Chapter 5-37 The Lost Prophecy

• Harry is back in Dumbledore's office. He keeps thinking it's his fault Sirius is dead. Phineas Nigellus asks Harry why he's in Dumbledore's office. The other Headmasters wake up and Harry wants to leave but the office is locked.
• Dumbledore arrives through the fireplace and puts Fawkes back on its tray of soft ashes. Dumbledore tells him all the other students are all right.
• Harry is angry at himself and Dumbledore. Dumbledore tells Harry pain is part of being human and Harry gets furious, trashing silver instruments and saying that then he doesn't want to be human; he's had enough. Harry wants to leave but Dumbledore does not let him. Dumbledore says Harry is not nearly as angry with him as he ought to be. Dumbledore considers it his fault that Sirius died. Not completely responsible. Sirius was brave, clever and energetic, but not someone to sit safe at home. Nevertheless Harry should never have had to believe Sirius was in danger. That's what Dumbledore should have made sure of.
• Dumbledore starts to explain about Harry's Scar and his mental connection with Voldemort. Because he suspected a two-way influence, he told Snape to teach Harry Occlumency. He could not do it himself, risking Voldemort using Harry to spy on him. He even felt a shadow of Voldemort stir behind Harry's eyes on the rare occasions they had close contact the past year. By keeping Harry at a distance he had been trying to protect him.
• The night Mr. Weasley was attacked, Voldemort realized he could use Harry to trick him into getting the Prophecy he has been desperate to hear ever since he regained his body.
• Harry feels guilty. Dumbledore tells him Kreacher lied to Harry when he checked for Sirius. After Sirius told Kreacher to 'get out' he took it literally and went to Narcissa Malfoy.
• Snape also checked on Sirius after Harry's cryptic warning. The Order has other methods of communicating. When Harry didn't come back from the Forest, he alerted the Order members who went to the Ministry at once. Snape requested Sirius stay at Grimmauld Place and he went to the Forest to search for Harry. Sirius however went to the Ministry too and instructed Kreacher to tell Dumbledore where they had gone. Kreacher had told Narcissa that Sirius cares most about you and that Harry considered him a mixture of father and brother. Kreacher injured Buckbeak to keep Sirius out of the way the moment Harry would check in Grimmauld Place. Dumbledore is good in Legilimency and knew whether Kreacher was lying or not. He 'persuaded' him to tell the full story. Although Kreacher did bad things, he has been made the way he is by his family.
• Harry argues with Dumbledore about Snape but Dumbledore has convincing explanations for Harry's doubts.
• Dumbledore explains why Harry had to grow up at the Dursleys. He was protected there by an ancient magic. The fact that Harry's mother died to save him gave him a protection that flows in his veins. Harry is protected by his mother's blood. Dumbledore left him with her sister and only remaining relative Petunia. By taking Harry in, Petunia sealed the charm Dumbledore had placed upon Harry. The bond of blood became the strongest shield Dumbledore could give Harry. It was Dumbledore who sent the Howler last year to remind Petunia.
• Five years ago Harry survived an encounter with Voldemort. At that time Dumbledore could not tell Harry why Voldemort wants to kill Harry. In the second year, he survived an encounter again. In the fourth year another time. Then Dumbledore should have told Harry everythihg but he still cared too much about Harry's happiness to put another burden on him.
• Now Dumbledore does. He tells Harry Voldemort wants to kill Harry because of a prophecy made shortly after his birth. Voldemort knew it had been made but not its full contents. He wants it. He wants the knowledge of how to destroy Harry.
• Harry says the prophecy is smashed, but Dumbledore responds that what has smashed is only a record, kept by the Department of Mysteries. Dumbledore reveals that he was the one to whom the prophecy was made. He can recall it perfectly.
• It was sixteen years ago, when in the Hog's Head he was seeing an applicant for the post of Divination teacher.
• Dumbledore takes his Pensieve and with his wand prods it. A figure rises, it's Sybill Trelawney and Harry hears the prophecy;:
  

  `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 .'

  Dumbledore explains that it means that the person who has the only chance of conquering Voldemort 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.
• Then he tells Harry that at that time it could have been him or Neville. The official record of the prophecy was re-labelled by the keeper of the Hall of Prophecy after Voldemort's attack on Harry as a child. After Harry got his scar it made Harry the person about whom the prophecy was made. Dumbledore could have chosen a pure-blood, Neville, but chose Harry, a half-blood. Harry escaped Voldemort four times so far.
• Voldemort acted at once because the eavesdropper in the Hog's Head only heard the first two lines. He did not know there might be danger; Harry has power the Dark Lord knows not. Harry says he doesn't
• Dumbledore tells him that in the Department of Mysteries there is a room that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force more wonderful and terrible than death, than human intelligence, then the forces of nature. It's also the most mysterious. This power Harry possesses in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. This power took Harry to save Sirius, and saved him from possession by Voldemort because he could not bear to reside in a body full of the force he detests.
• The end of the prophecy means that one of them, either Harry or Voldemort, has to kill the other.