12

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, following the scene where Harry, Ron and Hermione spy on Draco Malfoy in Borgin and Burkes, the trio are on the Hogwarts Express and Harry says,

Hermione saw it with her own eyes.

to which she replies

I told you I don't know what I saw.

I'm assuming they are talking about the prior scene where they spy on Malfoy in Borgin and Burkes. If that's the case, is there some scene/conversation we don't get to see?

What I don't understand is that Ron was there too. What did Hermione see that Ron didn't?

Improve this question
3
  • 3
    We're looking at the scene from a much more favourable angle than the characters. Imagine looking from their POV, for the very limited time in a confusing and dangerous situation. Harry is jumping to conclusions as he always does. He happens to be right in this case, but his approach is still as silly as always. Every time something weird/evil happens, the first thing Harry screams is "It's Snape!" or "It's Malfoy!", and he never tries to disprove his conclusions. Hermione is a lot more reserved - she actually cares about the truth, not about finding arguments for "her side of the argument".
    – Luaan
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 12:00
  • As mentioned in my comment to the below reply, Ron was with them when they were spying on him. So he would have seen exactly what they saw?
    – user82081
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 13:52
  • My point is that they weren't looking through the camera, from the comfort of their cinema seats. They each had their own viewpoint, their own focus, their own distractions, their own brains filling in the details. Why would you expect all of them to see exactly the same thing?
    – Luaan
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 14:00

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
19

They are referring to the Dark Mark tattoed on Draco's arm.

Harry believes that Draco is a fully-fledged Death Eater, who showed Borgin the Dark Mark to intimidate him and have him take care of the Vanishing Cabinet.

However, what they both saw was Draco showing off his arm. From Harry's perspective, he thinks it is obvious that Draco showed Borgin the Dark Mark. Hermione, on the other hand, believes Draco is too young to be a Death Eater.

The book makes things a bit more clear.

“But what about when he said, ‘Don’t forget to keep that one safe’?” asked Harry for the umpteenth time. “That sounded to me like Borgin’s got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both. Malfoy’s father’s in Azkaban. Don’t you think Malfoy’d like revenge? He’s a Death Eater,” said Harry slowly. “He’s replaced his father as a Death Eater!”

There was a silence; then Ron erupted in laughter. “Malfoy? He’s sixteen, Harry! You think You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join?”

“It seems very unlikely, Harry,” said Hermione in a repressive sort of voice. “What makes you think … ?”

“In Madam Malkin’s. She didn’t touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He’s been branded with the Dark Mark. He showed Borgin something we couldn’t see,” Harry pressed on stubbornly. “Something that seriously scared Borgin. It was the Mark, I know it… he was showing Borgin who he was dealing with, you saw how seriously Borgin took him!”

Improve this answer
4
  • But Ron was with them when they were spying on him, surely? So he would have seen exactly what they saw.
    – user82081
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 10:20
  • 4
    Ron is arguing against Harry at that moment. If he had seen the Dark Mark, he wouldn't be disagreeing. Harry then turns his hopes onto Hermione, hoping she will corroborate his story. However, she also does not agree with him.
    – BlueMoon93
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 10:25
  • Thanks, but it definitely doesn't seem that way to me in the film.
    – user82081
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 10:53
  • 2
    @user82081 Hermione saw something. But she doesn't know what. And so we don't, either. And that's exactly how it has to be.
    – walen
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 14:03
-5

There is a whole theory! http://www.dracomalfoyisawerewolf.com It is never revealed either way if he is an actual death eater or a werewolf. But some smart folks put this together which explains why he is always sickly and visiting Snape(wolfsbane potion). More sickly than the stress of having to get death eaters into Hogwarts and killing Albus Dumbledore before the end of the school year!

Improve this answer
3
  • 7
    welcome to Movies.SE! While you provide a link to an answer, we prefer answers on the site to be self-contained. IE, a user reading this answer should be able to get an idea of what the answer is without going to a different site. This could be remedied by quoting the source of your answer and adding to it yourself.
    – DForck42
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 16:35
  • Yeah, just take it down then.
    – Michael Davis
    Commented Apr 19, 2017 at 18:10
  • 1
    @MichaelDavis Only you or a moderator can delete your answer.
    – MD XF
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 22:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .