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Harry chides Hermione for claiming that the Half-Blood Prince could be a girl. While he is quite right that a royal female is a princess and not a prince, in this particular instance Hermione was more accurate. The "prince" referred to here is not a royal title at all. Rather, it is someone's surname, and it could therefore have applied to either a male or female. Although Hermione is ultimately wrong that the book's previous owner was a female, nor does she realize yet it is someone's name, that surname did indeed belong to a woman. Hermione demonstrates that her logic is more abstract and intuitive than Harry's typical linear reasoning. Rowling is dropping a subtle clue here that readers should look beyond the seemingly obvious.
OneIt would thinkseem that perhaps the Half-Blood Prince's identityhandwriting could be learned fromreveal his handwritingidentity. In a parallel case earlier, the writing onOn the notes that had beenwere pinned to Harry's [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Invisibility Cloak|Invisibility Cloak]], the handwriting was described as "narrow [and] loopy." The note which was used to tell Harry of the existence ofabout [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Grimmauld Place|Number 12, Grimmauld Place]] was a "narrow handwriting [that] was vaguely familiar." These two items later proved to haveBoth beenwere written by Professor Dumbledore, as are a letter in "narrow, slanting handwriting" that Harry received [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Half-Blood Prince/Chapter 3|earlier in this book]], andas well as the note Harry received [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Half-Blood Prince/Chapter 9|just nowreceived]], also in narrow, slanting handwriting, setting the time for Dumbledore's first private lesson. Harry recognizes the similaritysimilar here, even if we don'tstyle; and we can suppose that Dumbledore chosedeliberately to makemade his writing more ornate and loopy onwhen thesending occasion of his sendingHarry the Cloak as a gift. However, we are not granted this clue when dealing withregarding the Half-Blood Prince. In [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Order of the Phoenix/Chapter 15|the previous book]], [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Severus Snape|Snape]]'s grade on one of Harry's essaysessay is described as a "large, spiky black 'D'," while the Half-Blood Prince's notations are describednoted as "small, cramped writing." We do learn later that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince, though the handwriting does not bearreflect this out. It is possible, of course that Snape's writing hadmay have changed over the years, or that he had adopted a different writing style to fitcram all his thoughts in the limited spacebook affordedmargin by marginsspace. While aA hint couldmay have appeared in [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Order of the Phoenix/Chapter 28|''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'']], when, Harryusing observed Snape's writing anthe [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Major EventsMagic/OWL examsPensieve|OWL examPensieve]], byHarry means ofobserves the [[Muggles'young GuideSnape toas Harryhe Potter/Magic/Pensieve|Pensieve]],is writing. Harry doesnever not notenotices any similarity, andhowever, soleaving weus don'tunable learnto ofmake theany connection via the writing style.
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