World's Greatest Predictions
| Leaving Privet Drive |
|---|
|
Harry is returning to Privet Drive one last time "because Dumbledore wanted me to" (HBP 30). What was Dumbledore thinking? Dumbledore knew the protective enchantment would expire on Harry's seventeenth birthday. Dumbledore also knew that Harry isn't the only one to benefit from that protection. The Dursleys themselves are in imminent danger. They cannot protect themselves from a wizard. They are at Harry's mercy. And an act of mercy— specifically, one of the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy— is exactly what we can expect from Harry. He's covered six of these Acts already:
As luck would have it, Harry owns a house that is protected by the Fidelius Charm: number twelve, Grimmauld Place. So to Grimmauld Place the Dursleys will go. The proof of this was discovered by Ann (a.k.a. Snitch2006), posting on Scribbulus: Dumbledore was the Secret-Keeper for the Order, and he quite deliberately revealed that secret to the Dursleys in HBP chapter three. |
|
Rowling said, magic almost always shows itself in a person before age 11; however, there is a character who... [performs] magic quite late in life"Late in life" is anything past the age of eleven. Dudley qualifies. Rowling is very good at introducing a type of magic and then using it later on. We've been introduced to Metamorphmagi with Tonks, but we've never seen another one. Here's a subtle clue pointing to Dudley: "Do that one like a pig snout, Tonks..."A more obvious clue is this: "Metamorphmagi are really rare, they're born, not made."It takes work to become an Animagus (or to master any other type of magic). So here is a magic ideally suited to the work-averse Dudley. In GoF 4, when the Weasleys came to Grimmauld Place, Dudley was "clutching his bottom" and Harry saw Dudley's hands "tighten still harder" over his backside. That shows us Dudley's reaction to a bad memory (getting a pig's tail from Hagrid): He clutches his hands over the affected area. When Dudley is supposed to be experiencing his worst memory (in the presence of Dementors; OotP 1), this is how he responds: Dudley was curled on the ground, his arms clamped over his face...So a likely candidate for his worst memory would be seeing his own face (in a mirror) changing its shape. |
| Under the Floorboards at #12 |
|---|
|
The mysterious "R.A.B." who stole the locket Horcrux was Sirius Black's baby brother, Regulus. At the Black family home, Harry and friends found "a heavy locket none of them could open" (OotP 6 pg 116). This is Slytherin's locket.
After they tossed it into a rubbish sack, Kreacher stole it: Several times, Kreacher sidled into the room and attempted to smuggle things away under his loincloth...Although Kreacher hid some small objects in his sleeping space underneath the boiler, the rest of his booty went underneath the floorboards in the bedroom Harry shared with Ron: "Kreacher," said Ron.... "First night I was here he came wandering in at three in the morning."The floorboards creak a lot in this spot (pg 66, pg 101) because of the hollow spot. And although Kreacher couldn't stow the locket while Ron and Harry were there, he had plenty of time once school started. When Harry returned to Grimmauld Place for Christmas break, he noticed (or rather, failed to notice) this overwhelming evidence: "It's not my own neck I'm saving," said Harry tersely, tugging the trunk over a patch of particularly uneven, moth-eaten carpet right in front of the door. |
The "magpielike" Kreacher didn't stop with the locket. Sirius's half of the two-way mirror has also gone missing:
Sirius didn't have his mirror on him when he went through the archwayWhen asked why Harry didn't use the mirror to check on Sirius, Rowling said, "The mirror might not have helped as much as you think," but she couldn't give the full answer because "it is relevant to books six and seven". But the mirror would have helped if Sirius had been carrying his half. And Sirius, being such a faithful godfather, would carry it all the time. Ergo, it must have been stolen. We already know who the Sirius-hating thief of Grimmauld Place is. Harry should find this other half of the two-way mirror under the floorboards. There's more. Kreacher is an opportunist, he shadows Sirius, and he's known to lurk near the fireplace. So if Sirius were making frequent Floo connections you can bet Kreacher would be nearby. For example: "I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared," [Sirius] said. "I've been checking every hour."Earlier that evening, Ron tore up Percy's letter and threw the scraps into the fireplace. So Kreacher's opportunity was to grab those scraps, after which they went underneath the floorboards with the rest of his treasures. That very, very long letter is important, and we'll learn why in a bit. |
