Flight of the Prince

The Flight of the Prince is the harrowing sequence immediately following Dumbledore's murder on the Astronomy Tower, in which Harry Potter, freed from Dumbledore's Body-Bind Curse, pursues Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy through the castle and across the grounds, only to be confronted, disarmed, and humiliated by Snape, who reveals himself as the Half-Blood Prince before escaping beyond the school boundaries. The event shatters Harry's remaining illusions about Snape's loyalty, confirms the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, and leaves Harry physically and emotionally broken, clutching the fake Horcrux as the full weight of Dumbledore's death and his own solitary mission crashes down upon him.

The Pursuit Through the Castle

Harry felt the paralysis lift from his body the moment Dumbledore's curse died with its caster. He threw off the Invisibility Cloak and, seeing the brutal-faced Death Eater last to leave the tower top, shouted "Petrificus Totalus!" The man buckled and fell rigid as a waxwork, but Harry was already clambering over him and running down the darkened spiral staircase. Terror tore at his heart: he had to get to Dumbledore and he had to catch Snape, somehow believing the two things were linked, that he could reverse what had happened if he had them both together. He leapt the last ten steps and stopped where he landed, his wand raised. The dimly lit corridor was full of dust; half the ceiling had fallen in, and a battle was raging before him. He heard the hated voice shout, "It's over, time to go!" and saw Snape disappearing around the corner at the far end of the corridor, he and Malfoy having forced their way through the fight unscathed. As Harry plunged after them, the werewolf Fenrir Greyback detached himself from the fray and flew at him, landing on top of Harry before he could raise his wand, with filthy matted hair in his face and the stench of sweat and blood filling his nose and mouth. Harry shouted "Petrificus Totalus!" and felt Greyback collapse against him; with a stupendous effort he pushed the werewolf off and onto the floor as a jet of green light came flying toward him. He ducked and ran headfirst into the fight. His feet met something squashy and slippery on the floor and he stumbled: there were two bodies lying facedown in a pool of blood, but there was no time to investigate. He saw red hair flying like flames in front of him: Ginny was locked in combat with the lumpy Death Eater Amycus, who was throwing hex after hex at her while she dodged them, giggling and enjoying the sport. Harry yelled "Impedimenta!" and his jinx hit Amycus in the chest, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the opposite wall. Beyond Ginny, he saw Tonks fighting an enormous blond wizard who was sending curses flying in all directions, ricocheting off the walls, cracking stone, shattering the nearest window. Harry put his head down and sprinted forward, narrowly avoiding a blast that erupted over his head, showering them all in bits of wall. He glimpsed Neville's pale, round face flat against the floor; Neville muttered that he was all right, clutching his stomach, and said that Snape and Malfoy had run past. Harry aimed a hex from the floor at the enormous blond Death Eater, who gave a howl of pain as the spell hit him in the face, then wheeled around and pounded away after the brother and sister. Harry scrambled up and began to sprint along the corridor, ignoring the bangs issuing from behind him and the yells of the others to come back.

