Facing the hesitant Dumbledore, Sherlock decided to push harder.
"You just said we're thirteen now, your excuses have run out. In fact, in one more month, Harry will be fourteen."
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, then tapped the desk with his wand.
"I'm afraid I must ask you all to leave for a while."
In Harry's memory, asking the portraits of former headmasters to leave was something Dumbledore hadn't done in a long time. But he was doing it now.
This showed the severity of the situation. Even more serious than Trelawney's prophecy itself.
After the portraits left with disgruntled murmurs, Harry couldn't help but immediately ask.
"Sherlock, Professor Dumbledore, what exactly are you going to say?"
"Harry, I thought you would have figured it out by now."
Sherlock's gray eyes looked at Harry, speaking word by word.
"Severus Snape. He was the one who eavesdropped on the conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor Trelawney, and told Voldemort the first half of the prophecy."
When Peter was publicly tried, he had pointed the finger at Severus Snape as a Death Eater to escape the Dementor's Kiss.
However, Dumbledore pointed out that Snape had indeed been a Death Eater, but had turned to the side of justice before Voldemort's downfall.
Dumbledore's testimony was very powerful, and everyone believed him. But as to why he turned to justice, Dumbledore hadn't disclosed.
People seemed uninterested in this point anyway. It was just justice, justice, justice.
Sherlock had deduced early on that Snape loved Harry's mother Lily and was James's romantic rival. Snape had always harbored tremendous guilt over Lily's death.
Initially, Sherlock thought Snape's guilt came from failing to save Lily in time, just like Sirius Black.
But as time passed and more events unfolded, plus deeper investigation into Snape himself, Sherlock gradually discovered that the matter wasn't so simple.
Until today, Sherlock finally deduced the full picture.
Snape indeed felt guilty about not saving Lily in time. But what made him even more guilty was that he had personally pushed the woman he loved most in his life toward the abyss of death.
The eavesdropper Dumbledore mentioned was Snape, still a Death Eater at the time.
He heard this half-prophecy and told it to Voldemort. But he never imagined that Voldemort would consider Harry Potter to be the boy the prophecy referred to. Not only that, but he intended to kill the infant Harry.
Learning the truth, Snape immediately regretted it. Even after becoming a Death Eater, Snape's love for Lily had never changed. But his act of informing had put Lily in danger.
Realizing this, Snape immediately begged Voldemort to spare Lily.
Sherlock deduced that Voldemort actually agreed to spare Lily at the time.
It made sense—Snape was exceptionally capable among the Death Eaters, someone Voldemort deeply trusted. Having personally killed hundreds; Voldemort didn't mind doing this small favor for his subordinate.
But even so, Snape felt it wasn't enough. Far from enough!
Because Snape understood Voldemort very well. He knew this was someone who might go back on his word on a whim.
Snape understood Lily even better than Voldemort. He knew that even with her last breath, she would protect her son from harm.
So even though Voldemort agreed to spare Lily, he still sought out Dumbledore, the only person Voldemort feared at the time, hoping he would also protect Lily.
Dumbledore naturally wouldn't pass up such an opportunity. Moreover, Harry's father was already a member of the Order of the Phoenix, so protecting them was already his duty.
So, he seized this opportunity to require Severus to serve him, making him a spy among the Death Eaters.
Calling him calculating, even cunning, wouldn't be an exaggeration.
For Lily, Snape was willing to do anything. He not only unhesitatingly betrayed his master Voldemort, but even accepted Dumbledore's condition to protect Lily's husband and child as well, that child of his rival.
Over the following period, Snape passed much information to the Order of the Phoenix. So, Dumbledore hadn't given false testimony at the public trial. Snape had indeed defected before Voldemort's downfall.
He even provided critical intelligence that there was a traitor in the Order of the Phoenix.
Unfortunately, although Voldemort trusted Snape, he hadn't told him who the traitor was.
This information actually led Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall to suspect many people, including Sirius of the Black family and the werewolf Remus Lupin.
But neither Dumbledore, leader of the Order of the Phoenix, nor Snape, the Death Eater he'd developed as a spy, imagined that the spy hidden in the Order would be the unremarkable Peter Pettigrew.
They never imagined that James and Lily would switch their Secret-Keeper from Sirius to Peter at the last moment.
Several coincidences piled up, and tragedy occurred, needless to say.
Although Dumbledore did everything to protect the Potter family, Voldemort still got intelligence from Peter, came to Godric's Hollow, and found the Potters.
Sherlock had previously felt there were inconsistencies in the fragments of dialogue between his mother and Voldemort that Harry heard when encountering Dementors.
Voldemort killed James immediately—this could be explained by the vast difference in their strength, James not having time to get his wand, and not expecting betrayal by Peter.
But from Harry's description of the fragments before his mother's death, it was clear that Voldemort repeatedly demanded Lily move aside when she blocked his path, and did not kill her immediately.
It must be said, Snape's judgment of both Voldemort and Lily was spot-on.
Although Voldemort promised Snape to spare Lily, when Lily determined to protect Harry, he ultimately struck her down. Lily would rather give up her own life than protect her son.
