Lord Voldemort has chosen Draco Malfoy to carry out a secret mission, and Draco's teacher, Severus Snape, makes an Unbreakable Vow with Draco's mother to protect her son and fulfill the mission if Draco fails.
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Harry and Professor Dumbledore visit former Potions professor Horace Slughorn, who has gone into hiding, to convince him to return to teaching at Hogwarts. It turns out that Slughorn retains a vital memory that's necessary to defeat Voldemort, and Dumbledore wants Harry to get this memory from Slughorn.
When the new school year starts at Hogwarts, Harry has to borrow a Potions book from Slughorn and finds it was once used by the "Half-Blood Prince"; the previous owner had included additional spells and instructions which Harry uses to help him excel in the class. Later, Harry uses a curse he found in the book on Draco and inadvertantly inflicts a serious injury.
Dumbledore and Harry also try to locate all of Voldemort's horcruxes (powerful objects that Voldemort has hidden fragments of his soul in to achieve immortality); when they return from a trip to obtain a Horcrux, they find the Death Eaters have infiltrated Hogwarts and a major battle takes place on the school grounds.
Best part of story, including ending:
I enjoyed the fact that the story in this film starts to reveal the way that Lord Voldemort will have to be defeated, as well as seeing Harry and Dumbledore begin to take the steps necessary to begin the journey toward defeating the villain.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene takes place near the end of the film, when Draco and Dumbledore face off atop Hogwarts Castle. I can feel the tenseness of this confrontation, especially when Draco falters and hesitates to carry out Voldemort's order. When Snape enters the fray, his action at the end of the scene caught me by surprise, even though I knew it was coming from reading the book.
Opinion about the main character:
In this particular film, I wasn't happy with Harry for using the Potions book to basically cheat his way through the class. I also was disappointed with him when he cast the curse on Draco. Harry is usually a much better character than this.
