HP moment #8: "I'm with you."

The following is #9 in a series of blog posts counting down my ten favorite Harry Potter moments leading up to the release of Deathly Hallows, pt. 2. Look for a post every couple of days as we near mid-July.  

When Dumbledore takes Harry from the Dursley house at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince he makes a detour to recruit the old Potions master, Horace Slughorn. This unexpected stop opens the sixth book by introducing a nearly 16-year-old Harry who has yet to come into his own. The evidence of this Rowling gives in a subtle line that I missed upon my first read. It happens as Dumbledore reassures Harry that it is unlikely he will be attacked this night.

"Why not, sir?" [Harry responds]

"You are with me," said Dumbledore simply.

 Fast-forward to the climactic end of Half-Blood Prince and Rowling's subtle clues begin to unravel. Harry is about to leave with Dumbledore in search of the Horcrux: a search that takes him to the cave while his friends battle Draco and Co. back at Hogwarts. Before he leaves, he hands Hermione his Felix Felicis, saying "I'll be fine, I'll be with Dumbledore." He echoes the same assurance Dumbledore gave him.

It is a mark of Harry's character that he is able to trust so deeply after losing the greatest protectors in his life: his parents and Sirius. But this one great figure remains: Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore remains in Harry's life you get the sense that he will never realize what he is capable of becoming. The person who seems to understand this best is Dumbledore himself, who has been grooming Harry throughout the first six years at Hogwarts for a time when he'll no longer be there.

I didn't realize Dumbledore was going to die early on in the book. I didn't even realize when they were heading off to the cave or when he was surrounded by Inferi. But I had to put the book down when I came across an exchange that foreshadowed a blow that would turn the series upside down heading into the final book. The passage went like this:

"It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there....I can Apparate us both back....Don't worry...."

"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you."

Great writers know how to make a sea change so subtle that you might miss it if you aren't reading closely, and this is one of those moments. It's a new Harry, borne out of the loss of his last great father-figure. It's a Harry ready to make that final walk in Deathly Hallows.