Prophetic Interpretations [Harry Potter][Snippets]

Wrote these for a thread over on SB, '[Harry Potter] Bad Harry Potter Fanfiction Tropes: The Revengeance', and I thought they turned out pretty well, so Imma share with you pack of degenarates Questors

Prophetic Interpretations 1 [CONTENT WARNING]

"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..."

Harry stared at Dumbledore in paralysed horror, the shadows in the Headmaster's study appearing more ominous by the second in the flickering candlelight.

"Why?" croaked Harry, barely holding on to sanity and consciousness both,

"Magic is both wonderous and-" Dumbledore began to lecture but was cut off,

"WHY HAVEN'T YOU KILLED HIM YOU BASTARD!" Screamed Harry, throat tearing from the sheer force.

Dumbledore was rendered speechless, did Harry not understand that it was not in his power to-

"If you couldn't have killed him," Harry was barely able to choke out the words "why didn't you kill me?" A bitter tear rolled down his face.

"My Boy-" Dumbledore sputtered out, more shocked and confused than any other time in his life.

"No, I'm not your boy, I never was, just someone to suffer for your amusement, why else would you have done nothing? It's been almost two decades and the glorious Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian bleeding Dumbledore, the Merlin-Dammed OTHER, has left his prophesised destiny UNFUFILLED!"

Harry, seemingly towering over the Headmaster in his rage, slammed his hands on the desk as he shot to his feet

"At any time, ANY TIME AT ALL you could have killed me and the prophecy would have been complete, but no, I have to SUFFER for you, you twisted bastard, don't I? And for what? Even if you couldn't bring yourself to kill a baby, you could have just given me a merciful end with an overdose of Dreamless Sleep once I was at Hogwarts. How long are you going to force this to go on for? Oh, oh no, you... your not going to kill either of us, are you? Just force me to suffer for eternity as the prophesy keeps all three of us immortal? Oh please no..."

With his enraged rant having petered out into such a grim conclusion, harry collapsed back into the chair, clutching his face and beginning to weep.

The sight of one of his students (a favourite, even if he shouldn't show bias) breaking so utterly before him finally brought Dumbledore out of his shock. Harry was right, how did he never see it before? He had thought the prophecy had only two parties, the 'Dark Lord' and the 'Vanquisher', but clearly the 'Other' was the final member of the triad, and...

"Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives..." muttered Dumbledore, unseeing eyes darting back and forth as his mind churned, there could be no doubt, not only was Dumbledore the only wizard who could duel Tom to a stand-still, the prophecy had been spoken in it's entirety to him and only him. Harry was no more capable of killing Tom than anyone or anything else (so long as Dumbledore was alive), so all the effort to shape him into both his weapon and his successor through trial and suffering was not only worthless, but was compelled by the function of the prophesy!

Harrys ability to 'live' was shackled to Toms, and Tom had led a wretched existence indeed since Godric's Hollow. It was so clear now, as Tom re-gathered his power, Harry's life became better, Tom gains possession of a willing wizard, Harry enters the magical world. Tom is foiled and kept from the stone, Harry is sent to the infirmary and then back to his 'family', and when Harry and his friends had denied Tom the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, their most piercing blow to Tom yet, well, Sirius' absence had balanced the scales, permanently.

And the whole time, the whole entire time, he, Dumbledore, had been able to kill Tom, The Dark Lord Voldemort.

Dumbledore's train of thought was interrupted once again by the young wizard across from him,
"Please," Harry implored, voice broken and weak, "Please just, just take my mind. J-just shut it off, I, it hurts so much, just make it stop and seal my body away in some hidden room" Harry begged, tears pouring down his face, "I don't, don't have to be conscious for the prophecy... I, please, if there is any good in you at all, let my suffering end"

Dumbledore stared at Harry, that the boy would be so sure that Dumbledore was keeping Tom alive to live forever, that he was torturing Harry for his own amusement, and that Harry had suffered so much he was begging for...

"Harry" Dumbledore whispered, "That won't be necessary"

Harry slumped back into the chair, there was nothing he could do, he couldn't stop Tom and he couldn't stop Dumbledore, there was nothing but an endless litany of horror and pain ahead of him.

Dumbledore rose to his feat, "Fawkes" he commanded, and with a last look at the ruins of Harry Potter, he flamed out of the Headmaster's office.

There was a prophecy to fulfil.

 

Prophetic Interpretations 2

"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..."

Harry stared blankly at Dumbledore, which caused the Headmaster some concern, was hearing the prophecy too much for the boy?

"That's nice and all, Professor," Harry began with a questioning lilt, cocking his head to the side, "But I don't see how this is in any way relevant"

"It, it means, my dear boy, that only you of all possible things could kill Tom Riddle, and that the reverse is also true" Dumbledore sombrely replied, it was a tremendous weight for a child to have to bare but there just wasn't enough time.

"Ah, No." replied Harry, "It clearly states that I have the power to 'Vanquish', and I've done that on several occasions now, and both of us were hit with the killing curse when I was a baby, Voldemort got hit with it even after I got my scar, so the prophecy has been fulfilled for more than a decade now."

Dumbledore's mouth opened and closed several times before he managed a response, "But you Harry, you have the power the Dark Lord knows not"

Rolling his eyes, Harry replied with an air of exaggerated patience, "I'd say the reflecting the killing curse off of my face is something that Voldemort didn't know about until it happened, and even if it the prophecy wasn't referring to that, which it most defiantly is due to the word 'but' existing where it does, than being able to fight off a direct possession by the darkest, most powerful wizard alive was certainly not something Voldemort saw coming" Harry chuckled to himself, wording it like that it did sound pretty impressive.

