<P> Near the end of the year, Harry and Dumbledore journey to a cave to retrieve a suspected Horcrux, Slytherin's locket . Dumbledore expertly finds a secret passageway to a large, pitch black underground lake, which Harry and Dumbledore cross in a small boat to an island in the centre . The locket is at the bottom of a basin on the island, and can only be reached by drinking the potion above it . Harry aids Dumbledore, who drinks the potion, causing him hallucinations and immense pain . Though Dumbledore is severely weakened after finishing the potion, together the two manage to fight off Voldemort's Inferi that have been hiding in the lake . They take the locket and return to Hogwarts, to find that the Dark Mark has been placed over the highest school tower in their absence . Harry and Dumbledore ascend to the tower where they are ambushed by Draco Malfoy, accompanied by Death Eaters that he helped get inside Hogwarts . Dumbledore freezes Harry under his Invisibility Cloak with a body - bind spell, to keep him hidden . Draco disarms Dumbledore of his wand and then threatens to kill him, which turns out to have been his mission from Voldemort all along . Draco is unable to go through with it and when Snape arrives, he casts the spell to kill Dumbledore instead . Harry ignores the battle raging in Hogwarts to pursue Dumbledore's killer . Snape successfully fights Harry off, and he reveals that he is in fact the Half - Blood Prince before he, Draco, and the rest of the Death Eaters escape . </P> <P> After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry decides to break up with Ginny, saying it is too dangerous for her to let their relationship to continue . Harry finds out that the locket is not the real Horcrux, containing only a note from someone named "R.A.B.". Harry is so devastated by Dumbledore's death (and upset by its futility) that he tells his friends he will not be returning to Hogwarts . Instead, he will spend the next year searching out Voldemort's Horcruxes . Ron and Hermione insist on joining him in destroying Lord Voldemort for good . </P> <P> Harry Potter and the Half - Blood Prince is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series . 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 . 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 . The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999 . 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 . Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic . Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the longest novel in the Harry Potter series, was released 21 June 2003 . 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 . 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 . </P> <P> Rowling stated that she had Harry Potter and the Half - Blood Prince "planned for years", but she spent an entire two months going over her plan before she began writing the story seriously . 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 . She started writing the book before her second child, David, was born, but she took a break to care for him . The first chapter, "The Other Minister", which features the meeting between the Muggle Prime Minister, the 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 . She stated that she was "seriously upset" writing the end of the book, although Goblet of Fire was the hardest to write . 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!" </P>

When was the forst harry potter book published