... he certainly doesn't care about Neville enough to go and try an unforgivable curse on his killer...

Spoiler

like he did on Bellatrix after she killed Sirius

The reason I don't care for Neville is because I hate comic relief characters... They're just annoying...

Darth Revan wrote:The reason I don't care for Neville is because I hate comic relief characters... They're just annoying...

I don't really think of Neville as comic relief, if anyone is comic relief its usually Ron, Neville I think it maybe there to remind Harry of how different his life could have been, maybe to remind him that he's nto the only one that has lost someone to Volde, to not be selfish, hmm don't nkow, maybe I'm reading too much itno it, its just a series but, Neville never hit me as comic relief, they used him more that way in the movies. Cheers.

I put nothing past Rowling, who I did not take seriously as a writer when I read the first book. She is a craft wordsmith, and attempts to guess where she is taking us will be met with failure.

Dang!

Yeah! I know what you mean! She always makes us suspect the wrong person! For example: Quillel was bad, we did not think so, Tom Riddle (the second book) was bad, we didn't think so... and... ahh... Sirius.. need I give you an explaintion? And Mad Eye was bad, when we though him good... no... Slinger is right, we can't put anything past Rowling.

But isn't Neville a pureblood? Seems like an unlikely candidate.

If the pattern of previous titles are anything to go by, the Half-blood Prince should be someone we haven't seen or even heard of previously. (The Chamber of Secrets, the prisoner of Azkaban, the Goblet of Fire and the Order of the Phoenix were all complete news in their respective books... )