The Lost Prophesy

The portkey Dumbledore created transports Harry directly to the Office of the Headmaster. Harry walks back and forth, thinking about how Sirius’ death was his own fault since he was the one who fell for Voldemort’s trick.

Suddenly Dumbledore appears in the fireplace and is greeted warmly by all of the portraits hanging in the office. The first thing that Dumbledore tells Harry is that none of his friends has been seriously injured. Dumbledore recognizes the great pain that Harry is in and tells Harry that strong feelings like pain are his “greatest strength.” Harry is in so much pain that he is almost numb; he just wants the pain to cease.

Harry begins to react violently to the pain he is feeling, destroying both objects and furniture in Dumbledore’s office and declaring that Dumbledore cannot possibly understand what he is feeling. Harry tries to leave Dumbledore’s office, but Dumbledore won’t let him go. The door won’t open.

Dumbledore insists that it is his own fault that Sirius died because he did not tell Harry the full truth about the prophecy and that Voldemort would try to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries as a result.

Harry learns of Dumbledore’s worry about Harry’s scar and its connection with Voldemort. Dumbledore knew that once Voldemort discovered the connection, he would use it to try to control Harry. As a result, Dumbledore avoided eye contact with Harry as much as possible, but when Harry was close, Dumbledore could almost sense Voldemort’s presence. Voldemort wanted the prophecy and would use Harry as a result. Therefore, Dumbledore asked Snape to give Harry Occlumency lessons.

When Harry admits that he didn’t try hard enough at Occlumency, Dumbledore reminds Harry that he checked with Kreacher at Grimmauld Place before going to the Ministry of Magic. Kreacher lied when he said that Sirius had gone. In fact, Kreacher had been secretly meeting with Bellatrix Lestrange every time that Sirius Black told Kreacher to “get out.”

Harry is angry at Kreacher and then angry at Snape for disregarding Harry’s warning about “Padfoot” being taken. Dumbledore tells Harry that Snape did, in fact, alert the Order of the Phoenix.

Dumbledore admits that he knew Sirius Black didn’t like being locked up at Grimmauld Place. No one likes to be locked up; Harry didn’t like it at the Dursley’s either. Upon discussing this fact, Dumbledore decides to reveal more to Harry. Because Dumbledore wanted to keep Harry alive, he wanted him near his blood relation of Petunia (Lily’s sister) so he would be most protected. Harry could never be hurt while at the Dursley’s house on Privet Drive.

Dumbledore remembers the events of each of Harry’s years at Hogwarts and chides himself for not telling Harry the truth each of those times. Dumbledore’s only excuse is that he thought Harry was always too young to know the truth.

Realizing his folly, Dumbledore tells Harry the truth now: Voldemort tried to kill Harry on the night his parents died because of a prophecy made before Harry’s birth by Sybill Trelawney. It said that the only person to be able to kill Voldemort would be the child born at the end of July and marked as an equal by the Dark Lord himself. 

The irony is that the two boys in question were Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter. Because one of Voldemort’s Death Eaters only heard the first part of the prophecy, Voldemort ended up choosing who his assailant would be by trying to kill Harry. That marked Harry as Voldemort’s equal. Now there are only two possibilities: either Voldemort kills Harry or Harry kills Voldemort.