Dumbledore was in turmoil, he had done such terrible things in the name of forging Harry into the weapon to strike down Voldemort because of the prophecy, could it have been in vain?

"No" muttered Dumbledore, he could not be wrong on this, he could not be responsible of the rise of a third dark lord.
"No" Dumbledore repeated, steel in his voice and his spine and his mind.

"Well ok then" Glibly replied Harry, "I suppose I'll either end up killing the bastard or something else will, and even if he gets me first ill be back again in July anyway."

"Back? Harry what do you mean?" Dumbledore was again thrown for a loop by the unexpected response.

"Well, the thing about the prophecy is that it's in chronological order. I was born, to my parents, got marked, killed the Dark Lord, and lived. So the last line, 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...' can only mean that if I get killed by Voldemort (the only way I can die) then I just get born again, either to my own parents again, so magical resurrection of the potters or time travel or some such, or to some other couple who have defied the Dark Lord three times, which might take a few years if there aren't any living candidates." explained Harry, grin widening at the possibility of having family again.

"So there you have it, Headmaster, either the prophecy concluded years ago, or I'm gonna get killed by Voldemort and see either the future or the past" concluded Harry, honestly feeling much better now, knowing that either Voldemort was someone else's problem, or that he'd be up a set of parents.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, pensive. Where did he go from here? Setting Harry up to sacrifice himself to Voldemort wouldn't work if Harry would just be reborn, and he'd put Harry through to much for him not to have the potential to turn Dark should he train him to triumph over Tom, or even if he didn't!

"Well if that's all Headmaster, I'd best be getting to bed" said Harry as he left the Headmasters office, leaving the Headmaster to spiral into recriminations and self-doubt.

 

Prophetic Interpretations 3

"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..."

"I've got to admit, Headmaster" said Harry, genuinely impressed, "It takes some huge brass ones to just admit to being a Dark Lord"

"WHAT!" Roared Dumbledore, caught completely off guard

"Well, it's pretty clear that the prophecy is about you and me, Professor" Harry began to explain, cowed by the sudden outburst from a dark lord
"I mean, you put a tremendous amount of effort to put me in outright deadly situations, and unless you've been doing that to loads of people, than that would imply that I am your biggest threat, thus, equal" Harry nodded to himself, dozens of little details about his past lining up under this new information.

"Harry I have never put you in danger" Dumbledore beseeched, all control of the situation lost.

Harry levelled an unimpressed frown at the Headmaster, "Never put me in danger? Are you..., do you think I'm an idiot? Even if we ignore everything about my life in the muggle world, I've been in life or death situations every single year since I came to your school, and you could have prevented every single one! The only way you could have put me in more danger would be if you caused Voldemort as well!" Harry finished his exclamation with a huff, annoyed at the sheer condescension of the man.

Dumbledore flinched just so as he processed Harry's last sentence, and it did not go unnoticed.

"Oh, sweet, Merlin, YOU CAUSED VOLDEMORT!" Harry exploded, "What the actual fuck Dumbledore! That's god-damned insane! Please, please tell me that was the last surprise of the evening, tell me that you haven't done anything else on such a level of madness" Harry asked, only for Dumbledore to flinch a second time.

"You've got to be kidding me at this point Dumbledore! What did you do that was as bad as Volde..." Harry trailed off and then violently twitched.

"You caused Grindelwald as well, didn't you? Is that what the train-wreck of my life has been for? You've just been trying to make me into a third Dark Lord! Is it any wonder that MAGIC ITSELF has spawned a full-blown prophecy to force an end to your bullshit!" sagging back in his chair as his breath finally ran out, Harry rubbed his eyes with one hand while vaguely gesturing at Dumbledore with his other hand.

Dumbledore was at a loss for words, aside from Harry's increasingly hysterical outbursts, had he actually said anything incorrect? He knew when he placed Harry with his last remaining blood relatives that they were not the... best of people, and Harry had indeed been through quite the series of increasingly perilous adventures that he theoretically could have prevented, but he was just so busy holding back the traditionalists in the Wizengamot and holding back the wider magical world from interfering with Great Britain... and well, he did blame himself for both Gellert and Tom, could, could he really be the Dark Lord of the prophecy?

"You know, Headmaster, sometimes I really detest magic." Harry complained, flippant in the face of such a surreal situation "Here I sit, across from a wizard I am prophesized to kill (or die to), and that wizard is the root cause of three wars, including World War fucking Two, which would mean you have the highest death toll of anyone who has ever lived. And I am a school boy. That hardly seems fair as far as I can tell"

Dumbledore absently nodded in response, not paying full attention as he thought desperately of a way to object to what Harry was saying.

"Your Parents!" Burst out Dumbledore, "They fought against Tom not me, so-"

"My parents," interrupted Harry, extremely irritated at the reminder from the cause of their deaths "Specifically my father, by all accounts amassed far more than three detentions for breaking school rules set by you, the Headmaster, and I would bet Galleons to Knuts that at least three of those came after you deliberately asked him to behave." ground out Harry, eye twitching.

"But-, but I know you threw Voldemort out of your mind with the power of love! Something he lacks any understanding of! I cannot be the Dark Lord!" Gasped out Dumbledore desperately.

Harry closed his eyes and rose to his feet, with a sigh he walked to the door, and as he left the room, he looked into the wild eyes of his Headmaster, and simply said "Do you know how I survived the killing curse as an infant?" and closed the door, sealing the Headmaster, the Dark Lord of the prophecy, in his empty office in the highest tower of Hogwarts castle.

Alone with only an open window for company.