Speaker 1: Us studious. It is the thirty first of October nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one. The night is quiet in a way that
Speaker 1: nights in little Winging never are. The man in long
Speaker 1: silver robes stands in front of a house on Private
Speaker 1: Drive number four. He is holding a baby. The baby
Speaker 1: is asleep. The man bends down and places the child
Speaker 1: on the doorstep, and as he does, he takes a
Speaker 1: letter from his pocket and tucks it into the blanket.
Speaker 1: Then he steps back, and he watches. He does not
Speaker 1: go inside. He does not knock on the door and
Speaker 1: explain himself. He stands in the shadow of a nearby tree,
Speaker 1: and he waits, as though he already knows what will
Speaker 1: happen next, as though he has seen this scene play
Speaker 1: out in his mind a thousand times and has simply
Speaker 1: come to watch the final rehearsal. The autumn wind brushes
Speaker 1: through the bare branches of the sycamore tree where he stands,
Speaker 1: carrying with it the scent of damp leaves and the
Speaker 1: distant exhaust of a late night lorie on the motorway.
Speaker 1: The baby stirs, tiny fingers curling against the cold, but
Speaker 1: does not wait. There is the precision of someone who
Speaker 1: has weighed outcomes and chosen the one that costs the
Speaker 1: least in the long run, even if it costs everything
Speaker 1: in the short This is where it begins. This is
Speaker 1: the first move. And here is the question that has
Speaker 1: kept me awake for years, the question that made me
Speaker 1: want to start this podcast in the first place, the
Speaker 1: question I want to spend this entire season exploring with you.
Speaker 1: Was this always the plan? Did Albus Dumbledore, that grand
Speaker 1: old man with the twinkling eyes and the long silver beard,
Speaker 1: placed that infant on that doorstep, knowing exactly what he
Speaker 1: was doing, Not just the blood protection we will get
Speaker 1: to that, but the whole thing, the cupboard under the stairs,
Speaker 1: the letters, the broken glasses, and the Dudley hand me
Speaker 1: downs in the eleven years of silence. Did he know
Speaker 1: on that October night in nineteen eighty one that he
Speaker 1: was setting a boy on a path that would end
Speaker 1: in a forest, with the boy walking fucking willingly toward
Speaker 1: his own death. We are not asking whether Dumbledore was evil.
Speaker 1: I want to be very clear about that from the start,
Speaker 1: because I think it's the thing that scares people off
Speaker 1: this theory, the idea that Dumbledore might have been anything
Speaker 1: less than the warm, wise, twinkling grandfather figure that Harry
Speaker 1: so desperately needed him to be. We are not asking
Speaker 1: whether Dumbledore was evil. I want to be very clear
Speaker 1: about that from the start, because I think it's the
Speaker 1: thing that scares people off this theory, the idea that
Speaker 1: Dumbledore might have been anything less than the warm, wise,
Speaker 1: twinkering grandfather figure that Harry so desperately needed him to be.
Speaker 1: We are not saying Dumbledore. We are saying something that
Speaker 1: I think is actually worse if you think about it
Speaker 1: long enough. We are saying that the Bullminers was a general,
Speaker 1: that he was willing to sacrifice anything, any person, any childhood,
Speaker 1: any individual life to win a war that had already
Speaker 1: cost him more than anyone should have to pay. We
Speaker 1: are saying that the warmest moments between Harry and Dumbledore
Speaker 1: were real, the love was real, but that it was
Speaker 1: also a tool, that every kindness served a purpose, That
Speaker 1: the man who told Harry he was the best hope
Speaker 1: of us all meant it, but he also meant something
Speaker 1: else behind those words. He meant, you are the weapon
Speaker 1: I need, and I am going to spend fifteen years
Speaker 1: sharpening you. The war had shaped him in ways that
Speaker 1: no one else could see. Dumboldoer had watched his sister
Speaker 1: fade into madness, had watched his brother retreat into bottles
Speaker 1: and bitterness, had watched his own hands become instruments of
Speaker 1: destruction in the fight against grind A Wald. He knew
Speaker 1: what it cost to hold power. He knew what it
Speaker 1: cost to make decisions that set others to die while
Speaker 1: he remained kind, safe, calculating. And when he looked at
Speaker 1: Tom Riddle, the boy who had become vulmier, he saw
Speaker 1: the ultimate expression of what power could do, and it
Speaker 1: was divorced from compassion. He saw the natural end point
Speaker 1: of a certain kind of ambition. And he knew, with
Speaker 1: the cold clarity of a man who had made every
Speaker 1: mistake possible, to see what others could not do, to
Speaker 1: see what others could not see, to play the long
Speaker 1: game when every one else was reacting to the board,
Speaker 1: and the long game. For Dumbledore had a name. It
Speaker 1: had a small name with a lightning scar on its forehead,
Speaker 1: and it was sleeping on a door step in Surrey.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to number four, prive It Drive and the night that
Speaker 1: started everything. When Dumbledore leaves Harry on that doorstep, he
Speaker 1: is not alone. Minerva mc gonagall is there, watching from
Speaker 1: across the street, and she is furious. She says so plainly.
Speaker 1: She has been sitting on that cold pavement for hours waiting,
Speaker 1: and when Dumbledore finally arrives, she tells him that the
Speaker 1: boy will be miserable growing up there with those people.
Speaker 1: And Dumbledore's response is remarkable. He says, I have watched
Speaker 1: all of my aunt's Muggle relations, and I must say
Speaker 1: her aunt was the only one of them worth any attention.
