Author | J. K. Rowling |
---|---|
Illustrator | Jason Cockcroft (first edition) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Harry Potter |
Release number | 6th in series |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Bloomsbury (UK) |
Publication date | 16 July 2005 |
Pages | 607 (first edition) |
ISBN | 0-7475-8108-8 |
823.914 | |
Preceded by | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
Followed by | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores the past of the boy wizard's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, and Harry's preparations for the final battle against Voldemort alongside his headmaster and mentor Albus Dumbledore.
The book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury and in the United States by Scholastic on 16 July 2005, as well as in several other countries. It sold almost seven million copies in the first 24 hours after its release, [1] a record eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . [2] There were many controversies before and after it was published, including the right-to-read copies delivered before the release date in Canada. Reception to the novel was generally positive, and it won several awards and honours, including the 2006 British Book of the Year award.
Reviewers noted that the book had a darker tone than its predecessors, though it did contain some humour. Some considered the main themes love, death, trust, and redemption. The considerable character development of Harry and many other teenage characters also drew attention.
New Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, meets with the Muggle prime minister to discuss recent wizarding events affecting the non-magical world. Meanwhile, Harry, grieving his late godfather, Sirius Black, endures another summer at the Dursleys. Dumbledore unexpectedly arrives to escort Harry to the Weasleys' home. First, they visit retired Hogwarts professor Horace Slughorn, whom Dumbledore wants to resume his former post. Slughorn agrees only after meeting the famous Harry Potter. Elsewhere, Bellatrix Lestrange and her sister Narcissa Malfoy secretly seek out Severus Snape at his home. Narcissa asks Snape to make an Unbreakable Vow to protect her son, Draco, and to carry out a task, should he fail.
While school shopping in Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron, and Hermione observe Draco suspiciously slipping into Knockturn Alley. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry, wearing his Invisibility Cloak, overhears Draco claim he may not return to Hogwarts the following year to instead, "go on to better things." Harry suspects that Draco may have become a Death Eater. During the Welcome Feast, Slughorn is introduced as the new Potions teacher while Snape is now the Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor. Harry and Ron take Slughorn's advanced potions class. Harry finds a tattered potions textbook bearing the inscription, 'The Half-Blood Prince.' The book contains tips, as well as new spells, scribbled in the book margins that yield better results than the printed instructions. With it, Harry rises to the top of the class and wins a vial of Felix Felicis, a luck-enhancing potion. Hermione says Harry is cheating while Slughorn compares his potions skill to his mother, Lily.
Dumbledore begins tutoring Harry on Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, to prepare him for their foretold battle. He shows Harry memories of Riddle's past, including his meeting young Riddle in an orphanage. One memory from Slughorn's early Hogwarts' days suddenly goes dark when Riddle utters the word, 'horcrux'. This memory has been altered, and Dumbledore tasks Harry with retrieving Slughorn's true one. To that end, Harry attends the Slug Club, an informal group of Slughorn's favourite students. Hermione and Ginny are also included, though Ron is excluded.
Hermione invites Ron to Slughorn's Christmas party, but he remains upset about her previous relationship with Viktor Krum and begins seeing Lavender Brown, inducing strong jealousy in Hermione. Harry takes Luna Lovegood to the party but leaves early to follow Draco when he gatecrashes the event. Shortly after, Ron is poisoned drinking mead that Slughorn had intended as a gift for Dumbledore. Ron survives but while he is in the infirmary, Lavender breaks up with him when he favors Hermione. Also, Harry and Ginny become romantically involved.
Using the Felix Felicis potion, Harry successfully obtains Slughorn's unaltered memory. It reveals how Tom Riddle created six Horcruxes to become immortal. Horcruxes, magical objects encasing one's soul, are created with ancient dark magic. Two, Riddle's diary and a ring, have been destroyed, but Dumbledore believes four Horcruxes remain.
Dumbledore discovers another Horcrux location, and he and Harry journey to a remote cave. Inside, a Horcrux is hidden under protective enchantments in the middle of a lake. Dumbledore nearly dies retrieving a Locket Horcrux. Returning to Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Harry see the Dark Mark hovering above the Astronomy Tower. Atop the tower, they hear footsteps approaching. Dumbledore casts a protective spell on Harry, forcing him to watch helplessly when Draco arrives and disarms Dumbledore. A distressed Draco reveals that Voldemort ordered him to murder Dumbledore. He is unable to follow through, however; Snape arrives and casts the Killing Curse at Dumbledore.
