Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Where was Alastor Moody during Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince?
He did survive the Battle of Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and he somehow disappeared in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and re-appeared again at the start of book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Why was he missing/not mentioned?
Alastor Moody does in fact appear once in Half-Blood Prince, at Dumbledore's funeral (my emphasis):
An extraordinary assortment of people had already settled into half of the chairs; shabby and smart, old and young. Most Harry did not recognize, but a few he did, including members of the Order of the Phoenix: Kingsley Shacklebolt; Mad-Eye Moody; Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink; Remus Lupin, with whom she seemed to be holding hands; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley; Bill supported by Fleur and followed by Fred and George, who were wearing jackets of black dragon skin.
The reason for his otherwise lack of appearance is probably that he was not present (or his presence was unimportant) at the various events portrayed in the story. Most of the book takes place at Hogwarts, where Moody would not be expected to appear. Even though Hogwarts is under the guard of aurors that year, Moody is an ex-auror; moreover, Harry rarely saw the aurors that were there anyway.
In the small part of the book that takes place elsewhere, even though we never see Moody we almost see him. When Harry arrives at the Burrow, we find out that Moody is coming for dinner on the weekend:
“Dear, why not come to dinner at the weekend,
Remus and Mad-Eye are coming — ?”
However, the weekend dinner is apparently not an important enough part of the story for us to actually see it. The same is probably true of other events where Moody would have been present throughout the year.