Speaker 1: Then he tells mc gonigal that he is putting the
Speaker 1: boy there because his aunt Pitt is the only living
Speaker 1: relative who shares his mother's blood, and that blood, that
Speaker 1: specific magical protection granting blood, will keep him safe. But
Speaker 1: here's what we need to notice. Dumbledore does not say
Speaker 1: because they will love him. He does not say because
Speaker 1: they will give him home. He says because they share
Speaker 1: his mother's blood. This is not a family. This is
Speaker 1: a protection spell with a roof over it. The Dursleys
Speaker 1: are not chosen as guardians. They are chosen as a
Speaker 1: hiding place. They are chosen as a vessel for a
Speaker 1: magical bond that Dumbledore has calculated down to the minute detail.
Speaker 1: He knows that as long as Harry calls that house home,
Speaker 1: Volnemort cannot touch him. But he also knows, and this
Speaker 1: is the part that chills me every time I read it,
Speaker 1: he knows that this protection has an expiration date. The
Speaker 1: blood protection, as Dumbledore explains it later in the series,
Speaker 1: is a strange and ancient magic. It works because Lily
Speaker 1: Potter died to save her son, and that act of
Speaker 1: love created a binding charm that ties Harry's safety to
Speaker 1: the blood of his mother. Since Petunia, Lily's sister, shares
Speaker 1: that blood, the charred extends to her home. He knows
Speaker 1: that the war will not wait forever. And he knows
Speaker 1: what the cold precision of a man who has spent
Speaker 1: his entire life calculating the costs of war that he
Speaker 1: is asking Petunia Dursley to raise a child she never
Speaker 1: wanted in exchange for a protection that will expire on
Speaker 1: her nephew's seventeenth birthday. This is not a gift. This
Speaker 1: is a loan, and the interest on that loan is
Speaker 1: paid in a decade and a half of suffering. Think
Speaker 1: about what Harry's childhood actually looks like. Think about the
Speaker 1: cupboard under the stairs, where a child sleeps in a
Speaker 1: space the size of a small closet. The walls press
Speaker 1: in on him clothes and damp, and the spider that
Speaker 1: lives in the corner above his head has become over
Speaker 1: the years a kind of roommate. He talks to it
Speaker 1: sometimes when the Dursley had been particularly cruel, when Dudley
Speaker 1: has broken one of his toys, or Aunt Petunia has
Speaker 1: locked him in without supper. The spider never answers, but
Speaker 1: it listens, and that is enough. Think about the letters
Speaker 1: that pour through the cracks in the door at eleven
Speaker 1: years old, Letters that should have come years earlier, letters
Speaker 1: that should have told a boy who he really was.
Speaker 1: They come on the morning of July twenty fourth, and
Speaker 1: then they keep coming, hundreds of them, thousands of them,
Speaker 1: shoved through every gap in the house, until the Dursleys
Speaker 1: flee to the sea, and Dumbledore comes himself floating in
Speaker 1: the sky on a blue typewriter, and Harry learns that
Speaker 1: he is a wizard. But those letters could have come
Speaker 1: when he was five, They could have come when he
Speaker 1: was three, They could have come the day after his
Speaker 1: parents died, carried by an owl to a house in Surrey,
Speaker 1: delivered to a child who was wondering why his mother
Speaker 1: had left him. Dumbledore chose not to send them. Dumbledore
Speaker 1: chose to wait, and that choice meant eleven years in
Speaker 1: a cupboard, eleven years of believing he was worthless, eleven
Speaker 1: years of being told every single day that he was
Speaker 1: a burden and a freak, and lucky to have a
Speaker 1: roof over his head. The bars are pulled against his fingers,
Speaker 1: and the owl looks at him with so like a
Speaker 1: plane that Uncle Vernon used to seal. The window and
Speaker 1: the heat of summer makes it unbearable, and Harry lies
Speaker 1: on his bed at night, staring at the ceiling and
Speaker 1: wondering if this is what his life will always be.
Speaker 1: There is a tray on the floor, and on it
Speaker 1: there is a piece of bread that is so stale
Speaker 1: it cracks when he picks it up, in a glass
Speaker 1: of water that has been sitting so long it has
Speaker 1: become lukewarm and flat. He eats the bread, he drinks
Speaker 1: the water. He does not cry. He has learned not
Speaker 1: to cry, because crying only makes Dudley laugh and hamp
Speaker 1: Petunia tell him to stop being so dramatic. Think about Dudley.
Speaker 1: The birthday parties where Harry is forced to dress in
Speaker 1: one of Dudley's old jumpers, where he is given a
Speaker 1: wire cut hagger as a present and made to feel
Speaker 1: lucky for it. And the jumper is too big, the
Speaker 1: sleeves hanging down best his wrists, and it smells like Dudley,
Speaker 1: like sweat and sweets and the particular musk of a
Speaker 1: child who has never been told no. Do the other
Speaker 1: children stare at him, at this thin boy in clothes
Speaker 1: that don't fit, at this boy who lives in a
Speaker 1: cupboard and his own home. Was any of this necessary?
Speaker 1: Was it necessary for Harry to sleep in a cupboard?
Speaker 1: Was it necessary for him to be starved, to be bullied,
Speaker 1: to be told every day of his life that he
Speaker 1: was worthless, that his parents were drunks, that he was
Speaker 1: a burden. The blood protection did not require cruelty. The
Speaker 1: blood protection only required that Harry live under the same
Speaker 1: roof as his aunt. Dumbledore could have found another family.
