A Quick Theory
by Melissa Arbitman
Let me start this off by saying that I really have no idea what will come next in the Harry Potter books. There are so many twists that can happen that there is no way for anyone to predict exactly what will occur next. However, I do have a theory about certain things in the books that do not seem to quite add up to me. There are some things that might seem obvious, but I do not believe that they are truly what they seem.
My first theory pertains to PoA. In this book, when Harry sees the dementors, he hears the voice of his parents right before they die. If we look at the order that Harry heard these things, and we assume the events occurred in this order, as I believe they did, things do not happen the way we think they do.
The first time Harry heard his mother’s voice was at the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. He heard:
“Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!””Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now…”
“Not Harry, please no, take me instead-”
“Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy…”
Later, when Harry is learning from Lupin how to repel the dementors, he hears his mother again:
“Not Harry! Not Harry! Please- I’ll do anything-“”Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!”
Then Harry hears his father:
“Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off-“
The sounds of someone stumbling from a room- a door bursting open- a cackle of high-pitched laughter-
What is going on here? It seems that Voldemort has entered Harry’s house and is about to kill his parents and try to kill him. But is that what really happened? Let’s take a closer look.
Harry hears Lily telling someone that it is not Harry, to take her instead before James tells her that Voldemort has entered the house. It seems to me that there was someone in the house before Voldemort that wanted to take Harry from Lily. Lily obviously did not want to give Harry to this person, but the question is who was this person? My biggest clue is when this person calls Lily a “silly girl.” There are two people who use this term often when referring to Hermione. One is Rita Skeeter. I honestly do not believe that Rita Skeeter is an important enough character for this to have been her, but you never now. The other character who likes to use this phrase is none other than Severus Snape.
Now, this makes sense to me. It is possible that Snape was at Godric’s Hallow on Halloween night, knowing that Voldemort would soon show up with the intention of killing Harry. Lily, thinking Snape was a death eater, would of course not want to give Harry to him. Snape may have done something on that night to save Harry. I am not sure what Snape did that night, but I think something occurred that we do not know. The only one who does know is Dumbledore, and this very well may be the reason that he trusts Snape so much.