The result was that this brief struggle gave Lily the chance to protect Harry with her life. And when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the curse rebounded, creating Harry, the Boy Who Lived.
What followed was easier to deduce.
After Lily's death, Snape became extremely despondent.
Ten years later, when he saw Harry again and saw his eyes identical to his mother Lily's, his emotions erupted.
That's why in the first Potions class when he saw Harry, he used the language of flowers to express what had been buried in his heart all along.
After hearing Sherlock complete his deduction of the entire matter, Dumbledore was silent for a long time before speaking. "Sherlock, you really are—"
He paused, as if choosing his words carefully.
"You remind me of an old friend."
"Nicolas Flamel?"
"No, not him—"
"Then who?"
Sherlock's interest was immediately piqued. This old man who'd lived over a hundred years certainly had many old friends!
Someone who came to mind when seeing him would certainly be very interesting.
"Let's not discuss that—your deduction about the entire matter is correct, except for one tiny issue."
"Oh? Let's hear it!"
Although he knew Dumbledore was changing the subject, it didn't matter. Sherlock was equally interested in the shortcomings of his reasoning. As for this old friend, there would be plenty of time to search later.
"After Harry's mother Lily died, Severus's despondency exceeded even your imagination. He once wanted to leave this world."
"Suicide?"
Sherlock raised an eyebrow. This was truly something he hadn't deduced.
"Yes, but I told him he couldn't die."
Sherlock felt somewhat speechless. "You used Harry to prevent his death?"
"Yes, I told him that if he truly loved Lily, he should protect her child. I imagine countless people have told you, Harry, that you look very much like your father. But your eyes are exactly like your mother's.
Voldemort didn't die; he could return at any time, so he needed to protect Harry from harm by Voldemort and those Death Eaters loyal to him. Later, Severus came to the school and became the Potions professor and Head of Slytherin House.
Harry, never be wary of Professor Snape. In this world, he's absolutely the person who least wants to see anything happen to you. In a sense, he values your life even more than I do."
Harry: "...."
"Also, I promised Severus I wouldn't tell anyone about this."
"Understood, we won't tell Hermione and Ron."
Seeing Harry still in a state of shock, Sherlock spoke up.
Dumbledore nodded, then became gradually more serious.
"I hope that after today, when you face Severus, you can pretend not to know about this."
"No problem." Again it was Sherlock answering.
"Now let's talk about Sybill's second prophecy. Sherlock, what do you think?"
Sherlock shook his head.
"Even without that prophecy, some things can be deduced. Voldemort will return—this is obvious. We've already dealt with him personally and his Horcruxes, and he has more than one Horcrux.
His power will become even stronger—this is also beyond doubt. If he couldn't do this, he wouldn't deserve to be called the Dark Lord.
Only this so-called loyal servant and helper is worth noting, but—"
Sherlock looked at Dumbledore, his gaze carrying a trace of doubt.
"Professor Dumbledore, do you really believe in prophecies that much?"
"This is a genuine prophecy, different from Sybill's usual mad, pretentious statements."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Dumbledore said seriously.
"What evidence is there?"
Sherlock said with a skeptical look. "That Voldemort is still alive doesn't necessarily mean her prophecy will come true, does it?"
"In the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, there's a room that's always locked. We passed it when we went for the hearing. Inside is stored a power, a power more wonderful and more terrible than death, human intelligence, or the forces of nature.
It's probably the most mysterious of all the subjects studied there. The power kept in that room, Harry possesses in abundance, while Voldemort has none. And this is precisely what the prophecy pointed out."
I see.
Sherlock had felt Dumbledore trusted that prophecy too much. Now it seemed there was indeed no smoke without fire.
Just then, Harry, who hadn't spoken, suddenly looked up.
"Professor Dumbledore, the end of the prophecy—it seems to be about... two people can't both live, 'only one can survive.'"
Dumbledore looked at Harry, saying gently. In his heart, he still felt it was too early to tell Harry this.
"So that means—"
Harry said slowly, trying to dig words out of the well-like despair in his heart.
"In the end, one of us must kill the other?"
Dumbledore nodded, saying in the gentlest tone possible. "Yes."
The office fell silent again.
After a moment, Dumbledore spoke.
"Sherlock, do you think the servant mentioned in the prophecy could be Peter?"
"After a person's soul is sucked out by a Dementor, can it possibly recover?"
"Impossible." Dumbledore said definitively.
"In that case, I do have one line of thought."
If it were before, Sherlock would certainly have scoffed at prophecies. Even after coming to the magical world, after witnessing Professor Trelawney's unreliable prophecies, this view had only solidified.
But Dumbledore pointed out that Sybill Trelawney had made two genuine prophecies and firmly believed in this. In this situation, Sherlock naturally wouldn't stubbornly insist it was impossible.
As Mycroft had once reminded him: make bold hypotheses, verify carefully.
"His most loyal servant has been chained for these twelve years—this sounds like Peter, but it's not the only possibility. Professor Dumbledore, I remember you once said that some of the Death Eaters remained loyal to Voldemort, even after his downfall."
"Yes, like Sirius's sister Bellatrix. Until the moment she was sent to Azkaban, she firmly believed Voldemort would return."
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