“Wait, I see,” said Harry. “Wait a mont.”
He sat up straighter in his chair, staring at Dumbledore.
“Last sumr, it was you who sent that Howler. You told Aunt Petunia to rember — it was your voice —”
“Well, I thought,” said Dumbledore, inclining his head slightly, “that she might need reminding of the pact she had sealed by taking you. I suspected the Dentor attack might have awoken her to the dangers of having you as a surrogate son.”
“It did,” Harry muttered. “Well — my uncle more than her. They wanted to chuck out, but after the Howler ca she — she said I had to stay.”
“Yes, you had to stay there. After your mother’s sister took you in, you spent a safe childhood in that ho,” Dumbledore continued. “Five years ago, you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.
“And then … well, you will rember the events of your first year at Hogwarts quite as clearly as I do. Oh, at that ti, Evan had not yet entered school and history had not been changed, but Voldemort had already begun trying to regain his power. Harry, you found yourself confronting him face-to-face, you and your friends fought back valiantly. You perford remarkably well, much sooner than I had anticipated. You survived again. You did more. You delayed his return to full power and strength. You fought a man’s fight. I was … prouder of you than I can say.
“Yet there was a flaw in this wonderful plan of mine,” said Dumbledore. “An obvious flaw that I knew, even then, might be the undoing of it all. And yet, knowing how important it was that my plan should succeed, I told myself that I would not permit this flaw to ruin it. I alone could prevent this, so I alone must be strong. And here was my first test, as you lay in the hospital wing, weak from your struggle with Voldemort.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” said Harry.
“Don’t you rember asking , as you lay in the hospital wing, why Voldemort had tried to kill you when you were a baby? Ought I to have told you then?”
Harry stared into the blue eyes and said nothing, but his heart was racing again.
Evan also stared at Dumbledore. The ti was ripe. He was obviously ready to tell everything about his entire plan.
Next, it was ti for him to co on stage.
“You do not see the flaw in the plan yet? Well, as you know, I decided not to answer you. Eleven, I told myself, was much too young to know. I had never intended to tell you when you were eleven. The knowledge would be too much at such a young age.
“I should have recognized the danger signs then. I should have asked myself why I did not feel more disturbed that you had already asked the question to which I knew, one day, I must give a terrible answer. I should have recognized that I was too happy to think that I did not have to do it on that particular day… You were too young, much too young, and we had plenty of ti. Later, the facts proved that my thought was too optimistic.
“And so we entered your second year at Hogwarts,” said Dumbledore. “This year, my plan experienced so disruptions. Evan ca to Hogwarts. He was a child from a Muggle family, but he was much better than I thought. He was very talented. To be honest, he was like Riddle back then. His arrival brought so changes, such as taking you away from your aunt and uncle’s house, but overall there were not many changes. Things were still going according to plan.
“You two, of course, along with Hermione and Ron t challenges within the school even grown wizards have never faced. Once again you acquitted yourself beyond my wildest dreams. And to my astonishnt, Evan found the relic of Ravenclaw, the powerful Ti-Turner. He returned to Hogwarts a thousand years ago, and that was the first significant deviation from the plan.”
Indeed, no one could have anticipated that for centuries, Evan would be the first person to follow the Basilisk through the school’s pipes.
“Evan, do you rember the conversation I had with you then? Right here in this office. I just heard the story you told . It was generally accurate, but there was no doubt that you concealed so information,” said Dumbledore. “Please forgive ; I was wary of both you and your story. We must be cautious about gifted wizards; history and countless past experiences have proved that uncontrolled power brings only disasters. Since then, I have paid special attention to what you do. Undoubtedly, you were an unexpected variable in my original plan, and I even seriously considered whether to erase this variable. “
Dumbledore said these terrifying words with such calm…
Fortunately, Evan was low-key enough at the ti, and was also cautious enough towards Dumbledore, not doing anything too extre, and always trying to help Harry and Sirius. If he had been a little lax, who knew what the current situation would be like.
“At the end of that conversation, I asked you, no matter the circumstances or unexpected events, would you always stand by Harry? Evan, do you rember how you answered then?”
“Harry is my friend, I will definitely help him,” Evan recalled and continued, “Whether facing Voldemort or any other danger, I will stand by him.”
He was too impressed by this question, his answer, and the scene at the ti.
Evan rembered that when he walked out of Dumbledore’s office, his back was full of cold sweat, and he deeply felt the horror of Dumbledore.
It was a feeling of being exposed and there was no secret at all. This was also the main reason why he had to learn Occluncy.
“That was your answer. You, like Riddle, have extraordinary magical talents, but you are different from him. You have family and friends, you know what love is, and your relationship with Harry made decide to observe you for a while, until I believed you were capable enough to take over for and bring the plan back on track if any deviations occurred. Your strength is not yet sufficient, but given enough ti, you can replace . Moreover, the whole plan has already changed significantly…”
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