Change the Future

HBP 16

Harry shouted the password at the gargoyle and ran up the moving spiral staircase three steps at a time. He did not knock upon Dumbledore’s door, he hammered; and the calm voice answered.

“Enter” after Harry had already flung himself into the room. Dumbledore was standing at the window looking out at the
grounds, a long, black traveling cloak in his arms. “Well, Harry, I promised that you could come with me.”

“Come with you?”

“Only if you wish it, of course.”
“If I. You’ve found one? You’ve found a Horcrux?”

“I believe so.” For several moments, Harry could not speak. “It is natural to be afraid,” said Dumbledore.

“I’m not scared!” Harry said at once. “Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?”

“I am not sure which it is though I think we can rule out the snake but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time, the cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorized two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?”

“Yes,” Harry said. “How is it protected?”

“I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong.” Dumbledore hesitated, then said, “Harry, I promised you that you
could come with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly
dangerous.”

“I’m coming,” Harry said, almost before Dumbledore had finished speaking. Dumbledore moved away from the window and looked more closely at Harry, a slight crease between his silver eyebrows.

“What has happened to you?”

“Nothing,” lied Harry promptly.

“What has upset you?”

“I’m not upset.”
“Harry, you were never a good Occlumens ” The word was the spark that ignited Harry’s fury.

“Snape!” he said, very loudly, and Fawkes gave a soft squawk behind them. “Snape’s what’s happened! He told Voldemort about
the prophecy, it was him, he listened outside the door, Trelawney told me!” Dumbledore’s expression did not change, but Harry thought his face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Dumbledore said nothing.

“When did you find out about this?” he asked at last.

“Just now!” Harry said, who was refraining from yelling with enormous difficulty. And then, suddenly, he could not stop himself. “AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MUM AND DAD!” Breathing hard as though he was fighting, Harry turned away from Dumbledore, who still had not moved a muscle, and paced up and down the study, rubbing his knuckles.

"Rory and Harry both reacted so differently" Peter says looking between them.

"Harry has anger issues" Rory says as Harry nods.

“Harry,” Dumbledore said quietly. “Please listen to me.” Harry paused, biting his lip, and looked into Dumbledore’s lined face.
“Professor Snape made a terrible”

“Don’t tell me it was a mistake, sir, he was listening at the door!”

“Please let me finish.” Dumbledore waited until Harry had nodded curtly, then went on. “Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort’s employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney’s prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most
deeply. But he did not know he had no possible way of knowing which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onward, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father” Harry let out a yell of mirthless laughter.