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"I made guesses, fifteen years ago, when I saw the scar upon your forehead, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort. It became apparent, shortly after you rejoined the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scar was giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you, or else feeling powerful emotion."
"I know this, sir," said Heri warily. She didn't like thinking back to the time she had no choice but to take a human life. The pain in her head that she now knew came from proximity to Voldemort was beyond any she had ever known before.
"And this ability of yours — to detect Voldemort's presence, even when he is disguised, and to know what he is feeling when his emotions are roused — has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and his full powers."
Heri only nodded, not looking at Sirius or Remus as they sent increasingly concerned expressions toward her.
Professor Dumbledore stared into his teacup as if he was checking for omens, then he looked back at Heri and said, "Five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, safe and whole as I had planned and intended. Well — not quite whole. You had suffered. I could see that despite how well you were getting along. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle's doorstep. I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years."
He paused. Heri said nothing.
"You might ask — and with good reason — why it had to be so. Why could some wizarding family not have taken you in? Many would have done so more than gladly, would have been honoured and delighted to raise you as their own child.
"My answer is that my priority was to keep you alive. With Sirius and this house not an option, you were in more danger than perhaps anyone realised. Voldemort had been vanquished hours before, but his supporters — and many of them are almost as vicious as he — were still at large, angry, desperate, and violent. And I had to make my decision too with regard to the years ahead. Did I believe that Voldemort was gone forever? No. I knew not whether it would be ten, twenty, or fifty years before he returned, but I was sure he would do so, and I was sure too, knowing him as I have done, that he would not rest until he killed you.
"I knew that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is perhaps more extensive than any wizard alive. I knew that even my most complex and powerful protective spells and charms were unlikely to be invincible if he ever returned to full power.
"But I knew too where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always underestimated — to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows through your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative."
"She doesn't love me at all, sir," said Heri at once. "She's never cared beyond how the neighbours—"
"But she took you," Professor Dumbledore cut across her. "She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the enchantment I placed upon you. Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you."
"I still don't—"
"While you could still call home the place where your mother's blood dwelt, there you couldn't be touched or harmed by Voldemort . He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You needed return there only once a year, but as long as you still called it home, there he couldn't hurt you. Your aunt knew this. I explained what I had done in the letter I left, with you, on her doorstep. She knew that allowing you to live there may well have kept you alive for all the years you were there."
"Five years ago, then, you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well-nourished as I would have liked, yet alive and stable. You were as normal a child as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.
"And then . . . well, you will surely remember the events of your first year at Hogwarts quite as clearly as I do. You rose magnificently to the challenge that faced you, and sooner — much sooner — than I had anticipated, you found yourself face-to-face with Voldemort. You survived again. You did even more than that, you delayed his return to full power and strength. You fought a soldier's fight and came back unconquered. I was . . . prouder of you than I can say.
"Yet there was a flaw in this wonderful plan of mine," said Professor 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 could prevent this, so I must be strong. And here was my first test, as you lay in the Hospital Wing, weak from your struggle with Voldemort."
"Sir?" said Heri, confused. She had been told that the Headmaster had brought her to the Hospital Wing that time, but he had not been there when she woke up. "I don't understand what you're saying."
"Would you not have asked me then why Voldemort had tried to kill you when you were a baby?"
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