Wednesday, January 20, 1995 – Afternoon
It couldn’t be put off any longer. Professor Dawes agreed to meet the headmaster with Harry. Dumbledore never gave up trying to get Harry alone with him in his office. Harry refused to answer any summons, which he gave to Professor Dawes who responded on Harry’s behalf.
“Harry! My boy! Have a lemon drop.”
“No thank you, headmaster.” Harry glared at Dumbledore.
Will he ever give up with the ‘My boy’ business? I am not his boy, and the way things are going I never will be his boy or his man.
“Professor Dawes, I must insist that I be allowed to have a private conversation with Harry. There are some delicate matters which Harry must hear about, and I must stress that they are very private.” Dumbledore was in his all-knowing Supreme Mugwump mode.
“Is this about that wretched prophecy, headmaster?” Miriam Dawes glared at Dumbledore. “I’m guessing that it must be. It is about the only thing that you have left to try to cripple Harry with.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about, Miss Dawes.” Dumbledore couldn’t hide his surprise.
“This is insufferable insolence, apologize to the headmaster!” Snape snarled from his corner.
“Get this! Both of you! I am an Unspeakable. Eric Davis is an Unspeakable. We spent many years trawling through the Hall of Prophecies, doing our job. We look at every prophecy to try to work out if there is any real threat to Magical Britain in them. We found that prophecy, the one made by Sybil Trelawney to you headmaster. We worked out that it was about Tom Riddle and either Neville Longbottom or Harry. It wasn’t that hard. It was also obvious that like most other prophecies, it was meant to fail.” Anger was rolling off Unspeakable Dawes in strong waves.
“You are betraying your sacred trust. You mustn’t speak about such things!” Dumbledore was plainly angry, no twinkling eyes, no grandfatherly condescension.
“Oh! So! I’m not to talk back to you, while you can use this trash to manipulate a child. Was Professor Snape going to hear your revelations or is he already informed of what you were going to do?” Miriam Dawes rose from her chair.
“Come Harry! I am finished with these two.”
Harry bounced out of his seat and followed his Head of House down the stairs.
Well! That was interesting.
--ooOOoo—
Back in the safety of Merlin Tower, Miriam Dawes took Harry into her office.
“Let me calm down for a minute Harry.”
She marched around and around the office, breathing deeply, until she finally sat in her chair.
“Right! Harry! You deserve an explanation.”
“Professor Trelawney gave a prophecy before you were born. She spoke that prophecy in front of Albus Dumbledore. He was interviewing her at the time for the post of Divination professor. This was in 1980. The full text of the prophecy is recorded in the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries.”
“It is one of the jobs of the Unspeakables to listen to every prophecy and determine if there is any threat to Magical Britain revealed in them. The vast majority do not have any threats or if they do the threat has come and gone before the recording is lodged in the Hall.”
“This is the text of that prophecy. You are allowed to see this because it has been decided that you are mentioned in the prophecy.” Professor Dawes gave Harry a parchment.
‘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....’
Let’s say that you don’t know anything about prophecies, Harry. Let’s say that this is the first prophecy that you have ever seen. You would be forgiven for thinking that you have to stand up against Tom Riddle and engage him in a duel to the death with your wand in your hand.
I’m here to tell you that this not the case.
Prophecies are a part of my business. As I mentioned before, all of the Unspeakables took turns at listening to every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecies. We had to analyse the message and try to sort out if there was a credible threat to anyone.
Once you’ve worked through hundreds of them, certain rules of expression become obvious. It’s like poetic license, you noticed that with the Merfolk song from your Golden Egg.
One of the poetic license expressions is ‘at the hand of’. That means that you are doing something to act out your intent. That something could be hiring an assassin to curse Tom while he is sleeping. It is your intent to cause Tom’s death, and so the prophecy is fulfilled.
The next thing about prophecies is that most of them are intended to fail. Prophecies are only fulfilled if the situation is frozen in place until the events specified in the prophecy all happen.
The prophecy about you could not possibly work out in the way it seems to be foretelling.
Why is it so? The seer has spoken the prophecy, a prophecy is only a prophecy if there is a listener. When that listener hears the prophecy, they will say,
“That’s horrible, I can’t possibly let that happen.”
So, they will get to work and do everything they can to make sure that it doesn’t happen.
The prophecy itself changes the future, so that it can’t possibly happen.
Prophecies are sent out by our old friends, the Gods of Olympus. If you think about it, that makes the ‘doomed to fail’ thing more understandable. They are inspiring people to get moving and change the future.
This prophecy was heard by Dumbledore who has done almost nothing to help you. It has also been heard by Eric Davis, me, and Lord Greengrass. We are all with you, working to help you in every way we can.
There is a problem. Riddle has found out about the prophecy. He has always had spies hanging around Dumbledore. That is why he targeted your parents and you. He is still obsessed with you being the one to bring about his fall. Riddle doesn’t seem to understand the way that prophecies can be self-defeating.
Remember this, there is a prophecy. It means that you will have a leading role in defeating Riddle and that will be done by sending him to meet Hades, but not necessarily by you personally.
The next prophecy involving you came from Professor Trelawney again. Last year she spoke this prophecy which you listened to.
‘The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant’s aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight … before midnight … the servant … will set out … to rejoin … his master …’
That prophecy was about Peter Pettigrew breaking away to find Riddle. You have seen in your visions from Riddle how that has worked out. You were the only one who heard it and your attempts to warn supposedly responsible adults about it were ignored. Now all we can do is work against Riddle gaining his full powers.
In my humble opinion, the Hall of Prophecies should be converted to a chocolate factory. That would be far more useful than the total waste of space that it is now.
Harry looked at the parchments. He was silent for a long time. Professor Dawes let him process. Dumbledore had forced the situation. He had given Harry no time to take on this new load.
Harry spoke. “WOW! Just WOW! Now I understand why psycho Tom Riddle is obsessed with me. This is how he can be defeated. He will be obsessed with me, focused on me and miss entirely some humble soldier taking him down from behind. All I have to do is survive.”
Professor Dawes did not look impressed.
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