Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing a supporting character, and a spine-chilling moment in the Half Blood Prince where she’s
the victim of a brutal curse. Katie Bell was a British half-blood witch born in the year
1979. She was a member of Gryffindor house, and represented the house on the quidditch
pitch- taking on the role of Chaser. She was a year above Harry, and we see her name mentioned
here and there throughout the franchise- however, her character was never really brought to
the forefront of our attention until the Half-Blood Prince, when, while on a trip to Hogsmeade,
Katie suffered a brutal attack from an unidentified curse- something that the trio witnessed firsthand.
"At once, Katie rose into the air... gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about
to fly. Yet there was something wrong, something eerie... Her hair whipped her by the fierce
wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression... Then, six
feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream. Her eyes flew open but whatever she
could see, or whatever she was feeling, was clearly causing her terrible anguish."
It was truly a bone-chilling, sinister moment that encapsulated the reality of dark magic,
and it was a great example of the dark undertone that the books/films began to develop as they
progressed. Katie’s body was dragged and thrown around violently by what appeared to
be some sort of invisible entity- and the trio could only look on in terror as Katie’s
body was viciously thrown to the ground. Hagrid shows up just in the nick of time to bring
Katie’s unconscious body to St.Mungos, and it’s there that people begin to discuss
what exactly happened to Katie. Upon closer inspection, it quickly became clear that Katie
was holding a cursed object- the Opal necklace. Now, if you’ve read the books, you probably
have a slightly better understanding of the Opal necklace, and what it is. The films didn’t
really touch on it much, but there’s actually some foreshadowing in the Chamber of Secrets.
When Harry mistakenly enters Borgin & Burkes in 1992, he sees the necklace on display with
a warning label:
"Do not Touch! Cursed. Has claimed the lives of nineteen Muggle owners to date."
So, what exactly happened to Katie? Why did she have a cursed necklace in the first place?
While on her trip to Hogmseade, Katie was actually placed under the Imperius Curse by
the Three Broomsticks innkeeper, Madam Rosmerta, who was under the Imperius Curse HERSELF-
a curse administered by none other than Draco malfoy. The film doesn’t explain this particularly
well, it certainly suggests that Malfoy is responsible, but doesn’t divulge the minutiae
of the situation. Katie was instructed to take the cursed ‘Opal Necklace’, which
she finds inside the girls’ bathroom, to Dumbledore - it was an assassination attempt.
The only reason that Katie fell victim to the curse was because she argued with her
friend Leanne about the package, this led to the package ripping and Katie coming in
to direct contact with the cursed object. The necklace possesses a very deadly curse,
but you can only fall victim to its effects when you touch it directly. It appears that
the more contact that is made, the more of an effect that it will have. Katie merely
touched it through a small hole in her glove, and it took her 6 months to recover in St.Mungos.
It was a truly violent scene, and I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have done
to Dumbledore had he himself opened the package and touched it fully.
It’s untelling what curse the opal necklace actually possesses, but what immediately stuck
out to me is the way that the cursed necklace resembles a horcrux.
Horcruxes are objects in which a dark witch or wizard has imbued part of their soul- the
purpose of which is to make it difficult for them to be completely killed. However, one
of the most common properties of a horcrux is that it contains some sort of defence mechanism-
a counter-charm, curse, or jinx. We see this with Voldemort’s horcruxes, and, given the
power of the opal necklace, I think that there’s a case to be made for the opal necklace being
a horcrux itself. It wouldn’t be one of Voldemort Horcruxes, we know that, but I do
have a theory for who it could belong to IF it is in fact a Horcrux. If you guys want
me to make a video exploring that further, let me know down in the comment section below.
That’s it for this video- until next time, YER A WIZARD ARRY.