Speaker 1: He could have found a wizarding family, or a half
Speaker 1: blood family, or even a Muggle family that would have
Speaker 1: taken the boy in and loved him and kept him safe.
Speaker 1: He could have arranged for regular check ins, for oversight,
Speaker 1: for anyone to look in on the child and make
Speaker 1: sure he was being fed and cared for. He could
Speaker 1: have sent an owl once a month just to check.
Speaker 1: He could have done a hundred things that would have
Speaker 1: softened the blow, that would have given Harry some small
Speaker 1: measure of dignity during those formative years. But he didn't.
Speaker 1: And the reason he didn't is because he knew something else,
Speaker 1: something darker, that the Deursleys were perfect exactly as they were,
Speaker 1: because their cruelty would keep Harry humble, Their neglect would
Speaker 1: keep him hungry for belonging. Their indifference would make him
Speaker 1: desperate for validation, broken enough to be loyal, broken enough
Speaker 1: to be grateful, broken enough to be grateful, broken enough
Speaker 1: to walk into a forest at seventeen years old and
Speaker 1: lay down his life without hesitation. This is the calculus.
Speaker 1: This is the first clue that we are not dealing
Speaker 1: with a kindly old man who loves children. We are
Speaker 1: dealing with a general who has looked at a battlefield
Speaker 1: and seen exactly what he needs to win the war. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the people Dumbledore placed in Harry's life
Speaker 1: because they are not random, they are not accidents. Every
Speaker 1: significant adult who enters Harry's world enters it because Dumbledore
Speaker 1: allowed it, or arranged it, or at the very least
Speaker 1: failed to stop it. And when you look at the
Speaker 1: three most important figures Haggrid, Loupah, and Snape, you see
Speaker 1: something remarkable. Every single one of them owed Dumbledore something.
Speaker 1: Every single one of them was in debt to the
Speaker 1: headmaster in ways that made them loyal beyond question. Rubus
Speaker 1: Haggard is the easiest example. He is the one who
Speaker 1: comes to get Harry on his eleventh birthday. Caggard is
Speaker 1: warm and genuine and absolutely devoted to Tembler. Then buliber
Speaker 1: gave Haggard a job when no one else would hire him.
Speaker 1: Then Bulibery kept his secret when he was expelled from Hogwarts.
Speaker 1: Den Bler gave him a cottage on the grounds and
Speaker 1: a purpose in life. And Haggard has repaid that debt
Speaker 1: a thousand times over by doing whatever Dumblore asks without question.
Speaker 1: The day Haggard comes to get Harry, he bursts through
Speaker 1: the door of the hut on the rock like a
Speaker 1: thundercloud made flesh all Beard and Moleskin and trembling hands,
Speaker 1: and he cries and cries and cries over Lily and James.
Speaker 1: And Harry does not know what to do with a
Speaker 1: man who is crying over people he never knew, people
Speaker 1: who are supposed to have been drunks and failures and
Speaker 1: terrible parents. But Haggard tells him the truth. Haggard tells
Speaker 1: him that his parents were good and brave and kind,
Speaker 1: and that Volmanor killed them, and that Harry is a wizard.
Speaker 1: And Harry believes him because there is nothing. Not because
Speaker 1: he loves Harry yet, but because Dumbledore asked. When Dumbledore
Speaker 1: needs someone to deliver a Lhilosopher's Stone, he trusts Haggrid
Speaker 1: to play back up to the three headed Dog. When
Speaker 1: Dumbledore needs someone to ass court Harry to safety in
Speaker 1: the chaos of Book seven, he sends Haggrid on a
Speaker 1: flying motorcycle. Hagrid never asks why, Hagrid never hesitates. Hagrid
Speaker 1: loves Harry, yes, but he also loves Dumbledore, and those
Speaker 1: two loves are tangled together in a way that makes
Speaker 1: it impossible to tell where loyalty ends and affection begins.
