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“So,” said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, “so does that mean that . . . that one of us has got to kill the other one . . . in the end?”

In Chapter 37, Dumbledore finally explains the meaning of the prophecy to Harry. Although Harry dropped the glass sphere containing the prophecy during his battle against Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore was present when Professor Sybill Trelawney made the prediction. Professor Trelawney was interviewing for the Divination position at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore was skeptical about her powers. But since she was the great-great-granddaughter of a celebrated Seer, he agreed to meet her at the Hog’s Head pub in Hogsmeade. Professor Trelawney’s prophecy about Harry may be the only truthful prediction she has ever made. While most of the information contained in the prophecy is not especially new to Harry, the idea that he must either kill Voldemort or be killed by him is extremely upsetting. These words cast a huge shadow of death over Harry’s young life—the prophecy essentially promises that some form of murder is inevitable for Harry.

For a young man whose life has been based on saving as many lives as possible, the grimness of this statement is horrifying. In fact, the news is so upsetting that Harry chooses not to tell Ron and Hermione about it and doesn’t feel much like participating in the end-of-year festivities at Hogwarts. Because of Sirius’s murder and the revelation of the prophecy, Book V closes on a note of general despair. Harry is glad that his friends have emerged from the battle mostly unscathed, and he is happy to see so many Death Eaters returned to Azkaban, but he remains in mourning, lamenting both the death of his godfather and the truth about his relationship with Lord Voldemort.

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