How Dumbledore Knew Harry Potter Would Survive

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Key points

  • Harry Potter has always been a lucky character, but when it came to facing Voldemort, there was so much more.
  • For some time Dumbledore's plan was known only to himself, as he knew that the best way to defeat Voldemort was to bind him to Harry.
  • But because of Dumbledore's choices, he risked appearing as an enemy to many fans.

Harry Potter's propensity for surviving against all odds became his identity, earning him the nickname The Boy Who Lived. However, this was not the only time Harry survived Voldemort's Killing Curse: Harry survived the second Avada Kedavra in the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowss was the most crucial of all. He approached the Dark Lord, alone and helpless, when he discovered that he was an inadvertent Horcrux that needed to be eradicated, just like the others. Harry expected to die, just as Snape's memories had shown him, but he still survived, albeit after a trip to King's Cross station in his mind, where he met Dumbledore.


Before this, Harry had not realized that he would have to sacrifice himself to foil Voldemort. He was aware of the dangers of the path he had taken and that there was a possibility of his death in a duel, but he was shocked to learn that there was a particular moment when he had to submit to You-Know-Who so that the Horcrux within him could be destroyed without fail, and take Harry's life with it. However, Voldemort had made a fatal mistake in his attempt to compete with Harry in the past, and Dumbledore had noticed this before, as he was attuned to the nuances of magic. What seemed like a road map to Harry's demise was not: Dumbledore had known years before the event that Harry would survive his battle with Voldemort, without fail.


It seemed that Dumbledore had raised Harry like a pig for slaughter.


“Did you keep him alive so he could die at the right time?”

“Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you seen die?”

“Lately, only the ones I couldn't save,” Snape said. He stood up. “You used me.”

“I spied for you and lied for you, I put myself in mortal danger for you. It all had to be done to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you raised him like a pig for slaughter–”

“But this is touching, Severus,” said Dumbledore seriously. “Have you learned to love the boy, after all?”

There is much debate over whether the Hogwarts Headmaster loved Harry, but many fans have held a grudge against Dumbledore for his role in Harry's journey. For starters, Dumbledore's leaving young Harry with the cruel, anti-wizard Dursleys turned many fans against him. They felt that Dumbledore was complicit in the young Harry's mistreatment, as he was the one who left him with Petunia, knowing how bitter she was about not going to Hogwarts like her sister, Lily. However, there was a valid explanation for this: Dumbledore wanted Harry to live with blood relatives so that Lily's protection would remain intact and protect Harry before he was old enough to join Hogwarts and become a powerful wizard.


Secondly, Dumbledore's secrecy about his plan to overthrow Voldemort, with Harry's help, made him appear as a villain. Although it is unclear, it can be assumed that Dumbledore had some idea what Horcruxes were since he discovered Tom Riddle's diary after the events of The Chamber of Secrets. He slowly did more research on them and confirmed his suspicions as they The Half-Blood Prince rolled. Dumbledore may not have known the exact number of Horcruxes to be destroyed, but he was aware that there were several after finding Marvolo Gaunt's ring. Despite knowing the true nature of Voldemort's evil, Dumbledore kept it a secret from Harry but continued to send him on missions or fight blindly against Voldemort's attacks. Harry trusted Dumbledore implicitly, which is why he should have at least known the truth, so that he could be prepared for the worst. If Harry was too young to be informed in his first or second year at Hogwarts, he had seen enough of the Wizarding World to have been privy to Dumbledore's information by at least his sixth year, when Dumbledore was certain of Voldemort's use of dark magic to remain immortal. When Dumbledore revealed the truth to Snape, the former Potions Master, who disliked Harry, was also hurt that Dumbledore had a plan all along for Harry to sacrifice himself at a particular moment.


Dumbledore knew Harry would survive the Goblet of Fire years ago

“For a fleeting moment, Harry thought he saw a glimmer of something akin to triumph in Dumbledore's eyes. But a moment later, Harry was sure he had imagined it, because when Dumbledore returned to his place behind his desk, he looked older and more tired than Harry had ever seen him.”


Albus Dumbledore was a flawed man who had had some unpleasant interactions with power and morality in the past. That said, he was not inhuman. While he may have made it seem like he was leading young Harry to a certain and destined death, Dumbledore knew this from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that Harry would, in fact, survive. In the fourth year, the Triwizard Tournament proved fatal in its final task. With the help of Barty Crouch Jr., Voldemort transformed the Triwizard Trophy into a Portkey, which took Cedric and Harry to a graveyard. By this time, Voldemort had a glimpse of the wizard he had once been. After ordering Peter Pettigrew to kill Cedric unceremoniously, Voldemort turned his attention to Harry. He had Pettigrew perform a ritual that would resurrect his body, using Pettigrew's hand, bones from Tom Riddle Sr.'s grave, and blood from Harry's arm. Voldemort did this so that the protection Lily had provided Harry when she sacrificed herself for him would be undone and he would be able to touch Harry at will. This action came from a place of pure arrogance for Voldemort, as there were several other ways to kill and harm Harry that did not require touching him at all.


Later, when Harry returned from the Tournament, he had a conversation with Dumbledore about what had happened in the graveyard. After describing Voldemort's actions, Harry noticed a “glimmer of something akin to triumph” in Dumbledore's expression, but before he could think about it, the Headmaster's expression changed. In retrospect, this scene proved that Voldemort had played into Dumbledore's hands, and the Dark Lord didn't even realize his mistake. When Voldemort created a body with Harry's blood, he did not deny Lily's protection; instead, he bound Harry to the world of the living through his own body. Unknowingly, Voldemort ensured that when Harry died by his hand, he did not truly die. He would have to return to the plane of existence because Voldemort himself had ensured that Lily's protection (which was what had allowed Harry to survive the Killing Curse in the first place) remained intact. When Dumbledore saw the cut on Harry's arm, he knew that Voldemort had done it. That was why he had a triumphant expression on his face, because until that moment, Dumbledore did not know whether Harry would survive the inevitable final meeting that was approaching between Voldemort and The Boy Who Lived. It was entirely possible that Harry could die when the Horcrux inside him was destroyed, but that was until Voldemort made this fatal mistake. Being intimately acquainted with magic and its inner workings, the Headmaster realised that with Lily's blood coursing through Voldemort's veins, Harry would survive, without a shadow of a doubt.


So while some would paint Dumbledore as an insidious character who trapped a young boy in a deadly game against an enemy far greater than himself, this was not the case. He was always working to protect and safeguard Harry as much as possible because Harry was destined to defeat Voldemort. When Harry saw Snape's memories in the Pensieve and went to sacrifice himself in the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore knew that The Boy Who Lived would live again, and had known this for many years before this meeting between the two in The Deathly Hallows.

The Harry Potter 8 Movie Collector's Edition poster features artwork from all eight film posters, all of which prominently feature Harry Potter.

Harry Potter

The Harry Potter franchise follows the adventures of a young boy introduced to a whole new world of magic, chaos, and darkness. Overcoming obstacles in his path, young Harry's rise to heroism pits him against Lord Voldemort, one of the world's most dangerous wizards, and all of his minions.

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