Speaker 1: Dumbledore knew that Dumbledore counted on it Remus. Lupon is
Speaker 1: a more complicated case. Lupon is a werewolf, the only
Speaker 1: one of his kind for most of his life to
Speaker 1: hold a position at Hogwarts. Dumbledore hired him, despite the risk,
Speaker 1: despite the fear, despite everything the ministry and the public
Speaker 1: and the other professors might think. Dumbledore gave him a job,
Speaker 1: a home, a place in the world. And Lupon, who
Speaker 1: had spent his entire life being treated like a monster,
Speaker 1: was so grateful that he would have done almost anything
Speaker 1: Dumbledore asked. The first time Lupon walks into the defense
Speaker 1: against the Dark Art's class room, Harry noticed that his
Speaker 1: robes are shabby and patched, that he looks tired, that
Speaker 1: there is something in his eyes that seems old beyond
Speaker 1: its years. Dumbledore gave him a job, a home, a
Speaker 1: place in the world. But when Lupebi smiles when he teaches,
Speaker 1: when he touches what it means to be afraid of yourself,
Speaker 1: he sees a man who understands what it means to
Speaker 1: be afraid of yourself. He sees a man who knows
Speaker 1: what it is like to be hated for something you
Speaker 1: cannot control. And when Lupbai teaches him, the patronis charm
Speaker 1: When he tells Harry to think of the happiest moment
Speaker 1: of his life. Harry thinks of the moment he first
Speaker 1: learned he was a wizard. But Lupi, Lupi is thinking
Speaker 1: of something else. Lupai is thinking of the moment Dumbledore
Speaker 1: hired him, the moment someone looked at a werewolf and
Speaker 1: saw a teacher instead of a monster. That is the
Speaker 1: moment that makes him happy. That is the moment that
Speaker 1: Jerry to stand away the dementors, and that is the
Speaker 1: moment that binds him to Dumbledore forever. Dumbledore sent loop
Speaker 1: By to teach Harry in the third year, but he
Speaker 1: also sent him with a very specific task to befriend
Speaker 1: Harry told it or hired him again in book five
Speaker 1: as an Order member, as a fighter in the war,
Speaker 1: as a soldier in Dumbledore's army. And then there is Snape. Oh,
Speaker 1: there is Snape. Snape is the most difficult, the most painful,
Speaker 1: the most extraordinary piece of this puzzle. Snape, who bullied
Speaker 1: Harry's father and then spent seventeen years taking out that
Speaker 1: anger on Harry. Snape, who loved Lily Evans since they
Speaker 1: were children, who begged doubledore to save her, who watched
Speaker 1: her die, and then spent the rest of his life
Speaker 1: atoning for his failure in the only way he knew how. Snape,
Speaker 1: who was a death eater who switched sides only because
Speaker 1: Volmiter killed the woman he loved, who spent the next
Speaker 1: fourteen years as a double agent, livedving a lie so
Speaker 1: deep that he could never tell anyone the truth. The
Speaker 1: first time Harry sees Snape, he is in the Potion's classroom,
Speaker 1: and Snape is looking at him with a hatred so
Speaker 1: deep that it seems to burn. There will be no
Speaker 1: foolish want waving in this class to meme the saints
Speaker 1: who fave Lily the seventeen years his Magen. Snape has
Speaker 1: the good liby of the Landage others. Harry does not
Speaker 1: know that Snape loved his mother, that he is unfair,
Speaker 1: that he is unfair, that he takes points from griefand
Speaker 1: for breathing and gives them to Slytherin for existing, and
Speaker 1: Harry learns to hate him in return. That is what
Speaker 1: Snape wants, That is what Dumbledore needs, because as long
Speaker 1: as Harry hates Snape, he will trust Dumbledore. As long
Speaker 1: as Snape as the villain Dumbledore can be the hero.
Speaker 1: Snape owed Dumbledore his life after the Potters were killed.
Speaker 1: After Snape came to Dumbledore, broken and begging, Dumbledore took
Speaker 1: him in. He gave him a job, He kept his secret.
Speaker 1: He protected him from the Ministry, from the death Eaters,
Speaker 1: from everyone who might have wanted him dead. And in return,
Speaker 1: Snape did whatever Dumbledore asked. He taught at Hogwarts, feeding
Speaker 1: Dumbledore information about the students, about the staff, about everything.
Speaker 1: He played the villain, the cruel professor that everyone hated,
Speaker 1: so that Dumbledore could remain the beloved headmaster who always
Speaker 1: knew best. He kill Dumbledore when the tam came, and
Speaker 1: a scene so painful that I still cannot read it
Speaker 1: without my hands shaking. The scene in the Tower is
Speaker 1: the worst. Dumbledore is debt severs, he says, and his
Speaker 1: voice is weak, but his eyes are flies, and Dummerdore
Speaker 1: falls and the students are screaming, and Harry is screaming,
Speaker 1: and Snape is running, running away from what he has done,
Speaker 1: running toward a life that will never let him rest.
Speaker 1: But before he goes, he turns and he looks at Harry,
Speaker 1: and there is something in his eyes. That might be grief,
Speaker 1: might be anger, might be the weight of a lie
Speaker 1: so large that it has become indistinguishable from the truth.
Speaker 1: You have your mother's eyes, he says, and then he
Speaker 1: is gone. And the worst part, the part that makes
Speaker 1: this theory so difficult to accept, is that Snape was
Speaker 1: good at his job. He was so good that he
Speaker 1: fooled everyone, including Harry, including up us as readers. He
Speaker 1: was the perfect spy, the perfect soldier, the perfect tool.
Speaker 1: And Dumbledore knew exactly what he was doing when he
Speaker 1: placed Snape in Harry's life. He knew that Snape's cruelty
Speaker 1: would make Harry distrustful. He knew that Snape's hatred would
Speaker 1: make Harry desperate for approval from other adults. He knew
Speaker 1: that Snape's presence would create at tension in Harry's life
Speaker 1: that would never quite resolve, and that that tension he
Speaker 1: built a world around Harry in which every adult was
Speaker 1: in his debt, and which every adult was a piece
Speaker 1: on a chess board that only one person could see clearly. Tonks,
Speaker 1: who was polyjuiced and placed in Harry's fourth year for
Speaker 1: reasons that still feel invasive and wrong, Tonks, who was
Speaker 1: sent to the order and then to the school to
Speaker 1: watch Harry, to report back, to keep him safe in
Speaker 1: ways that sometimes felt more like surveillance. Dumbledore's web was vast,
Speaker 1: and every strand connected back to him. Now let's go
Speaker 1: to the first year, because this is where the theory
Speaker 1: becomes undeniable. This is where we see for the first
Speaker 1: time exactly what Dumbledore was willing to do. It starts
Speaker 1: with the mirror of a racid Harry finds it by accident,
Speaker 1: in a room that should not exist, in a corridor
Speaker 1: that is not on any map. The room is dusty
Speaker 1: and forgotten, full of broken furniture and moth eaten curtains,
Speaker 1: and in the center of it stands a mirror that
Speaker 1: reaches the ceiling. The frame is god intricately carved, and
Speaker 1: at the bottom are words that Harry cannot read. He
Speaker 1: steps closer, and he looks, and what he sees makes
Speaker 1: him cry out. He sees his family, his parents, James
Speaker 1: and Lily, standing in the crowd behind him, his grandparents,
Speaker 1: people he has never met, smiling and waving relatives. He
Speaker 1: does not recognize people who look like him, and his
Speaker 1: hand goes through the glass and they do not seem
Speaker 1: to notice. They are not real, they are only a reflection.
