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50 free Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Half-Blood Prince is the book where the series stops being about school. Rowling had planned it for years, reused a title she had once meant for Chamber of Secrets, and was seriously upset writing the ending. Bookmakers suspended betting on who would die after a rush of money from the town printing it, and a Canadian court banned fourteen shoppers from reading copies sold a week early. These 50 questions cover the novel and David Yates's 2009 film. The easy tier sticks to the plot: the Unbreakable Vow, Slughorn, Felix Felicis, the orphanage, the cave, the fake locket and R.A.B. The middle asks about the Greenpeace paper, Jim Dale's audiobook record, Bob Hoskins's audition, the Cliffs of Moher and the Norwegian snow. The expert tier reaches for the 1.4 million Amazon pre-orders, Richard Stallman's boycott call, the eight-month delay that handed November 2008 to Twilight, and the only Oscar nomination for cinematography the series ever got. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something on a miss. Play it alone or print it for a Potter night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date was Half-Blood Prince published?
16 July 2005
Rowling announced the date on 21 December 2004, the same day she revealed she had finished writing it.
Q 02How many copies did Half-Blood Prince sell worldwide in its first 24 hours?
9 million
Two million were in the UK and about 6.9 million in the US, where Scholastic rushed another 2.7 million into print.
Q 03Which 2006 UK prize did the novel win?
British Book of the Year
It also took the Royal Mail Award for Scottish Children's Books and two reader-voted Quill Awards in the US.
Q 04Who makes an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy to protect Draco?
Severus Snape
The scene opens the book proper; in the film Snape's house comes with a silent Pettigrew as a servant.
Q 05What does Snape reveal to Harry before escaping with Draco?
That he is the Half-Blood Prince
Harry had spent the year using the Prince's annotated Potions textbook without knowing whose it was.
Q 06Which former professor is persuaded to return to Hogwarts to teach Potions?
Horace Slughorn
Dumbledore brings Harry along for the recruiting visit, which the film shot overnight in the village of Lacock.
Q 07What is the name of the luck potion Harry wins in Potions class?
Felix Felicis
He later drinks it to coax the true Horcrux memory out of a reluctant Slughorn.
Q 08Where did the young Voldemort grow up, as seen in the Pensieve?
A Muggle orphanage
Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Ralph Fiennes's nephew, plays the 11-year-old Tom Riddle in the film's orphanage scene.
Q 09What Dark object did the teenage Voldemort question Slughorn about?
A Horcrux
Slughorn's shame at answering is why the memory he first shows Harry has been doctored.
Q 10In the novel, Dumbledore believes Voldemort split his soul into how many parts?
Seven
Two had already been destroyed, the diary and the ring, leaving four hidden pieces plus the one in Voldemort himself.
Q 11Which Gryffindor student is nearly killed by a cursed necklace?
Katie Bell
Harry is sure Draco is behind it but cannot prove it; the poisoned mead that fells Ron is another failed attempt.
Q 12Whom does Ron start dating to spite Hermione?
Lavender Brown
The relationship ends when a poisoned Ron murmurs Hermione's name from his hospital bed.
Q 13In the film, what nearly kills Ron in Slughorn's office?
Poisoned mead
He had gone there to be cured of a love potion meant for Harry, then accepted a celebratory drink.
Q 21Suspicious bets on Dumbledore's death came from which town, believed to be printing the book?
Bungay
UK bookmakers suspended betting in May 2005 over fears of insider knowledge, then reopened it.
Q 22Bloomsbury printed the book on 30% recycled paper in response to a campaign by which group?
Greenpeace
The campaign targeted big-name authors to push publishers toward forest-friendly paper.
Q 23A supermarket accidentally sold 14 copies early in which Canadian province?
British Columbia
Raincoast won a court injunction forbidding the buyers from reading or discussing the book before release day.
Q 14Learning of Hermione's past relationship with whom sets off Ron's sulk?
Viktor Krum
The row follows Hermione inviting Ron to Slughorn's Christmas party, and his Quidditch form collapses afterwards.
Q 15Which Weasley does Harry begin dating in his sixth year?
Ginny
He ends it at Dumbledore's funeral to keep her safe, then sets off to hunt the remaining soul fragments.
Q 16Who disarms Dumbledore on the tower before Snape arrives?
Draco Malfoy
He hesitates to kill; Snape finishes the job while Harry watches, immobilised beneath the invisibility cloak.
Q 17What does Harry discover about the locket retrieved from the cave?
It is a fake
Inside is a note from someone signing themselves R.A.B., who had taken the real one meaning to destroy it.
Q 18What initials sign the note inside the fake locket?
R.A.B.
The identity of the thief, and how the locket left the cave, is one of the threads the final book picks up.
Q 19Rowling had once considered the title Half-Blood Prince for which earlier book?
Chamber of Secrets
She decided the information it revealed belonged later in the story, and announced the title in June 2004.
Q 20Who succeeds Cornelius Fudge as Minister for Magic in the book's opening chapter?
Rufus Scrimgeour
The chapter "The Other Minister" was an idea Rowling had tried to open three earlier books with before it finally worked.
Q 24Which free-software campaigner called for a boycott over the Canadian injunction?
Richard Stallman
Law professor Michael Geist also weighed in, and The Globe and Mail was warned off publishing a midnight review.
Q 25How many pre-orders did Amazon.com take for the book, a record at the time?
1.4 million
Order of the Phoenix had held the record with 1.3 million; the initial print run was 10.8 million.
Q 26Who reads the US audiobook, which sold 165,000 copies in two days?
Jim Dale
That beat the Order of the Phoenix audiobook by twenty percent.
Q 27Into how many languages was the series eventually translated?
67
Translators could not start until the English release date, so German fans crowd-translated it online in under two days.
Q 28Which film moved into the November 2008 slot the Potter film vacated?
Twilight
Warner Bros. delayed the finished film eight months to guarantee a 2009 summer blockbuster, enraging fans.
Q 29What was the film's estimated budget, the largest in the series?
$250 million
Warner Bros. spent an estimated further $155 million marketing and distributing it.
Q 30Which film kept it from being the highest-grossing release of 2009?
Avatar
It finished on about $941 million worldwide after a record $394 million five-day opening.