Released from Dumbledore's protection, Harry pursues Snape, firing a curse at him. Snape easily deflects it. Snape taunts Harry for using his own spell against him and reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince. Snape escapes with Draco through the ensuing battle between Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore's lifeless body is found at the base of Astronomy Tower. Representatives from all wizarding races attend his funeral. Later, Harry discovers that the Locket Horcrux is fake, switched by someone whose initials are, R.A.B. Ron and Hermione vow to help Harry find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes. To protect Ginny, Harry ends their relationship.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. [3] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997, with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries. [4] By the end of 1997, the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. [5] The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , was initially published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. [6] [7] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. [6] [7] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. [8] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , the longest novel in the Harry Potter series, was released 21 June 2003. [9] After the publishing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , was released 21 July 2007. [10] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US. [11]
Rowling stated that she had Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince "planned for years," but she spent two months revisiting her plan before she began writing the story's first draft. This was a lesson learned after she did not check the plan for Goblet of Fire and had to rewrite an entire third of the book. [12] She started writing the book before her second child, David, was born, but she took a break to care for him. [13] The first chapter, "The Other Minister", which features meetings between the Muggle Prime Minister, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, and his successor, Rufus Scrimgeour, was a concept Rowling tried to start in Philosopher's Stone, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Order of the Phoenix, but she found "it finally works" in Half-Blood Prince. [14] She stated that she was "seriously upset" writing the end of the book, although Goblet of Fire was the hardest to write. [15] When asked if she liked the book, she responded, "I like it better than I liked Goblet, Phoenix or Chamber when I finished them. Book six does what I wanted it to do and even if nobody else likes it (and some won't), I know it will remain one of my favourites of the series. Ultimately you have to please yourself before you please anyone else!" [16]
Rowling revealed the title of Half-Blood Prince on her website on 24 June 2004. [17] This was the title she had once considered for the second book, Chamber of Secrets, though she decided the information disclosed belonged later on in the story. [18] On 21 December 2004, she announced she had finished writing it, along with the release date of 16 July. [19] [20] Bloomsbury unveiled the cover on 8 March 2005. [21]
The record-breaking publication of Half-Blood Prince was accompanied by controversy. In May 2005, bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high-value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where it was believed the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened. [22] Additionally, in response to Greenpeace's campaign on using forest friendly paper for big-name authors, Bloomsbury published the book on 30% recycled paper. [23]
In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia that prohibited the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or discussing the contents. [24] Purchasers were offered Harry Potter T-shirts and autographed copies of the book if they returned their copies before 16 July. [24]
On 15 July, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the trade secret injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles alleging that the injunction had restricted fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist posted commentary on his blog. [25] Richard Stallman called for a boycott and requested the publisher issue an apology. [26] The Globe and Mail published a review from two UK-based writers in its 16 July edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9:00 that morning. [27] Commentary was also provided on the Raincoast website. [28]
Some reviewers noted that Half-Blood Prince contained a darker tone than the previous Potter novels. The Christian Science Monitor 's reviewer Yvonne Zipp argued the first half contained a lighter tone to soften the unhappy ending. [29] The Boston Globe reviewer Liz Rosenberg wrote, "lightness [is] slimmer than ever in this darkening series...[there is] a new charge of gloom and darkness. I felt depressed by the time I was two-thirds of the way through." She also compared the setting to Charles Dickens's depictions of London as it was "brooding, broken, gold-lit, as living a character as any other." [30] Christopher Paolini called the darker tone "disquieting" because it was so different from the earlier books. [31] Liesl Schillinger, a contributor to The New York Times book review, also noted that Half-Blood Prince was "far darker" but "leavened with humor, romance and snappy dialogue." She suggested a connection to the 11 September attacks, as the later, darker novels were written after that event. [32] David Kipen, a critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, considered the "darkness as a sign of our paranoid times" and singled out curfews and searches that were part of the tightened security at Hogwarts as resemblances to our world. [33]
Julia Keller, a critic for the Chicago Tribune , highlighted the humour found in the novel and claimed it to be the success of the Harry Potter saga. She acknowledged that "the books are dark and scary in places" but "no darkness in Half-Blood Prince...is so immense that it cannot be rescued by a snicker or a smirk." She considered that Rowling was suggesting difficult times can be worked through with imagination, hope, and humour and compared this concept to works such as Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows . [34]
Rosenberg wrote that the two main themes of Half-Blood Prince were love and death and praised Rowling's "affirmation of their central position in human lives." She considered love to be represented in several forms: the love of parent to child, teacher to student, and the romances that developed between the main characters. [30] Zipp noted trust and redemption to be themes promising to continue in the final book, which she thought "would add a greater layer of nuance and complexity to some characters who could sorely use it." [29] Deepti Hajela also pointed out Harry's character development, that he was "no longer a boy wizard; he's a young man, determined to seek out and face a young man's challenges." [35] Paolini had similar views, claiming, "the children have changed...they act like real teenagers." [31]
On Metacritic, the book received a 77 out of 100 based on 23 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [36] Liesl Schillinger of The New York Times praised the novel's various themes and suspenseful ending. However, she considered Rowling's gift "not so much for language as for characterisation and plotting." [32] Kirkus Reviews said it "will leave readers pleased, amused, excited, scared, infuriated, delighted, sad, surprised, thoughtful and likely wondering where Voldemort has got to, since he appears only in flashbacks." They considered Rowling's "wry wit" to turn into "outright merriment" but called the climax "tragic, but not uncomfortably shocking." [37] Yvonne Zipp of The Christian Science Monitor praised the way Rowling evolved Harry into a teenager and how the plot threads found as far back as Chamber of Secrets came into play. On the other hand, she noted it "gets a little exposition-heavy in spots," and older readers may have seen the ending coming. [29]
The Boston Globe correspondent Liz Rosenberg wrote, "The book bears the mark of genius on every page" and praised the imagery and darker tone of the book, considering that the series could be crossing over from fantasy to horror. [30] The Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela praised the newfound emotional tones and ageing Harry to the point at which "younger fans may find [the series] has grown up too much." [35] Emily Green, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, was generally positive about the book but was concerned whether young children could handle the material. [38] Cultural critic Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune called it the "most eloquent and substantial addition to the series thus far" and considered the key to the success of the Potter novels to be humour. [34]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince won several awards, including the 2006 British Book of the Year Award [39] and the 2006 Royal Mail Award for Scottish Children's Books for ages 8–12 in its native United Kingdom. [40] In the United States, the American Library Association listed it among its 2006 Best Books for Young Adults. [41] It won both the 2005 reader-voted Quill Awards for Best Book of the Year and Best Children's Book. [42] [43] It also won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Seal for notable book. [44]
Before publication, 1.4 million pre-orders were placed for Half-Blood Prince on Amazon.com, breaking the record held by the previous novel, Order of the Phoenix, with 1.3 million. [45] The initial print run for Half-Blood Prince was a record-breaking 10.8 million. [46] Within the first 24 hours after release, the book sold 9 million copies worldwide: 2 million in the UK and about 6.9 million in the US, [47] which prompted Scholastic to rush an additional 2.7 million copies into print. [48] Within the first nine weeks of publication, 11 million copies of the US edition were reported to have been sold. [49] The US audiobook, read by Jim Dale, set sales records with 165,000 sold over two days, besting the adaptation of Order of the Phoenix by twenty percent. [50]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published simultaneously in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. [51] Along with the rest of the books in the Harry Potter series, it was eventually translated into 67 languages. [52] However, because of high security surrounding the manuscript, translators did not get to start on translating Half-Blood Prince until its English release date, and the earliest were not expected to be released until the fall of 2005. [53] In Germany, a group of "hobby translators" translated the book via the internet less than two days after release, long before German translator Klaus Fritz could translate and publish the book. [54]
Since its wide hardcover release on 16 July 2005, Half-Blood Prince was released as a paperback on 23 June 2006 in the UK. [55] Two days later on 25 July, the paperback edition was released in Canada [56] and the US, where it had an initial print run of 2 million copies. [57] To celebrate the release of the American paperback edition, Scholastic held a six-week sweepstakes event in which participants in an online poll were entered to win prizes. [58] Simultaneous to the original hardcover release was the UK adult edition that featured a new cover [59] and was also released as a paperback on 23 June. [60] Also released on 16 July was the Scholastic "Deluxe Edition," which featured reproductions of Mary GrandPré's artwork and had a print run of about 100,000 copies. [61] Bloomsbury later released a paperback "Special Edition" on 6 July 2009 [62] and a "Signature Edition" paperback on 1 November 2010. [63]
The film adaptation of the sixth book was originally scheduled to be released on 21 November 2008 but was changed to 15 July 2009. [64] [65] Directed by David Yates, the screenplay was adapted by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman and David Barron. [66] The film grossed over $934 million worldwide, [67] which made it the second-highest-grossing film of 2009 worldwide [68] and the fifteenth-highest of all time. [69] Additionally, Half-Blood Prince gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. [70] [71]
A video game adaptation of the book was developed by EA Bright Light Studio and published by Electronic Arts in 2009. The game was available on the Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, and macOS platforms.
The book was also adapted in the 2011 video game Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7.
