The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore Irvin Khaytman (reading books for 4 year olds .TXT) 📖

his feelings about your father—I was wrong.” (OP833) Dumbledore realizes that the setup of Harry and Snape working together in emotionally fraught conditions, despite any number of precautions, was doomed to fail because of their very natures.

The failure of Dumbledore’s gamble on Harry and Snape ends up costing Sirius Black’s life, and that has to be awful for Dumbledore. Dumbledore feels guilt acutely, having been consumed by guilt for his sister Ariana’s death for a century. Now he can add Sirius’s death to his conscience, which is really upsetting for him. However, it’s not upsetting enough to stop Dumbledore from going double or nothing on the Harry/Snape gamble.

Repeating Old Plans

There were a lot of balls in the air during Order of the Phoenix, so let’s recap. The prophecy that everyone spent a year worrying about was essentially of no importance, but only Dumbledore knew this. Dumbledore used the prophecy to send Voldemort on a wild goose chase and used the unwitting Order to keep Voldemort occupied for a year, while Dumbledore started researching and then hunting the Horcruxes. This allowed him a valuable head start on attempting to defeat Voldemort, with no one to bother him.

The evidence indicates that Dumbledore set this plan into motion right away after Voldemort’s resurrection, coming up with it on the spot when Harry informed him that Voldemort had returned. Dumbledore spent the night revealing things to Harry about the wands and Crouch Jr. and everything Harry could possibly want to know. . . except the prophecy. Whatever Dumbledore says to the contrary about not wanting to put Harry through more suffering that night, he certainly didn’t seem to shy away from putting Harry through whatever he felt necessary. Dumbledore didn’t tell Harry about the prophecy to prevent his secrets from getting leaked—he didn’t tell anyone, so as to ensure his decoy worked perfectly. This was the beginning of the Machiavellian Dumbledore we see at work in the last book, and is a harbinger of things to come.

Interestingly, in Order of the Phoenix, both Dumbledore and Voldemort revisited their old strategies, and both received an identical result to the last time. In Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore kept Voldemort occupied by dangling something he wanted in front of him. And just like the Sorcerer’s Stone served to keep Voldemort busy and mostly harmless for a year, so too did the prophecy. Another commonality: Voldemort failed to acquire both the Stone and the prophecy in the end. This strategy works so well, I bet Dumbledore was half-tempted to give it another go to buy himself another year.

As for Voldemort’s strategy, it seems awfully familiar. He exerts a lot of effort to maintain his anonymity from the Ministry. When the Death Eaters are mocking Harry for falling for Voldemort’s trap, Harry brings up an excellent point: “Why couldn’t [Voldemort] come and get it himself?” (OP786) And indeed, why not?

Because Voldemort is trying to repeat his plan from the previous year! He uses Harry to achieve an objective, shows off in front of Death Eaters, and maintains anonymity throughout. (This second point probably grew ever more attractive to Voldemort as he spent months doing his own thing with Fudge being none the wiser.) Voldemort wants to display how weak Harry is, that he would fall for a mind trick of Voldemort’s. He wants the Death Eaters to bring the prophecy to Voldemort, all while making sure the Ministry is none the wiser. (After all, short of seeing Voldemort in the Ministry, Fudge would keep blaming Dumbledore for everything going wrong.) Just like the previous year, Voldemort takes obstacles out of Harry’s path to get him to the goal—I have to believe that the Ministry’s security would not allow six teenagers to wander in unmolested in the middle of the night.

This time, however, Voldemort is entirely at fault for the plan going wrong. He completely overestimates his Death Eaters, half of whom are still likely weakened from Azkaban, believing they’ll be able to take the prophecy from Harry without incident. To be fair, Voldemort most likely did not expect Harry to show up with six friends in tow (he consistently shows no regard for Harry’s friends and allies), and a dozen Death Eaters would have been able to take care of Harry by himself.

It’s the same plan as Goblet of Fire, and it once again failed because Harry had an ace up his sleeve—Priori Incantatem, love—and Dumbledore was informed immediately. And while the GoF plot at least succeeded in returning Voldemort to his body, Voldemort’s OotP plan was an unqualified failure. That’s why Voldemort allows his temper to get the better of him when Harry announces the prophecy is smashed, meaning Voldemort will never get to hear its contents. Voldemort really wanted that prophecy, and is so peeved, he throws away his other considerations. He shows up at the Ministry to kill Harry, risking his anonymity, and doesn’t even bother waiting for an audience. This time, there are no games or theatrics, he just lets the Killing Curses fly. It’s a stark contrast to the Voldemort from Book 4. Yet because Voldemort was so angry as to not listen to Bellatrix hollering about Dumbledore being present, he is surprised by Dumbledore, and utterly defeated—no prophecy, no Death Eaters, and cover blown.

It is after this PR nightmare that Voldemort issues his “I will be the one to kill Harry Potter” decree (probably subtly encouraged by Snape). We first hear about it from Snape during the “Flight of the Prince”: “Have you forgotten our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord—we are to leave him!” (HBP603)

For better or worse, at the end of Order of the Phoenix, the schemes of both Dumbledore and Voldemort are over with for that year. Going forward, Dumbledore and Voldemort double down on their respective styles. Voldemort remains a performer throughout the entire series, and his theatricality becomes his predictability (though he learns enough to Avada Kedavra Harry immediately in Deathly Hallows and go through the theatrics after