The Chase Across the Grounds

Harry skidded around the corner, his trainers slippery with blood; Snape had an immense head start. He could hear nothing but his own pounding feet and hammering heart as he sprinted along the next empty corridor, but then spotted a bloody footprint that showed at least one of the fleeing Death Eaters was heading toward the front doors. He skidded around another corner and a curse flew past him; he dived behind a suit of armor that exploded. He saw the brother and sister running down the marble staircase ahead and aimed jinxes at them, but merely hit several bewigged witches in a portrait on the landing, who ran screeching into neighboring paintings. He pelted toward a shortcut, remembering to leap the vanishing step halfway down the concealed staircase, and burst through a tapestry at the bottom into a corridor where a number of bewildered and pajama-clad Hufflepuffs stood. Ernie Macmillan started to speak, but Harry yelled "Out of the way!" and knocked two boys aside as he sprinted toward the landing and down the remainder of the marble staircase. The oak front doors had been blasted open; there were smears of blood on the flagstones, and several terrified students stood huddled against the walls. The giant Gryffindor hourglass had been hit by a curse, and the rubies within were still falling with a loud rattle onto the flagstones below. Harry flew across the entrance hall and out into the dark grounds. He could just make out three figures racing across the lawn, heading for the gates beyond which they could Disapparate: by the looks of them, the huge blond Death Eater and, some way ahead of him, Snape and Malfoy. The cold night air ripped at Harry's lungs as he tore after them. He saw a flash of light in the distance that momentarily silhouetted his quarry and understood: Hagrid had emerged from his cabin and was trying to stop the Death Eaters escaping. Something caught Harry hard in the small of the back and he fell forward, his face smacking the ground, blood pouring out of both nostrils. He knew, even as he rolled over with his wand ready, that the brother and sister he had overtaken using his shortcut were closing in behind him. He yelled "Impedimenta!" and miraculously his jinx hit one of them, who stumbled and fell, tripping up the other; Harry leapt to his feet and sprinted on after Snape.

The Confrontation and Revelation

Harry tore past Hagrid and his opponent, took aim at Snape's back, and yelled "Stupefy!" He missed; the jet of red light soared past Snape's head. Snape shouted "Run, Draco!" and turned. Twenty yards apart, they looked at each other before raising their wands simultaneously. Harry tried to cast the Cruciatus Curse, but Snape parried it, knocking Harry backward off his feet before he could complete it. Harry rolled over and scrambled back up again as the huge Death Eater behind him yelled "Incendio!" An explosive bang and a dancing orange light spilled over all of them: Hagrid's house was on fire. Hagrid bellowed that Fang was in there. Harry tried the Cruciatus Curse a second time, aiming for the figure ahead illuminated in the dancing firelight, but Snape blocked the spell again. Harry could see him sneering. "No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter!" Snape shouted over the rushing of the flames, Hagrid's yells, and the wild yelping of the trapped Fang. "You haven't got the nerve or the ability —" Harry roared "Incarcerous!" but Snape deflected the spell with an almost lazy flick of his arm. Harry screamed at him to fight back, calling him a coward. Snape shouted back, "Coward, did you call me, Potter? Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?" Harry tried Stupefy, but Snape deflected the curse once more, sneering, "Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!" He shouted at the huge Death Eater behind Harry that it was time to be gone before the Ministry turned up. Harry tried Impedimenta, but before he could finish the jinx, excruciating pain hit him; he keeled over in the grass, certain he would die of this agony, that Snape was going to torture him to death or madness. Then Snape roared "No!" and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started. Harry lay curled on the dark grass, clutching his wand and panting, as Snape shouted overhead, "Have you forgotten our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord — we are to leave him! Go! Go!" Harry felt the ground shudder under his face as the brother and sister and the enormous Death Eater obeyed, running toward the gates. Uttering an inarticulate yell of rage, Harry pushed himself to his feet again and staggered blindly toward Snape, the man he now hated as much as he hated Voldemort himself. He tried to cast Sectumsempra, but Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again. Harry was mere feet away now and could see Snape's face clearly at last: he was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed a face full of rage. Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought Levicorpus, but Snape screamed "No, Potter!" There was a loud bang and Harry was soaring backward, hitting the ground hard again, and this time his wand flew out of his hand. He could hear Hagrid yelling and Fang howling as Snape closed in and looked down on him where he lay, wandless and defenseless as Dumbledore had been. Snape's pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred just as it had been before he had cursed Dumbledore. "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them — I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don't think so… no!" Harry dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight. Harry panted, "Kill me then. Kill me like you killed him, you coward —" Snape screamed "DON'T — CALL ME COWARD!" and slashed at the air. Harry felt a white-hot, whiplike something hit him across the face and was slammed backward into the ground. Spots of light burst in front of his eyes and for a moment all the breath seemed to have gone from his body. Then he heard a rush of wings above him and something enormous obscured the stars. Buckbeak had flown at Snape, who staggered backward as the razor-sharp claws slashed at him. Harry raised himself into a sitting position, his head still swimming, and saw Snape running as hard as he could, the enormous beast flapping behind him and screeching. Harry struggled to his feet, looking around groggily for his wand, hoping to give chase again, but by the time he located it, he turned only to see the hippogriff circling the gates. Snape had managed to Disapparate just beyond the school's boundaries.

