Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Lost Prophecy
In chapter thirty-seven of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry has a heartbreaking reaction to Sirius’s death, and Dumbledore is brilliant. Or a quasi sociopathic mastermind. Or…both…?
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
OK. Deep breaths. Everyone have kleenex? Some chocolate? A pillow to weep into? Fanfics where Sirius somehow didn’t die? Good. Let’s proceed!
What follows in this chapter is one of the best written depictions of grief, particularly in a “children’s” novel that I’ve ever witnessed.
Harry’s alone in Dumbledore’s office in shock from watching Sirius die in a super weird way that doesn’t give him any closure and then casting an illegal torture curse and almost getting killed by Voldz. Frankly, he’s pretty used to that last one.
Phineas Nigellus wakes up to be like “hoho so my worthless grandson who shames the family by not being a bigoted racist and I guess he’s hot or whatever sent you eh?” just to rub salt in the wound while the other portraits are like “you’re totes the best Harry Dumbles luvs you 4eva” and DAMN GUYS let the poor dude wallow in peace!
Dumbledore shows up and says something that is obnoxious on first read but interesting after full 7 book read, in that he tells Harry he knows what he’s feeling (he is of course referring to the overwhelming guilt he feels about helping cause his sister’s death) but instead of oh, TELLING HARRY THIS he does the classic mistake of saying this trite adult phrase to a wounded teenager without context, enraging Harry into full HULK HARRY SMASH mode and he goes around destroying Dumbledore’s shit, which, to be fair, is letting Dumbledore get off very lightly at this point.
Harry screams a number of heartbreaking things at A-Dumbs about not wanting to be human so he won’t keep feeling pain (oh Harry my teenaged spirit animal) and then Dumbledore tells Harry that he should be way madder at him since it’s his fault Sirius died, which, yes…yes it kind of is. I’m going to touch more on this next book, but Harry’s later reaction to Sirius’s death and Dumbledore’s/Harry’s culpability in it I’ve always found…curious, let’s say. Yeah, let’s use “curious” for now and proceed.
Dumbledore starts to do one of his best traits, spout a long stream of exposition at Harry, and—
“Yeah, Snape told me,” Harry muttered.
“Professor Snape, Harry,” Dumbledore corrected him quietly.
Is this fucking necessary?! When has Snape ever shown Harry respect?! Don’t give me his backstory in book 7! He protects Harry out of a long running obsession with Harry’s mother, but nothing to do with Harry himself. Snape has treated Harry like garbage 97 times this book ALONE and yet Harry, who just watched his godfather die for no reason, is getting chastised for not using the douchebag’s title!? DAMMIT Dumbledore!
We get a lot of backstory we all know so I won’t touch on it until we get to Kreacher’s part in the treachery and YIKES this is…a choice. I’m not saying I disagree with the fact that Sirius went from #lookhowamantreatshisinferiors in book 4 to puking on Kreacher as a thematic change of character but I’m yikes-ing at the fact that Dumbledore is again taking this moment to needle Harry about Sirius. You know, the heroic guy who just died for no reason in his mid thirties after rotting in Azkaban.
My boy Harry springs back to rageful life at this smear on Sirius’s honor yet Dumbledore persists in defending Kreacher and AGAIN it’s not like Dumbledore is wrong, per se, but now is not the time! Dumbs then triples down and is like “ok now that I’ve told you Sirius brought upon his own death let’s talk some more how Snape is the best” and he’s super lucky Harry didn’t go full psychopath at this point, right? Dumbledore doesn’t show a lot of signs of human weakness until Harry reminds him people don’t like being locked up and I presume he thinks of his poor sister again and buries his face in his hands.
Dumblexposition commences again and we find out about Harry’s status as the Chosen One and how it could’ve been Neville but not really, and how Aunt P is kind of in on it and has reluctantly kept Harry alive all this time.
I’m being hard on Dumbledore here, since he’s basically giving Harry horrendous comfort about Sirius while also somehow blaming the victim and getting snippity about Snape’s honor or whatever while also revealing that he’s been hiding a sliiiiightly important secret from Harry, whom he made live with the garbage Dursley’s. But this chapter ends with one of my favorite underrated Dumbledore moments of all time.
“I feel I owe you another explanation Harry,” said Dumbledore hesitantly. “You may, perhaps, wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess…that I rather thought…you had enough responsibility to be going on with.”
Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore’s face into his long silver beard.”
And alright fine, you’ve won me back Albus of many names!
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What is your take on Harry’s reaction to Sirius’s death?
Does Dumbledore do a good job of comforting Harry in your opinion?
Should Dumbledore have told Harry earlier about his destiny? If so, when?
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