Speaker 1: But they are also the most real thing he has
Speaker 1: ever seen. He goes back night after night just to
Speaker 1: see them, just to stand in the presence of people
Speaker 1: who love him. The room is cold, and the mirror
Speaker 1: is cold, and his breath fogs in the air as
Speaker 1: he stands there, hour after hour, just watching. He does
Speaker 1: not tell any one. He does not tell Ron, who
Speaker 1: would not understand. He does not tell Hermione, who would
Speaker 1: tell him it is unhealthy. He keeps it to himself,
Speaker 1: this one secret, this one thing that belongs only to him.
Speaker 1: And then Dumbledore finds him, and Dumbledore tells him something remarkable.
Speaker 1: He says, it does not do to dwell on dreams
Speaker 1: and forget to live. He says, I have been many things,
Speaker 1: but I have never been able to use the stone.
Speaker 1: He tells Harry that he is lonely, that he wants company,
Speaker 1: and Harry, who is eleven years old and desperate for
Speaker 1: an adult to trust, would not be the last. But
Speaker 1: here's what we need to understand. Dundebar already knew what
Speaker 1: the mirror showed Harry. He had known for years. He
Speaker 1: had placed the mirror in that room, in that corridor,
Speaker 1: where only someone with very specific qualities would find it.
Speaker 1: He had designed the mirror to show anyone who looked
Speaker 1: into it their deepest desire, and he had designed the
Speaker 1: room to keep it hidden. And then he let Harry
Speaker 1: find it. Why because he wanted to see what Harry desired.
Speaker 1: He wanted to see if Harry was ready for what
Speaker 1: was coming. And when he saw that Harry desired family, love, belonging,
Speaker 1: when he saw that Harry's deepest wish was to not
Speaker 1: be alone, he did not comfort the boy. He did
Speaker 1: not tell him the truth. He used that knowledge to
Speaker 1: manipulate him. He told Harry that the stone would be moved,
Speaker 1: that it was not safe, and then he sent Harry,
Speaker 1: an eleven year old child, into a trap designed to
Speaker 1: kill Voldelmort. He sent Harry into a challenge that was
Speaker 1: meant for a fully trained wizard, and he did it
Speaker 1: knowing that Harry might die. But Harry did not die.
Speaker 1: Harry succeeded. He found the stone before Snape could get it.
Speaker 1: He faced Voldemort, the darkest wizard of the age, the
Speaker 1: man who had killed Harry's parents, his willingness to die
Speaker 1: for others. His willingness to walk into death rather than
Speaker 1: give up the stone. That is what saved him, that
Speaker 1: is what termed Voldemort's curse back on himself, and Dummaldore's
Speaker 1: response to this is telling. When Harry comes out of
Speaker 1: the encounter, exhausted, traumatized, holding the stone, Dumbledore does not
Speaker 1: hug him, He does not tell him how proud he is.
Speaker 1: He tells Harry that they should get to the hospital,
Speaker 1: wing that Snape has been hurt, that there will be
Speaker 1: time for explanations later. He takes the stone from Harry's hand,
Speaker 1: and then he does something extraordinary. He goes back to
Speaker 1: the mirror room and he takes the mirror out of
Speaker 1: the house entirely. He does not leave it for future
Speaker 1: students to find. He does not study it. He removes
Speaker 1: it as though it has served its purpose. What was
Speaker 1: the purpose to test Harry, to see if the boy
Speaker 1: was ready, to see if he would choose others over himself,
Speaker 1: And when Harry proved that he would, when he proved
Speaker 1: that he was capable of love and sacrifice, dock the
Speaker 1: mirror out of the house entirely. He does not leave
Speaker 1: it for future students to find. He does not study it.
Speaker 1: He removes it, as though its served its purpose. What
Speaker 1: was the purpose to test Harry? To see if the
Speaker 1: boy was ready, to see if he would choose others
Speaker 1: over himself, the long, slow, deliberate process of turning a
Speaker 1: boy into a weapon. They may be less, may be less,
Speaker 1: And he knows it, and so he begins the final preparations.
Speaker 1: He begins teaching Harry what no one else knows, the
Speaker 1: truth about horcruxes, about the pieces of Vollemort's soul, about
Speaker 1: the method that Volnebort used to achieve immortality. This is
Speaker 1: the knowledge that Dumbledore has been hoarding for years. He
Speaker 1: has known about the horcruxes since the night he found
Speaker 1: Tom Riddle's diary in the ruins of the Riddle's house.
Speaker 1: He has known, and he has waited, And now he
Speaker 1: is passing that knowledge to Harry because he needs Harry
Speaker 1: to finish the job. He needs Firry to hunt down
Speaker 1: the horcruxes, to destroy them, to do the work that
Speaker 1: he himself can no longer do. But there is something
Speaker 1: else in The Half Blood Prince, something that most readers miss,
Speaker 1: or choose to ignore, or simply do not want to see.
