The Lost Prophecy (OP)
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The Lost Prophecy is the thirty-seventh chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Contents |
The Headmaster's Office
After touching the Portkey (OP36), Harry arrives at the Headmaster's office. The golden wizard's head (from the Fountain of Magical Brethren) falls to the floor. Nothing in the chamber reflects the Headmaster's prolonged absence. Looking out the window, Harry sees that it is almost dawn.
Harry is incredibly shaken by the death of his godfather. He is dwelling on it when a voice calls him from the wall: it is Phineas Nigellus Black, who complains about the boy's presence ("This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful Headmaster." – OP28). The conversation wakes up some of the other paintings, who guess that Dumbledore will soon be among them again.
A corpulent, red-nosed wizard notes that things have been dull without Dumbledore; he also tells Harry that the aged Headmaster thinks very highly of the boy.
The fireplace bursts into green flames, and Dumbledore enters the office. Several paintings wake up to bid him welcome. He fetches a tiny and ugly Fawkes from inside his robes and places the phoenix on the tray beneath the golden post where the full-grown bird usually stayed.
He announces that none of the Hogwarts students that fought with Harry will suffer lasting damage (Madam Pomfrey is taking care of them; Tonks will need to spend some time at St. Mungo's).
Temper
Dumbledore attempts to tell Harry that he knows how the boy is feeling; Harry angrily replies that he doesn't. Phineas intervenes, saying, "Never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own—" and the Headmaster interrupts them.
Albus softly says that the fact that Harry is in so much pain is his greatest strength (it is part of being human). The boy is shaking with rage; he bellows that he does not wish to be human, he does not wish to care, and starts breaking the silver instruments on the spindle-legged table beside him (including a lunascope). The portraits are alarmed. Armando Dippet says, "Really!"
The Headmaster is not affected by Harry's tantrum. He continues speaking calmly to Harry, trying to get him to acknowledge that he does care. The boy tries to leave, but the doorknob does not move. Dumbledore refuses to let him leave. "By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."
Harry is, of course, furious. Dumbledore says he needs to talk to him before he leaves ("[You] are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it.").
According to Albus, it is almost entirely his fault that Black died, and not Harry's. Dumbledore was responsible for confining Sirius to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, causing energy and resentment to boil up inside the Marauder. Above all, had Albus been open with Harry from the start, the boy would not have fallen for Voldemort's ruse.
Phineas interrupts the conversation once more, asking if his great-great-grandson, the last of the Blacks, is indeed death. When Dumbledore confirms it, the wizard rushes off to his painting in number twelve.
Dumbledore's apology
Dumbledore claims that he is old; he blames his faulty behaviour on his age ("Old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young ... and I seem to have forgotten, lately ...").
He begins his tale by mentioning Harry's scar. Fifteen years ago, Dumbledore guessed that it was a sign of a connection between the boy and Voldemort. In time, as the Dark Lord grew stronger, so did his connection with Harry. Albus began to worry that Voldemort would become aware of the connection—and, indeed, the boy's presence was sensed on the night of the attack on Arthur Weasley (OP21).
Dumbledore then asks Harry: did he not wonder why the Headmaster had not looked at him for months? Why had he not been the one to teach him Occlumency? Harry confirms that he did.
Albus explains that he guessed that Voldemort would try to manipulate Harry's mind, and to use the boy to spy on Dumbledore if he ever realised that their relationship was beyond that of headmaster and pupil. He affirms that he was right; in the few occasions that the two had met during the year, a shadow of Voldemort had stirred behind Harry's eyes (for instance, OP22).
Harry has been dreaming of the Department of Mysteries for months because Voldemort, too, has obsessed about the Prophecy ever since regaining his body (GF32). Rookwood told him that the prophecies are heavily protected, which meant that either Harry or Voldemort would have to take it from the Hall. It became steadily more urgent that Harry practice Occlumency.
Harry confesses that he didn't, he never practiced; he feels guilty, and knows that it is his fault. He doesn't understand, however—he had contacted number twelve from Umbridge's office to make sure Sirius was not home. Albus notes that Kreacher lied (Harry is not his master); the house-elf has been serving more than one master for months. Shortly after Christmas, Sirius told him to "get out", and Kreacher went to the house of Narcissa.
Following Harry's cryptic warning ("He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!" – OP32), the Potions master contacted Headquarters and confirmed that Sirius had not left the place. When Harry did not return from the Forbidden Forest, Snape realised that the boy had gone to the Department of Mysteries. Moody, Tonks, Remus and Kingsley were at number twelve, and at once volunteered to go.
Snape ordered Sirius to stay behind, because Dumbledore was due there at any moment. Sirius did not wish to stay back, and ordered Kreacher to inform the Headmaster of the day's events. The elf did so, laughing fit to burst; Albus was a good enough Legilimens to avoid being lied to. He had not been able to reveal most of what he had heard in number twelve (he could not disobey a direct order from Sirius, who had ordered him not to repeat it), but he had been responsible for disclosing that the Marauder cared deeply for his deceased best friend's son.
