Emma Potter; Going to War

54: The Prophecy

"I should have recognized the danger signs then. I should have asked myself why I did not feel more disturbed that you had already asked me the question to which I knew, one day, I must give a terrible answer. I should have recognized that I was too happy to think that I did not have to do it on that particular day. . . . You were too young, much too young. 

"And so we entered your second year at Hogwarts. And once again you both met challenges even grown wizards have never faced. Once again you acquitted yourself beyond my wildest dreams.And nearly lost eachother. You did not ask me again, however, why Voldemort had left that mark upon you. We discussed your scar, oh yes. . . . We came very, very close to the subject. Why did I not tell you everything? 

"Well, it seemed to me that twelve was, after all, hardly better than eleven to receive such information. I allowed you to leave my presence, bloodstained, exhausted but exhilarated, and if I felt a twinge of unease that I ought, perhaps, have told you then, it was swiftly silenced. You were still so young, you see, and I could not find it in me to spoil that night of triumph. . . . 

"Do you see, Harry, Emma? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan now? I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid." 

"I don't —" began Harry, but I had understood.

"I cared about you too much," said Dumbledore simply. "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.

 "Is there a defense? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have —and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined —not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered.What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you both were alive, and well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would havesuch people on my hands. 

"We entered your third year. I watched from afar as you struggledto repel dementors, as you found Sirius, learned what he was and rescued him. Was I to tell you then, at the moment when you had triumphantly snatched your godfather from the jaws of the Ministry?But now, at the age of thirteen, my excuses were running out. Youngyou might be, but you had proved you were exceptional. My conscience was uneasy. I knew the time must come soon. . . . 

"But you came out of the maze last year, having watched CedricDiggory die, having escaped death so narrowly yourselves . . . and I didnot tell you, though I knew, now Voldemort had returned, I must doit soon. And now, tonight, I know you have long been ready for theknowledge I have kept from you for so long, because you have provedthat I should have placed the burden upon you before this. My onlydefense is this: I have watched you struggling under more burdensthan any student who has ever passed through this school, and I couldnot bring myself to add another — the greatest one of all." 

Harry and I waited, but Dumbledore did not speak. 

"I still don't understand." said Harry

"Voldemort tried to kill you when you were children because of aprophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew the prophecy hadbeen made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out tokill you when you were still babies, believing he was fulfilling theterms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost, that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired. And so, since hisreturn to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escapefrom him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduouslysince his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you."