The Harry Potter Companion

by John Kearns, February 2010.
 

As Harry Potter sits in Grimmauld Place over his fifth-year Christmas holiday, he has a lot to think about. After all, he wouldn’t be at Grimmauld Place at all if he hadn’t somehow seen Voldemort’s attack on Arthur Weasley; and since then he’s also faced down an unexpected, burning desire to harm Dumbledore, as well as overheard Moody suspecting that he’s being possessed by Voldemort. And while Harry and his friends have since concluded that Voldemort isn’t possessing him, there’s clearly something strange going on, and he has no idea what it is.

Meanwhile, Harry has spent much of the year burning with other questions, too. He knows the Order of the Phoenix is meeting, and he knows Voldemort is targeting a weapon of some sort, but beyond those simplistic (and largely unhelpful) facts, he really has no idea what’s going on. Furthermore, he’s recently learned that his buddy Snape happens to be a former Death Eater who turned spy for Dumbledore, and as far as Harry can tell, he’s continuing in that role now as well. So what, Harry can’t help but wonder, is going on? And what does Snape have to do with it all?

Of course, all of this comes to a head on the last day of Harry’s holiday, when Snape takes Harry by surprise and asks to speak with him.

“The headmaster has sent me to tell you, Potter, that it is his wish for you to study Occlumency this term.”
 
“Study what?” said Harry blankly.
 
Snape’s sneer became more pronounced. “Occlumency, Potter. The magical defense of the mind against external penetration. An obscure branch of magic, but a highly useful one.”
 
Harry’s heart began to pump very fast indeed. Defense against external penetration? But he was not being possessed, they had all agreed on that….
 
“Why do I have to study Occlu – thing?” he blurted out.
 
“Because the headmaster thinks it a good idea,” said Snape smoothly.

This encounter kicks off a rather fascinating series of one-on-one lessons between Harry and Snape, which even Dumbledore will later refer to as “a fiasco.” Snape penetrates Harry’s mind over and over again without giving Harry any real instruction as to how to resist; and Harry does his part by steadfastly refusing to practice, despite the insistence of virtually every adult in his life that it is the most important thing he could possibly do.

When you think about it, it’s interesting that Dumbledore would put Snape and Harry both up to such a task. After all, there are several fairly obvious roadblocks standing in the way of the project’s success. The biggest problem – and one which Dumbledore does eventually admit to Harry that he underestimated – is Snape and Harry’s mutual animosity. Snape firmly believes Harry to be incapable of Occlumency, and Harry steadfastly refuses to heed Snape’s lessons on the subject. Furthermore, thanks to Snape’s obvious enjoyment at probing Harry’s mind, he doesn’t seem particularly inclined to actually help Harry improve. It’s not a situation set up for success.

Compounding the problem, though, is Harry himself. Harry is an emotional guy – never more so than during this particular school year – and has never been one to even attempt to control those emotions. This doesn’t exactly make him a prime candidate to become a great Occlumens. J.K. Rowling later described this challenge in an interview:

“Harry’s problem with [Occlumency] was always that his emotions were too near the surface and that he is in some ways too damaged. But he’s also very in touch with his feelings about what’s happened to him. He’s not repressed, he’s quite honest about facing them, and he couldn’t suppress them, he couldn’t suppress these memories.” (7/16/2005)

Harry’s ability to love may protect him in other regards, but when it comes to Occlumency it’s a definite obstacle.

That’s two quick strikes against the possibility that this endeavor will actually work out. But there’s a third roadblock here, too, and it’s one that is far, far more interesting than either of the first two.

Severus Snape knows how to play his cards. For years he has been able to convince both Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort that he is on their respective sides – and neither of those two are wizards easily taken in. The challenge inherent in such a position, of course, is to give each wizard enough information that he is convinced Snape is genuinely working for him and not the other. And actually, if it weren’t for the danger in being suspected of treason, it would be a pretty good method of hedging one’s bets (whether Voldemort or Dumbledore was eventually victorious, Snape would have been in pretty good shape either way). Remember Phineas Nigellus’s quote, “We Slytherins are brave, yes, but not stupid…. For instance, given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks?” It’s a tricky proposition, but Snape has long been able to successfully stay in the middle of these two foes.

However, teaching Occlumency to Harry Potter is a task that is patently one-sided. Dumbledore absolutely wants this to happen; Voldemort absolutely does not. Of course if Snape were able to do it in secret, and keep Voldemort from learning about the lessons, he’d be in a straightforward enough position. The trouble is that at the moment, Voldemort has access to Harry’s mind.. And we know he can see what Harry sees, whenever he wants to, because Dumbledore admits that he’s worried Voldemort will “use [Harry] to spy” on him.

And when are Harry’s emotions at their strongest, and his mind therefore its most vulnerable?