Under the Malfoys' instructions, Kreacher injured Buckbeak, thus making sure that Sirius would not be around the fireplace when Harry contacted the house. The boy starts displaying his fury towards the house-elf, but Dumbledore softly reprimands him: Kreacher is what he is because of the wizards whom he has served.
Harry questions the Headmaster as to Snape's role in the story. Dumbledore points out that it was the Potions master who gave Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she tried to trick Harry into confessing Sirius' whereabouts. Harry furiously lists Snape's mistakes: his constant teasing of Sirius about staying confined to the house, and his giving up on Occlumency lessons. "I forgot — another old man's mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing," says Dumbledore. "I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong."
The boy goes on, blaming Albus for keeping both him and Sirius locked up in environments they had no love for for far too long. Dumbledore buries his face in his hands, and Harry is angered by the sign of weakness.
"It is time for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything."
Dumbledore's tale
Dumbledore explains that the reasoning behind keeping Harry in number four, Privet Drive during all his childhood was concern for his well-being. The Headmaster feared not only that angered Death Eaters would try to murder the baby, but also the eventual return of Lord Voldemort.
Knowing that his former student's knowledge of magic was bigger than that of any wizard alive, Dumbledore chose to rely on ancient magic which he knows but loathes and underestimates: Lily had died to save her son. Albus put Harry under Petunia's care, and in so doing sealed the charm placed on him by the Headmaster: the bond of blood was the strongest shield the child count count on.
"While you can still call home the place where your mother's blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, whilst you are there he cannot hurt you. Your aunt knows this. I explained what I had done in the letter I left, with you, on her doorstep. She knows that allowing you houseroom may well have kept you alive for the past fifteen years."
Harry recalls the Howler his aunt received near the end of summer (OP2), and deduces that Dumbledore sent it.
The time came for the Potters' son to come to Hogwarts: not particularly happy, but alive and healthy. In his first year, Harry confronted Voldemort, and fought bravely, delaying his return to power; Dumbledore was immensely proud. When the boy was lying in the hospital wing, following the confrontation, Albus faced the biggest flaw in his plan—he grew to care too much for Harry, and could not bear to tell him the truth (PS17): "I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act."
Following the events in the Chamber of Secrets (CS18), once more was Dumbledore supposed to tell him everything, but he did not. Again, after Harry freed Sirius (PA21), Albus was confronted with the reality that he was running out of excuses to keep the truth away from the boy. When Voldemort was reborn, and Cedric Diggory died, the Headmaster became certain that Harry had been long ready to find out—and that he had to be told soon. Now the time has finally arrived.
Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a child because of a prophecy made before his birth. He did not know its full contents; since his return, the Dark Lord has become obsessed about hearing the prophecy in its entirety, believing that it will tell him how to defeat Harry Potter.
Harry blankly says that the prophecy was smashed (OP35). Dumbledore corrects him: what smashed was the mere record of the prophecy. The person who heard—Albus himself—still remembers it perfectly.
The Prophecy
On a cold, wet night, sixteen years ago, Dumbledore went to in a room in the Hog's Head inn to interview an applicant for the post of Divination teacher. He was inclined to discontinue the subject at the school, but this applicant was great-great-granddaughter of a famous Seer. She did not, however, seem to have the Sight.
When Dumbledore turned to leave (here the Headmaster interrupted his tale to fetch his Pensieve so that Harry could hear it for himself), Sybill Trelawney started speaking with the harsh tone Harry has seen her use once before (PA16):
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . ."
Interpretation
Harry dazedly asks Dumbledore what that meant. The Headmaster explains that "the person who has the only chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times."
Harry guesses that it is him, then; Albus mentions that, oddly enough, two boys were born in the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in the Order of the Phoenix who had escaped Voldemort three times: Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.
The orb with the prophecy record was renamed when Voldemort attacked Harry as a child. The keeper of the Hall of Prophecy deduced that the Dark Lord had tried to kill the boy because he knew Harry to be the one referred to by the prophecy. Dumbledore agrees with this interpretation, pointing out that the lightning-bolt scar is the sign of Voldemort's marking Harry as equal.
Voldemort, therefore, chose Harry, and not Neville—the half-blood, not the pure-blood—, the one he perceived as potentially the most dangerous. The Avada Kedavra Curse did not kill him; instead, it offered him powers that allowed him to escape Voldemort four times by the age of fifteen, more than Lily, James, Frank and Alice.
Harry asks why Voldemort did not wait to see whether he or Neville grew up to be more dangerous. Dumbledore repeats that the Dark Lord did not know the full contents of the prophecy. Someone was eavesdropping in the Hog's Head; thankfully, the Death Eater who overheard Trelawney was detected a short way into the prophecy, and thrown from the building. He heard only the beginning (the part about the parents).
"He did not know that you would have power the Dark Lord knows not—"
Harry says that he doesn't. Dumbledore replies that there is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is always locked. "It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."
Regarding the end of the prophecy, Harry asks whether it means that either he or Voldemort will have to kill the other someday. Albus confirms this.
"I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry," says Dumbledore at last. "You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a Prefect? I must confess ... that I rather thought ... you had enough responsibility to be going on with."
Looking at him, Harry sees a tear trickling down the old wizard's face.
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