Speaker 1: It is the scene in the cave. The scene where
Speaker 1: Dummledore takes Farrow to the sea, to the rock, to
Speaker 1: the opening in the cliff that leads down to an
Speaker 1: underground lake. The scene where Dumbledore drinks the potion that
Speaker 1: protects the locket. The water is black, the boat is
Speaker 1: small and rickety, and his face contorts. He screams, he
Speaker 1: begs for water, and there is no water, only the
Speaker 1: black lake. And Harry watches as his mentor, the strongest
Speaker 1: man he has ever known, reduced to a writhing, pleading
Speaker 1: wreck on the floor of a cave. The potion is
Speaker 1: nothing like the pain of the cursed Ring. It is worse.
Speaker 1: It pulls at him from the inside, trags memories to
Speaker 1: the surface, makes him relive every mistake he has ever made.
Speaker 1: Harry watches as Dumbledore cries for his mother, for his father,
Speaker 1: for his sister who died because of him. The sounds
Speaker 1: that come out of Dumbledore's mouth are not words. There
Speaker 1: the sounds of a man being torn apart from the inside,
Speaker 1: and Harry can do nothing but hold him, stroke his hair,
Speaker 1: tell him it will be all right, even though he
Speaker 1: knows it is a lie. Why is Harry there? That
Speaker 1: is the question. I want you to hold in your mind.
Speaker 1: He could have brought any number of adults, any number
Speaker 1: of trained wizards, who could have helped him. In that cave,
Speaker 1: he brought Harry. And in that cave, in that dark
Speaker 1: and terrible place, he made Harry hold him while he screamed.
Speaker 1: He made Harry watch him convulse and choke and beg
Speaker 1: for water, made Harry lower him into the boat, made
Speaker 1: him row across the black lake, made him watch as
Speaker 1: the infurry rose from the water. He made Harry lower
Speaker 1: him into the boat, made him row across the black lake,
Speaker 1: made him watch as the infurry rose from the water
Speaker 1: to attack them. He made Harry be there in that moment,
Speaker 1: in that horror, because he needed Harry to understand something.
Speaker 1: He needed Harry to understand what it would feel like.
Speaker 1: He needed to rehearse his own death, think about it.
Speaker 1: The cave was a dress rehearsal. Everything that happened in
Speaker 1: that cave, the pain, the desperation, the complete helplessness, was
Speaker 1: a preview of what Dumbledore would later ask Harry to
Speaker 1: do in the Forest of Dean. He friended that off
Speaker 1: the infurry. He did not need to see that Harry
Speaker 1: did not need to see that, Harry did not need
Speaker 1: to carry that memory. Dumbler Doore could have spared him.
Speaker 1: He could have brought someone else. He could have done
Speaker 1: this mission alone or with other adults, and he could
Speaker 1: have kept Harry safe and ignorant until the moment when
Speaker 1: he needed him most. But he didn't, because Dumbledore was
Speaker 1: not just preparing Harry to find the horcruxes. He was
Speaker 1: preparing Harry to die, and the cave was his way
Speaker 1: of showing Harry what that would look like, what it
Speaker 1: would feel like, so that when the time came when
Speaker 1: he sent Harry into the forest to meet Voldelnart, Harry
Speaker 1: would already know. Harry would already have a frame of reference.
Speaker 1: Harry would already understand what it meant to suffer in silence,
Speaker 1: to be an agony, to have someone you love what
Speaker 1: you die. This is what I mean when I say
Speaker 1: that every warm moment was a chest move. This is
Speaker 1: what I mean when I say that Dumbledore groomed Harry
Speaker 1: for death. It was not cruelty. It was something far worse.
Speaker 1: It was love, real, genuine, deep love, combined with a
Speaker 1: willingness to use that love as a weapon. Dumbledore loved
Speaker 1: Harry for death. It was not cruelty. It was something
Speaker 1: far worse. It was love, real, genuine, deep love, combined
Speaker 1: with a willingness to use that love as a weapon.
Speaker 1: Dumbledore loved Harry the death. But his love was not
Speaker 1: the love of a grandfather. It was the love of
Speaker 1: a general for his most valuable soldier, and generals, when
Speaker 1: they love their soldiers sometimes send them to die. Now
Speaker 1: we come to the end, We come to the forest.
Speaker 1: We come to the moment that haunts me, the moment
Speaker 1: that I have read a hundred times and still cannot
Speaker 1: read without my throat closing up. Harry is seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: The war is raging, Voldemort has taken over the Ministry,
Speaker 1: Hogwarts is under siege, and Harry has just learned that
Speaker 1: he must die. Not because Dumbledore told him, not directly,
Speaker 1: but because the logic of the situation leaves no other option.
Speaker 1: The horcrucks in Harry is the last piece, the part
Speaker 1: of Voldemort's soul that lives in Harry's scar must be destroyed,
Speaker 1: and the only way to destroy that is for Harry
Speaker 1: to die at Voldemort's hand. That is what dumblnot arranged.