Why, when he’s taking Occlumency lessons with Severus Snape, of course. Do we really think that Voldemort wouldn’t feel pangs of those emotions? And pop in occasionally just to see what’s going on?

Voldemort has to know that Snape is teaching Occlumency to Harry. He knows why he’s doing it. And furthermore, Dumbledore and Snape are fully aware that Voldemort knows all this.

From Voldemort’s perspective, there is No Way that Snape can be successful in giving these lessons. It would completely destroy his entire plan to entice the boy to the Department of Mysteries. And if Harry did succeed in learning Occlumency, it would look awfully suspicious from Voldemort’s point of view; Snape’s status as a Death Eater would likely be in serious jeopardy.

But Dumbledore knows all this, too. And despite it, still chooses to put his top secret agent in charge of a mission that he simply can’t complete without losing his ability to be a top secret agent!

What is Dumbledore thinking?

After Harry has his vision of the attack on Arthur Weasley, Dumbledore’s position is a precarious one. It’s clear that Voldemort and Harry have a level of access to each others’ minds that is probably unprecedented in wizarding history, and there’s no way that Voldemort doesn’t realize it. And given their relative magical skill, it’s not hard to guess who’s most likely to come out on the losing end of this one, either. Dumbledore doesn’t know yet what Voldemort might do with this level of access to Harry Potter’s mind, but it’s safe to assume it could be nothing good.

There’s only one way to prevent this from happening. Harry Potter absolutely must learn Occlumency. And do it before Voldemort has a chance to formulate a plan around this connection.

The flaw, of course, is how to teach it to him.

Dumbledore can’t teach Harry Occlumency himself, because he’s worried that doing so might give Voldemort all the more incentive to try something before Harry can learn it. He’s also worried about what Voldemort would do to Harry in the meantime. For the boy’s safety, it’s really not an option.

On the other hand, Snape can’t teach Harry Occlumency either, without putting his status as a double agent in serious jeopardy.

On the surface it seems like Dumbledore could simply skip the lessons altogether and warn Harry that Voldemort might try something. But there’s a huge flaw here, too – which is that Dumbledore can’t tell Harry anything without Voldemort finding out that he knows. I’d be willing to bet that Voldemort has enlisted Snape’s help in his plan to lure Harry – so if Dumbledore confides his expectations in to the boy, it will look to Voldemort like Snape has been passing Dumbledore valuable information. This is far more dangerous to Snape than simply teaching the lessons would be.

And of course, if Dumbledore stands pat and does nothing, he will be serving Harry up on a platter for Voldemort. He’s got to do something to at least put the boy on his guard, without making Voldemort too suspicious.

Talk about a no-win situation.

(Seems like this is the problem with double-agents, no? You always run into this type of situation eventually.)

All of this really only leaves one possibility, when you think about it.

So Dumbledore orders Snape to give Occlumency lessons to Harry Potter. And here’s the kicker: he also orders him not to actually teach the boy to do it.

Say what?

—

Here’s why this makes sense:

Ideally, Dumbledore would want Harry to learn Occlumency. But Dumbledore surely knows Harry well enough to know that Harry is not going to be an ideal student in this particular subject. He knows virtually everything else about the boy, after all, right?

Dumbledore also knows that if Harry does learn Occlumency, it is going to cause massive problems for Snape’s relationship with Voldemort. There’s just no getting around the fact that, in this situation, Snape will have knowingly foiled the Dark Lord’s plan. His ability to serve as a double agent (and likely his life) are as good as over.

So all that’s left to be done is for Dumbledore to put Harry on his guard. He can’t warn him specifically of what Voldemort will try to do, although he does know what that is. But if he emphasizes the importance of Occlumency to Harry enough, maybe – just maybe – when Harry sees that vision of the Department of Mysteries, he’ll hesitate just enough to realize that it could be a trap.

I suspect Dumbledore is also relying on Harry’s friendship with Hermione. He’ll tell Harry later that he deliberately used Hermione in his scheming to slow Harry down, and make him think about his actions. He’s probably counting on her here to realize that Harry’s vision is precisely the sort of thing Dumbledore didn’t want him to see, and convince Harry not to act on it.

What Dumbledore doesn’t account for, ultimately (and what ultimately is the undoing in his plan), is Kreacher.

Kreacher causes two problems with this plan. First, he passes word to the Dark Lord that Sirius Black is the person Harry cares for most (and consequently the person most likely to make Harry’s hot head overrule his brain). And second, Kreacher forces Sirius to the attic so that when Hermione does convince Harry to slow down – and she does – Sirius isn’t present when Harry comes looking for him.

If you think about it, if it hadn’t been for the house-elf, Dumbledore’s plan ultimately would have worked. Harry wouldn’t have learned Occlumency, but he would have been prevented from going to the Department of Mysteries. And since Snape would have “failed” in his mission to teach the boy Occlumency, Voldemort still would have been content that Snape was in his camp.

Alas, the best laid plans….