The Punch Line ~George Weasley~

T W E N T Y - S E V E N

"Wait, where was Sirius when I tried to contact him?" Harry asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"Ah. Apprently Kreacher had injured Buckbeak to distract him in case you tried to contact Headquarters. Sirius was tending to the wounds when you called" Dumbledore pieced together.

"And Hermione said we should be nice to Kreacher!" I exclaimed.

"She was quite right, Elyse. Kreacher is what wizards have made him. His is to be pitied, not hated" Dumbledore spoke, adressing me.

"Sirius hated him" Harry uttered.

"He didn't hate Kreacher himself. Kreacher was a reminder to Sirius of the home he had always hated" Dumbledore challenged.

"Yeah, he really hated that place. And you kept him locked up in there!" Harry spoke, anger rising in his tone.

"I was trying to save his life!" Dumbledore reaffirmed, he buried his head in his hands. Harry is dumbfounded, Dumbledore looks up finally "It is time to tell you what I should have five years ago. No doubt you have wondered why it was that I sent you there and not to a wizarding family?" He pauses, glancing over at me, then back to Harry "I did it for your protection. You were in more danger than anyone realized. Voldemort was defeated but his servants were everywhere.
    "I also knew that Voldemort would return one day. I played to his weakness. There is an ancient magic which Voldemort had underestimated. This magic is what your mother gave you when she died. That protection would only work, however, if you were cared for by a blood relative. Your Aunt, Petunia" Dumbledore spoke, Harry's expression not changing.

"She never loved me" Harry scoffed.

"Perhaps not. But she took you in, however grudgingly. As long as you can call your Aunt's house your home, you are protected. And now we come to the moment of terrible truth, the momen I have dreaded for fifteen years. The moment when I must lay another burden atop your already straining shoulders.
    "Do you remember your first year here? When you lay in the hospital wing fresh from your confrontation with Voldemort?" He asks, Harry nods his head as an answer.

"I asked you why Voldemort tried to kill me" Harry spoke, recalling the memory.

"Yes. I decided not to tell you then. After all, eleven was too young for such burdens. The same went for twelve. But I was running out of excuses by thirteen and fourteen. Do you see the flaw in my plan yet ?" Dumbledore asks him, Harry shakes his head.

"I cared about you too much. I became more concerned with your happiness and well-being than with the truth and the lives it could save. That was greatest mistake. It was exactly what Voldemort expects from us fools who love.
    "But I could not bear to tell you. I have watched you pass through greater trials than any other student in history of this school, and I could not bear to add another one, the greatest one of all. You have no idea the pain it causes me to tell it to you, even now. But unfortunately, I must" He sighs, looking at Harry with sympathy and reget etched on his face.

"I don't understand, Professor" Harry quirks, Dumbledore sighs again.

"The reason Voldemort tried to kill you is because of a prophesy made just before your birth. By attempting to kill you, he believed he was fulfilling the terms of the prophesy. Voldemort's mistake was that he had not heard the entire prophesy. This is the weapon we have been gaurding, and which he had been so desperately seeking: the knowledge of how to destroy you" Dumbledore spoke, his eyes flickering to me and back to Harry.

It couldn't be, me. Harry was the one everyone is after not anything I can do, I'm just a normal witch right ?

"Professor, why am I so important to him?" Harry asks, hanging his head.

"An excellent question, Harry. The answer lies in the prophesy" Dumbledore answers, idly scanning over Harry face.

"Sir, it got smashed" Harry said, guiltily.

"That was not the ony place the prophesy is preserved" Dumbledore raises his wand to his temple and extracts a memory, placing it in the Pensive. He waves his wand over it. The ghostly image of Professor Trelwany rises from the bowl.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrise defied him, born as the Seventh Month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have a power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die ar the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lordd will be born as the Seventh Month dies..." Trelawney speaks, her voices ghostly, eerie as she fades away.