The Half-Blood Prince is a titular character of the sixth book of the Harry Potter series and co-author of a Potions book used by Harry Potter during his sixth-year Potions class.
Harry trusted the book from an anonymous source for almost the whole school year until he discovered that the Half-Blood Prince invented a few dark spells.
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Who Is the Half-Blood Prince?
Severus Snape was the Half-Blood Prince. He used this title to sign his old Potions book, to which he made a significant amount of correction.
Snape’s blood status was recognized straight away as one of the few half-blood wizards in Slytherin. He couldn’t hide what his father was, but he could make people not care about it too much. Snape’s knowledge about dark spells and mastery in Potions brought him recognition and respect in his House.
Snape might have been mocked for his blood status initially, but later, he chose to use it as a nickname within the circle of his friends.
We know that the name Half-Blood Prince wasn’t something that many people in the castle knew about. Certainly not anybody Harry asked about the name that knew Snape from the school.Â
It is also possible that Snape chose to use this name after the incident with Harry’s mother since he signed his N.E.W.T. level Potions book with it.
Why Is Snape the Half-Blood Prince?
Snape called himself the Half-Blood Prince because he was a half-blood wizard, and his mother’s maiden name was Prince. Snape despised his Muggle father, but he couldn’t change that he wasn’t a pureblood wizard. He embraced his blood status, but he used his mother’s maiden name.
When Severus Snape was growing up, Severus’s father, Tobias Snape, was mentally, emotionally, and more than likely physically abusive to Eileen, Severus’s mother, and Severus. Young Severus often spent his days off school on the streets instead of in the house because he hated his father but couldn’t do much about it.
We don’t know Severus’s thoughts and feelings towards his mother, but he must have some respect for her ancestors, the pureblood Prince family, because he opted to use the name as his school pseudonym.
Considering that Harry’s father and his friends had given each other nicknames, and Tom Riddle picked one for himself, it might have been common to create nicknames, monikers, and pseudonyms of each other between groups of friends at Hogwarts during those days.
How Did Harry Find Out Snape Is the Half-Blood Prince?
Severus Snape revealed to Harry that he was the Half-Blood Prince.
After killing Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape took Draco and, followed by other Death Eaters, tried to flee the castle.
Harry, who saw what Snape did, chased after him and tried to use one of Snape’s invented spells. Snape, who suspected Harry of using Snape’s old Potions book, revealed to Harry that he, Snape, is the Half-Blood Prince.
This was later confirmed by Hermione, who was trying to find any information about the Half-Blood Prince in the school library.
In the beginning, she was unsuccessful, finding only Eileen Prince in the old archives. At that time, nobody knew how close she actually got to discovering the truth since Eileen was, in fact, Severus’s mother, and Hermione suspected that the old Potions book used to belong to her.
Hermione never gave up, even after the near-fatal incident between Harry and Draco, and she was rewarded with little snippets from old Daily Prophets stating that Eileen Prince married a Muggle named Tobias Snape and later gave birth to a son.
“I was going through the rest of the old Prophets and there was a tiny announcement about Eileen Prince marrying a man called Tobias Snape, and then later an announcement saying that she’d given a birth to a -“
“- murderer,” spat Harry.
Final Thoughts
The Half-Blood Prince title might have been misleading from the beginning, considering that a prince is a title given to a monarch family or an aristocrat, but even without Snape revealing the truth to Harry, Hermione would have discovered who the Prince is.
We know of a few other Hogwarts students to pick or get their pseudonyms. James Potter and his three friends picked names for each other based on the animals they turned into, but Tom Riddle was tired of his Muggle father’s name and made his own.
The same was with Snape. He didn’t want to be associated with dirty Muggle and chose his mother maiden name instead, calling himself the Half-Blood Prince.