Speaker 1: That is what he spent fifteen years building toward. He
Speaker 1: has the resurrection stone in his hand, the stone that
Speaker 1: Dummindore left in the snitch, the stone that he has
Speaker 1: been carrying surrounding him. But they cannot help him, they
Speaker 1: tell him so, They tell him that what they are
Speaker 1: seeing is not real, that they cannot intervene, that he
Speaker 1: must do this alone. And he does. He walks into
Speaker 1: that clearing and he calls out to Volmotort, and he
Speaker 1: lowers himself to the ground, and he waits for the
Speaker 1: killing curse. The clearing is lit by torches, dozens of them,
Speaker 1: and the light flickers across the faces of the death
Speaker 1: eaters who stand in a circle around him. They are
Speaker 1: wearing masks, all of them, and they are silent, and
Speaker 1: the silence is worse than any sound. Volmotort is standing
Speaker 1: in front of him, his wand raised, his red eyes
Speaker 1: fixed on Harry's face. Harry Potter, he says, and his
Speaker 1: voice is soft, almost gentle, the boy who lived, how
Speaker 1: very disappointing. Harry does not answer. He looks at Volmotort,
Speaker 1: at the face that is like a skull, at the
Speaker 1: wand that is pointed at his heart, and he thinks
Speaker 1: about all the times he has been afraid in his life,
Speaker 1: the cupboard under the stairs, the troll in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: the creature in the lake, all the fear, all the terror,
Speaker 1: all the moment when he falls. Vollendord raises his wand
Speaker 1: avad a cadaver. He says, the green light hits Harry
Speaker 1: in the chest, and he falls. This is the moment
Speaker 1: that Dumbledore planned. This is the culmination of everything, the
Speaker 1: boy who was left on a doorstep, the child who
Speaker 1: slept in a cupboard, the teenager who was abandoned by
Speaker 1: every adult who was supposed to protect him. He is
Speaker 1: walking to his death, willingly, without hesitation, and Dumbledore is
Speaker 1: not there. Dumbledore is dead. Dumbledore arranged his own death,
Speaker 1: Arranged to have Snape kill him in a way that
Speaker 1: would earn Harry's hatred and trust in equal measure. Arranged
Speaker 1: to die at the moment when Harry needed him most,
Speaker 1: not to save him, but to ensure that Harry would
Speaker 1: have no one else to turn to. The snitch. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the snitch. At the end of the sixth book,
Speaker 1: Dumbledore gives Harry the golden snitch that he caught in
Speaker 1: his first quidgetch match, the one that he was. And
Speaker 1: then in the forest, Harry finally understands. He puts the
Speaker 1: snitch to his lips and whispers, I am about to die.
Speaker 1: The stone that brings back the dead, the stone that
Speaker 1: shows Harry his parents one last time, the stone that
Speaker 1: gives him the courage to walk forward. But here's what
Speaker 1: I want you to notice. The snitch was always going
Speaker 1: to open at this moment. Dumbledore knew. Dumbledore knew exactly
Speaker 1: when Harry would use the stone, exactly what it would
Speaker 1: show him, exactly how it would help him walk to
Speaker 1: his death. The snitch was not a gift. It was
Speaker 1: a tool. It was one last piece of equipment in
Speaker 1: Dumbledore's grand plan, designed to ensure that Harry would not run,
Speaker 1: would not fight, would not do anything except walk forward
Speaker 1: and die. This is what I mean when I say
Speaker 1: that Harry's choice was not a choice. It was the
Speaker 1: only move left on the board. Dummeldore spent fifteen years
Speaker 1: narrowing the options, reducing the possibilities, cutting away every escape
Speaker 1: route until what remained was this walk into the forest
Speaker 1: or let vommaldort win. There was no third option. There
Speaker 1: was no way out Harry chose to die, yes, but
Speaker 1: he was choosing between death and the destruction of everything
Speaker 1: he loved. That is not a choice, That is a trap.
Speaker 1: And the most damning evidence of all is what Dumbledore
Speaker 1: finally tells Harry the truth. He confesses. He admits that
Speaker 1: he raised Harry like a pig for slaughter. That is
Speaker 1: not a metaphor. That is exactly what he did. He
Speaker 1: raised Harry from infancy for the sole purpose of sacrificing
Speaker 1: him in a war that he could not win any
Speaker 1: other way. The station is white and clean and endless,
Speaker 1: and Harry is alone, and then he is not alone.
Speaker 1: Dumbledore is there, sitting on a bench, looking older than
Speaker 1: Harry has ever seen him. And Harry asks him, did
Speaker 1: you put your name in the Goblet of Fire under
Speaker 1: the name of someone younger? And Dumbledore says yes. And
Speaker 1: Harry asks did you put me in for the Triwizdard Tournament?
Speaker 1: And Dumbledore says yes. And then, in the silence that follows,
Speaker 1: in the whiteness of that impossible place, Dumbledore tells him.
Speaker 1: He tells him about the prophecy, about the horn cruxes,
Speaker 1: about the plan. He tells him that he was right
Speaker 1: that he was always right, that there was no other way.
Speaker 1: And Harry listens, and he does not argue, and he
Speaker 1: does not fight because he is too tired to fight,
Speaker 1: because he has already done what was asked of him.
Speaker 1: But then, and this is the part that gets me,
Speaker 1: every time he says he is sorry. He says he
Speaker 1: is sorry that Harry had to go through all of it,
Speaker 1: and then he says something else. He says that he
Speaker 1: was glad in the end that Harry not because he
Speaker 1: loved Harry, not because he wanted the boy to live.
