OOTP Chapter Thirty-Seven: "The Lost Prophecy"
* It seems Dumbledore’s room is too calm for our hero, and contrasts with his sense of loss, complementing the role of the sky, which is also often jarringly pleasant. It’s like Harry’s environment is part of some vast and sinister conspiracy to make him feel angsty.
* “It was [Harry’s] fault Sirius had died; it was all his fault.” Don’t worry, Harry, you’ll find a way to blame Snape soon enough.
* “‘Dumledore thinks very highly of you, as I am sure you know,’ he said comfortably. ‘Oh yes. Holds you in great esteem.’” That’s right; it’s not easy to get lackeys who swallow your every word quite so unhesitatingly, so it’s best to appreciate them when you’ve got them.
* Harry starts mourning for Sirius using - how could anyone thing otherwise? - copious amounts of CAPSLOCK.
* Dumbledore’s not really very good at comforting bereaved people, is he? Being all smugly calm and philosophical like that is just going to anger Harry even more.
* Dumbledore blames himself for not telling Harry that Voldemort would try and lure him to the DoM. Really, though, any half-way intelligent person could have realised charging off like that was a bad thing to do. Dumbles ought to be blaming Harry’s stupidity.
* I’m surprised - JKR’s managed to describe the dawn without adding how the Sun’s cheerful brightness offset the gloom in Harry’s heart.
* A word of advice, Dumbledore: there’s no need to bother asking Harry a question starting with the words “Did you not wonder…?” because the answer’s invariably no.
* I like the way Dumbledore spends a whole year ignoring Harry lest Voldemort in order to keep their friendship secret, when half the book’s subplots seem to revolve around people using Harry as a way of getting back at his pal Dumbledore. Yeah, great secret-keeping, Twinkles.
* Well, I say “friendship”. I’m not sure you can really call it friendship when one person lies to, manipulates and orders around the other one.
* So, if Voldie wanted to hear the prophecy, either he’d have to sneak into the Ministry and risk revealing himself, or he’d have to get Harry to retrieve it for him. Again, I’m not sure why sending a group of Death Eaters into the Department of Mysteries would seem that much less suspicious than going himself. Maybe if they were captured the plan was to have them claim that they were trying to get the prophecy to see if it contained any info on how to get the Dark Lord back, whilst denying that Voldemort was back already.
* Harry finally accepts that his stubborn and lazy attitude was the cause of his failing to master Occlumency. A pity he doesn’t resolve to work harder more generally.
* Apparently Sirius was the one person for whom Harry would go to any lengths to rescue. Personally I’d have thought that Ron or Hermione would rank higher, but maybe Voldemort thought that kidnapping them would be too difficult and look too suspicious.
* Harry’s fixed on Severus as his scapegoat for Sirius’ death. I suppose that squashes any chance that he might have reflected on his own behaviour and resolved to change it.
* “‘I trust Severus Snape,’ said Dumbledore simply.” Dumbles, you need to get over this idea that simply saying “I trust this person” is enough to make everybody else trust them, too. I know the WW doesn’t abound in critical thinkers, but still, there are limits.
* “I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father” - note how Dumbles describes the affair as if it was all bitter old Severus’ fault for not moving on. Somehow Harry’s snooping into the Pensieve - which, as well as being a breach of trust, represents quite a serious security risk - isn’t worth mentioning at all.
* “Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. ‘It is time,’ he said, ‘for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.’” This sounds quite exciting, until you hear what “everything” actually is.
* Harry can’t be hurt by Voldemort because of Lily’s sacrifice. OK, fine, so why can’t Voldie just send a couple of minions round to do the job for him?
* And just how does Privet Drive become Harry’s home for the purpose of the enchantment? Is there a certain number of days he has to spend there per year? If so, why not just get Harry to stay there for as long as necessary to keep the protection working, and move him somewhere else the rest of the year? We know that it’s nothing to do with Harry’s own attitudes, since he’s considered Hogwarts his real home since Philosopher’s Stone.
* So Dumbledore claims that he loved Harry too much to put his plan into action, whilst apparently having no problem manipulating Severus and ignoring the safety and happiness of his other pupils. I suppose this would suggest that, whilst Dumbles can form attachments, his main flaw is that he has difficult seeing those who he isn’t already attached to as proper people.
* Dumbledore says that the prophecy could have referred either to Harry or Neville, because they were both born at the end of July. Still, it would be fun to speculate on who else it could be. I remember once reading a theory that it was actually Draco. The “as the seventh month dies” part could mean the seventh month after the prophecy was made (do we ever find out when the interview happened?), and Voldemort “marked him as an equal” when he set Draco the task of killing Dumbledore, the leader of the opposing side, a task you’d normally expect Voldemort to undertake himself. The plan to let the DEs in through the Vanishing Cabinet was quite clever, so “the power the Dark Lord knows not” is clearly intelligence. Draco led to Voldemort’s death by disarming Albus on the tower, preventing Voldie from gaining mastery of the Elder Wand and fatally weakening him for his final duel. As for the “parents who thrice defied him”, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy argued with Voldie over seating arrangements when the DEs were meeting at Malfoy Manor. (“Look, Voldemort, I don’t care if you are the Dark Lord, it’s my goddamn house and I’ll sit at the head of the goddamn table!”) See, it all fits!
* So the big revelation about the prophecy turns out to be… that Harry will have to kill Voldemort! Seriously, worst. Revelation. Ever. I get that it might be surprising to Harry, who doesn’t know that he’s living in a Fantasy novel, but seriously, JKR, the whole “hero slays the Dark Lord” trope is common enough that most readers were almost certainly expecting Harry to end up killing Voldemort. To set this up as some sort of big reveal just looks cliché and boring.
* Harry hears the sound of people going to breakfast and is, once again, surprised that people can be happy while he isn’t, although it’s happened so often I’d have thought he might be used to it by now.
* “‘I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry,’ said Dumbledore hesitantly. ‘You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect?’” Well, Harry might have saved the school a few times, but he’s never really shown any of the qualities necessary to be a good prefect - hard work, people skills, conscientiousness. Personally I’d rather have an explanation for why he made Ron a prefect instead.