HARRY POTTER
All
the students were zoning out, snoozing in their history class as Professor
Binns went on about something – the Second Wizarding War. Whatever that was.
“Harry Potter was born on July 31
1980—“ Gasps from the classroom interrupted the lesson. From lounging and heads
laying on books, to every back straight and all eyes wide. Urgent whispers and short outbursts like
“finally something interesting!” were zooming around the room as if somebody
was making paper airplanes fly across to friends. “Excuse me, well excuse me
you… you there! Quiet down! This is a classroom not a circus!”
It wasn’t very often that Professor
Binns acknowledged the class. In fact nothing really had changed in the history
classroom of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. Professor Binns started his classes by coming
through the blackboard, and droned on and on about everything without so much
as noticing whether there was a group of students in his seats or not. But this particular class of first years had
been anxiously awaiting to hear about Harry Potter since school started, some
even before then if they had older siblings or extended family who liked to
talk about the Boy Who Lived and the Chosen One to learn about the famous Harry
Potter. They were just young enough to have missed any opportunity to see Harry
Potter speak about the Defense Against the Dark Arts but old enough to have
family who had shaken Harry’s wrinkled of old aged hand. It had been years since he died, living to be
102, but the glamour of his name was far from distinguishing.
“As I was saying, Harry Potter was
born July 31, 1980 to Lily and James Potter.
Neville Longbottom was born the same day, and so there were two children
who matched the description of the prochecy. But—“
“What prophecy?!” exclaimed a
student with the colors of slytherin on his ruffled tie, sitting near the back
of the room.
“Well Mr. … uh young man, if you’d
been listening, you would know that it was the Seer Sybill Trelawney’s prophecy
that stated "The
one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who
have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord
will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...
and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the
other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born
as the seventh month dies [...]” and it continued on but that is all the
death eater told Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort in 1979 when it was prophesized.
Moving forward, on October 31, 1981, Voldemort attempted
to end the prophecy by killing Harry Potter.
He instead made the prophecy truth by marking Potter as his equal, by
attempting to kill him with the Avada Kedavra curse; Potter is the only known
wizard to survive this curse. We now
know the reason Potter survived was because of the power in the magic Lily
Potter left on her son, sacrificing herself for him. Potter was also turned into a living horcrux;
an 8th of Voldemort’s soul rested in Potter until the night of the
Battle of Hogwarts and the end of the second Wizarding war.”
A girl sitting toward the front whispered to her friend, “what the bloody
hell’s a horcrux,” and in other circumstances, students may have snickered, but
they all wanted to know the answer so badly they just looked to Professor Binns
for an answer.
“That is a question for your Defense Against the Dark
Arts professor. I only deal with the history. As I was saying….” And so it went.