Severus Snape is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He is an exceptionally skilled wizard whose extremely cold and resentful exterior conceals deep emotions and anguish. A Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Snape is hostile to Harry due to his resemblance to his father James Potter, who bullied Snape during their time together at Hogwarts.
Draco Lucius Malfoy is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He is a student in Harry Potter's year belonging in the Slytherin house. He is frequently accompanied by his two cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who act as henchmen. Draco is characterised as a cowardly bully who tricks and hurts people to get what he wants; he is also a cunning user of magic. He was played by Tom Felton in the Harry Potter film series.
Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She first appears in the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), on the Hogwarts express as a first year student on her way to Hogwarts. After Harry and Ron save her from a mountain troll in the girls' restroom, she becomes best friends with them and often uses her quick wit, deft recall, and encyclopaedic knowledge to lend aid in dire situations. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles herself as a young girl, with her insecurity and fear of failure.
Lord Voldemort is a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Prof. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts. As part of his backstory, it is revealed that he is the founder and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation dedicated to fighting Lord Voldemort, the main antagonist of the series.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the Harry Potter series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school and with the help of his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, he faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.
The Death Eaters are characters featured in the Harry Potter series of novels and films. They are a radical group of wizards and witches, led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who seek to purify the wizarding community by eliminating wizards and witches born to non-magical parents. They attempt to create a new order within the Ministry of Magic by spreading fear through the wizarding community and murdering those who speak out against them. Their primary opposition is the Order of the Phoenix.
The Order of the Phoenix is a secret organisation in the Harry Potter series of fiction books written by J. K. Rowling. Founded by Albus Dumbledore to fight Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, the Order lends its name to the fifth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The original members of the Order of the Phoenix include Sirius Black, Emmeline Vance, Benjy Fenwick, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Edgar Bones, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Dorcas Meadowes, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Aberforth Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Minerva McGonagall and Marlene McKinnon.
Dumbledore's Army is a fictional student organisation in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series that is founded by the main characters, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, to stand up against the regime of Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge, as well as to learn practical Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was founded in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Harry James Potter is a fictional character and the titular protagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of eponymous novels. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Harry, who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. Thus, he attends Hogwarts to practise magic under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore and other school professors along with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also discovers that he is already famous throughout the novel's magical community, and that his fate is tied with that of Lord Voldemort – the internationally feared Dark Wizard and murderer of his parents, James and Lily Potter. The book and film series revolve around Harry's struggle to adapt to the wizarding world and defeat Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter series. It was released on 21 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, and in Canada by Raincoast Books. The novel chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) and the final confrontation between the wizards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
The following is a list of magical objects used in the fictional universe of Harry Potter in the original book series, as well as in the adapted film series.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively. The story follows Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts as he receives a mysterious textbook, falls in love, and attempts to retrieve a memory that holds the key to Lord Voldemort's downfall.
The following is a list of Hogwarts staff in the Harry Potter books written by J. K. Rowling.
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's conflict with Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic, and subjugate all wizards and Muggles.
Rubeus Hagrid is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. He is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as a half-giant and half-human who is the gamekeeper and Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, the primary setting for the first six novels. In the third novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hagrid is promoted to Care of Magical Creatures professor, and is later revealed to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix. A loyal, friendly, softhearted personality who is easily brought to tears, he is also known for his thick West Country accent.
Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novel series. Ginny is introduced in the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as the youngest sibling and only daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley. She becomes Harry's main love interest and eventually marries him at the end of the series. She is portrayed by Bonnie Wright in all eight Harry Potter films.
Neville Longbottom is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series. He is described as a round-faced Gryffindor student in the central character Harry Potter's year. Throughout the series, Neville is often portrayed as a bumbling and disorganised character, and a rather mediocre student, though he is highly gifted at Herbology. However, the character's personality appears to undergo a transition after he joins Dumbledore's Army in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The encouragement he receives gives him confidence in his magical abilities, turning him into a more competent wizard. Eventually, Neville becomes the leader of Dumbledore's Army during Harry, Ron and Hermione's absence searching for Horcruxes. Neville is instrumental in the downfall of Lord Voldemort and eventually destroys the final Horcrux, which allows Harry to defeat The Dark Lord once and for all. Neville is portrayed in the film adaptations by Matthew Lewis.
Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. She evolved from an unnamed peripheral character in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into a major antagonist in subsequent novels. In the final installment of the story, Rowling established her as Lord Voldemort's "last, best lieutenant". Bellatrix was the first female Death Eater introduced in the books. Bellatrix had a fanatic obsession with the Dark Lord although she was clearly fearful of his magical abilities and absolute power over his forces. She is almost as sadistic and homicidal as Lord Voldemort, with a psychotic personality.
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