"Magic is a strange and wondrous thing. It can seemingly break the laws of the natural world and is impacted by the emotions and unconscious desires of those of us blessed with the ability to manipulate it. The greater, more complex the magic is, the greater the opportunity for outside influences to impact our magical workings. Some of those influences are counterintuitive and seemly illogical. In magic, 1 + 1 doesn't always equal 2. This is why astronomy is a part of our core curriculum. The positioning of the planetary bodies has a small but possibly significant influence on the power and effect of magic. But form a logical standpoint, what could the relative positioning of distant celestial bodies have on a potion being brewed here at Hogwarts. Yet it dies have a demonstrable, repeatable impact.
"The final event of the Tournament was scheduled on the Summer Solstice to provide the longest period of daylight for the task. Tom chose to act that day due to the increased life energy powers that are available on this day. Healers have long known this. In a perverse way, it also makes it a powerful day for necromantic rituals."
The room was silent as they listened to Dumbledore speak. It had been many years since Dumbledore was simply the Transfiguration Professor, but he was a gifted educator and his lectures had always been well attended. His lecture now proved he had not lost his ability to capture a classroom.
"Now, the night of Tom's attack on your parents' home was filled with unintended consequences. While today we call it Halloween, it was also once known as All Hallow's Evening or Samhain. Samhain was a Celtic holiday where the boundaries between this world and the fae are at their lowest. Tom, of course, intended to kill you. James and Lily were not his primary targets that night. Your parents intended to protect both themselves and you. Your parents knew you were the target. Theoretically, if they had simply stepped aside Tom would have let them live. This created a unique set of circumstances. Other parents had been killed protecting their families but none knowing that only their child was the target of the attack - that they would live if they merely stepped aside.
"Lily was a talented and powerful witch. Knowing that you were a target, she created a blood-based ritual to protect you from harm under certain conditions. James purposely bought her the time to enact the ritual at the cost of his own life. Her death then at Tom's hands triggered the ritual's completion. I believe it was this ritual protection that enabled you to survive the Killing Curse that was then reflected in a weaker form back to Tom. This created the first of our unintended consequences. Tom never intended to do anything but remove the obstacle that the elder Potters created. For him, killing was the most expedient choice. Instead his magical power in the Killing Curse completed a ritual that protected young Harry. But there was another unintended consequence.
"I have long wondered how Tom was able to survive the Killing Curse even in his wraith-form. It was not until after your second year that I was able to confirm his method. Without providing any unnecessary information, Tom uncovered a way of inserting parts of his soul into inanimate objects to enable to prevent his permanent death. As part of this ritual, the wizard would be required to commit a cold-blooded murder to exchange their soul for his continued existence."
"The diary," Harry breathed in disbelief.
"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "That was the information that I needed. Now since the diary was destroyed and Tom's wraith remained, that tells me he had more than one. This is the Darkest of Magics and the information on it has long been repressed by the world's magical governments so it is not readily available even to me. For the last two years, I have been attempting to quietly identify and track down what other objects Tom may have used to encase parts of his soul."
Dumbledore paused a moment and allowed his audience to absorb the information he had just presented. After several moments, he continued.
"Now we come to Tom's second unintended consequence of that night. I believe Tom intended to use your murder to power one of these rituals. The power of the ritual was tied to the murder of an innocent. What could be more innocent than a toddler?" Harry felt a bit sick at that news. "After you were struck with the Killing Curse we detected signs of Dark Magic within that we could not explain. How could we? No one had ever survived the Curse before. And the Killing Curse kills without leaving a mark so where had this one come from? We had many more questions than answers. Several Unspeakable researchers have looked into this over the years and found no answer. If the Unspeakables ever revealed their work it would consist of several volumes of research and test results. But the magic was inert and it was decided it was better to leave it be than to risk making it active and killing you through own ignorance.
"I was rather surprised when my monitors here reported the disappearance of this residual Dark Magic not long before your ninth birthday. Yet, when you arrived here with the scar was greatly diminished and not the raw, red wound I'd seen when it happened. I suspect," Dumbledore emphasised his use of the word, suspect. "I suspect that the Dark Magic within the scar was the portion of Tom's soul that he'd planned to insert into another object. Living creatures are not good holders of this type of energy for a variety of reasons including the possibility of their own death. Thus, I believe it was unintended."
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