Speaker 1: And the curse that rebounded on Volmaltort in the first book,
Speaker 1: the curse that destroyed Bommeltort's body only worked because Lily's
Speaker 1: blood was in Harry's veins. If Vomaltort had killed Harry
Speaker 1: that night in the cottage, Lily's protection would have failed
Speaker 1: and Vomaltort would have returned. Dumbledore wanted Harry alive so
Speaker 1: that his blood could protect the wizarding world one more time.
Speaker 1: This is the confession. This is the admission that makes
Speaker 1: everything else make sense. Dumbledore was not a villain, He
Speaker 1: was not cruel. He was a man who had lost everything,
Speaker 1: his sister, his brother, his lover his youth, and who
Speaker 1: had decided in the end that the only thing that
Speaker 1: mattered was winning. He would pay any price, He would
Speaker 1: sacrifice anyone. He would spend a child's childhood in a cupboard.
Speaker 1: The prophecy said, it either must die at the hand
Speaker 1: of the other. I think he was something far more
Speaker 1: dangerous than evil. I think he was a good man
Speaker 1: who was willing to do evil things. And that is
Speaker 1: the most terrifying thing of all. Because an evil man
Speaker 1: you can fight, an evil man you can defeat. But
Speaker 1: a good man who has decided that the ends justify
Speaker 1: the means, a good man who will sacrifice anything to win,
Speaker 1: there is no force in the world that can stand
Speaker 1: against him. There is no army that can defeat him.
Speaker 1: There is no spell that can undo what he has done.
Speaker 1: Dumbledore watched his sister suffer, He watched his brother fade away.
Speaker 1: He watched Grindewald rise and fall. He watched a world
Speaker 1: tear itself apart again and again, and he decided that
Speaker 1: he would not let it happen again. He would not
Speaker 1: be gentle, he would not be kind. He would be
Speaker 1: the monster that the world needed, the general who would
Speaker 1: win the war that the one else could win, and
Speaker 1: he did win. In the end, Harry lived, Feldmort died.
Speaker 1: The world was saved. And if you measure it by outcomes,
Speaker 1: if you measure it by the number of lives that
Speaker 1: were preserved, then Dumbledore plan worked. It was ugly, it
Speaker 1: was painful, It costs more than anyone should have to pay,
Speaker 1: but it worked. But here's what we are left with
Speaker 1: at the end of this story. Harry survived, Feldmoort died.
Speaker 1: The world was saved, and if you measure it by outcomes,
Speaker 1: if you measure it by the number of lives that
Speaker 1: were preserved, then Demmledore plan worked. He maned on to
Speaker 1: have a family, a career, a life, the general who
Speaker 1: sent him to die, and the spy who made that
Speaker 1: death possible. He named a son after the architects of
Speaker 1: his suffering because he understood something that we all need
Speaker 1: to understand continues. The next generation will need its own Dumbledorey.
Speaker 1: It will need someone who is willing to make the
Speaker 1: hard choices, to sacrifice the few for the many, to
Speaker 1: do what no one else is willing to do. And
Speaker 1: the next generation will need its own Harry, someone who
Speaker 1: is willing to walk into the forest to lie down
Speaker 1: to die for a world that does not understand what
Speaker 1: it is asking of them. This is the truth that
Speaker 1: Dumbledore he knew. This is the truth that he tried
Speaker 1: to hide, and that he confessed to in King's Cross,
Speaker 1: and that Harry carries with him every day of his life.
Speaker 1: Love is not enough. Kindness is not enough. Someone who
Speaker 1: is willing to walk into the forest, to lie down,
Speaker 1: to die for a world that does not understand what
Speaker 1: it is asking of them. This is the truth that
Speaker 1: Dumbledore he knew. This is the truth that he tried
Speaker 1: to hide and that he confessed to and King's Cross,
Speaker 1: and that Harry carries with him every day of his
Speaker 1: lia life. Love is not enough. Kindness is not enough.
Speaker 1: Someone who is willing to walk into the forest to
Speaker 1: lie down to die for a world that is not
Speaker 1: And maybe maybe the next time a Dimmaldore appears with
Speaker 1: his twinkling eyes and his silver beard and his plans
Speaker 1: within plans within plans, we will for views to be
Speaker 1: the weapon. Or maybe we will do what we have
Speaker 1: always done. Maybe we will find our own harrys, our
Speaker 1: own children with lightning scars and desperate hopes, and we
Speaker 1: will send them into the forest and tell them that
Speaker 1: it is love, that it is sacrifice, that it is
Speaker 1: the only way. The books end with a question. Harry
Speaker 1: asks Scorpius Malfoy years later whether he can be sorted
Speaker 1: into Slytherin, and Scorpius says yes. The cycle continues. The
Speaker 1: war is over, but the battles are not. There will
Speaker 1: be another dark Lord, another chosen one, another sacrifice, and
Speaker 1: somewhere in a castle far away, a head master is watching.
Speaker 1: The question is not whether Demmledore was right. The question
Speaker 1: is whether any of us and we will keep looking
Speaker 1: for the truth even when it hurts, because that is
Speaker 1: what we do. That is what muggle snuggle is all about.
Speaker 1: We are the ones who look at the mirror and
Speaker 1: ask what it shows. We are the ones who refuse
Speaker 1: to forget. So until next time, my friends, keep your
Speaker 1: wands ready, watch the stars, and remember the bravest person
Speaker 1: in the room is always the one who knows the
Speaker 1: cost and chooses to pay it anyway. That is the lesson,
Speaker 1: That is the burden, That is the truth that Dumbledore
Speaker 1: left us with, and that we will carry with us
Speaker 1: long after the fire goes out and the night grows cold.