Aftermath and the Fake Horcrux

Harry stumbled toward the burning house as an enormous figure emerged from out of the flames carrying Fang on his back. With a cry of thankfulness, Harry sank to his knees, shaking in every limb, his body aching all over, his breath coming in painful stabs. Hagrid's huge, hairy face swam above him, blocking out the stars. Harry could smell burnt wood and dog hair; he put out a hand and felt Fang's reassuringly warm and alive body quivering beside him. He told Hagrid he was all right. Together, using the Aguamenti charm, they poured water on the house until the last flame was extinguished. Hagrid looked at the smoking wreck and said hopefully that it wasn't too bad, that nothing Dumbledore wouldn't be able to put right. Harry felt a searing pain in his stomach at the sound of the name. In the silence and the stillness, horror rose inside him. He told Hagrid that Snape had killed Dumbledore. Hagrid simply looked at him, his face completely blank, uncomprehending, and said roughly that Snape couldn't have, that Harry must be confused. Harry said he had seen it happen. Hagrid shook his head, his expression disbelieving but sympathetic, and Harry knew that Hagrid thought he had sustained a blow to the head. Hagrid said confidently that what must have happened was that Dumbledore had told Snape to go with the Death Eaters to keep his cover. Harry did not attempt to argue or explain. As they directed their steps back toward the castle, Harry saw that many of its windows were lit now. The oak front doors stood open ahead of them, light flooding out onto the drive and the lawn. Slowly, uncertainly, dressing-gowned people were creeping down the steps, looking around nervously for some sign of the Death Eaters who had fled into the night. Harry's eyes, however, were fixed on the ground at the foot of the tallest tower. He and Hagrid moved, dreamlike, through the murmuring crowd to the very front, where the dumbstruck students and teachers had left a gap. Harry heard Hagrid's moan of pain and shock, but he did not stop; he walked slowly forward until he reached the place where Dumbledore lay and crouched down beside him. Dumbledore's eyes were closed; but for the strange angle of his arms and legs, he might have been sleeping. Harry reached out, straightened the half-moon spectacles upon the crooked nose, and wiped a trickle of blood from the mouth with his own sleeve. Then he gazed down at the wise old face and tried to absorb the enormous and incomprehensible truth: that never again would Dumbledore speak to him, never again could he help. After what seemed like a long time, he became aware that he was kneeling upon something hard and looked down. The locket they had managed to steal so many hours before had fallen out of Dumbledore's pocket. It had opened, perhaps due to the force with which it hit the ground. And although he could not feel more shock or horror or sadness than he felt already, Harry knew, as he picked it up, that there was something wrong. He turned the locket over in his hands. This was neither as large as the locket he remembered seeing in the Pensieve, nor were there any markings upon it, no sign of the ornate S that was supposed to be Slytherin's mark. Moreover, there was nothing inside but for a scrap of folded parchment wedged tightly into the place where a portrait should have been. Automatically, without really thinking about what he was doing, Harry pulled out the fragment of parchment, opened it, and read by the light of the many wands that had now been lit behind him: "To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. R.A.B." Harry neither knew nor cared what the message meant. Only one thing mattered: This was not a Horcrux. Dumbledore had weakened himself by drinking that terrible potion for nothing. Harry crumpled the parchment in his hand, and his eyes burned with tears as behind him Fang began to howl.