“By attempting
to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person
who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job.”
When Harry is finally able to see Slughorn’s
uncorrected memory at the end of Chapter 23 and
realizes that he needs to destroy all seven Horcruxes to rid the
Wizarding world of Voldemort, Dumbledore once again reminds him
of the one great power he possesses that Voldemort does not: Harry
has the ability to love. Dumbledore points out that this is the
only protection that can possibly be used against powers as strong
as Voldemort’s, and it is the reason why Harry has never been lured
to the Dark side. Because Voldemort destroyed his own soul, tearing
it into seven pieces by way of seven deaths, he no longer understands
the incomparable power of a soul that is whole and untarnished.
Dumbledore insists that it is Harry’s love—for his parents, for
his friends, for his godfather—that propels him to face Voldemort,
and not the prophecy, which Dumbledore believes to be essentially
meaningless. Dumbledore eventually gets Harry to admit that, even
if he had not heard the contents of the prophecy, he would still
want to destroy Voldemort, for all of the pain and suffering he
has caused Harry’s loved one. By Voldemort choosing Harry and marking
him as his equal, he proved the prophecy—because as long as Voldemort
continues to hunt Harry, hurting his friends and killing his family,
Harry is guaranteed to fight back.
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