Recording No.22547 Transcript

Recording No.22547 - Transcript

Speech by H.J. Potter to crowd at Ministry of Magic - 03-03-1997

Transcribed 17-05-23; Found in ruins of Ministry of Magic 06-05-23

[unedited]

(background sounds, comments)

[Harry Potter] Thank you so much for this honor. (applause) I really am speechless. To be given the Order of Merlin for my efforts is something beyond my wildest dreams, something that I have never expected. (applause)

But I am honored. Really. Truthfully, the only reason that I am here today is because of a prophecy, and what it said that I had to do. This prophecy said that I would have to kill Voldemort (hisses), or be killed myself. (gasps) For a long time, I felt trapped. I was trapped by chance, by a gods-cursed scar, and by another's choice. I despaired. I truly did. (murmuring)

For what was I, a young boy with nothing on his side but extraordinary luck, to do against the Dark Lord? No one would speak his name. I was terrified.

And I spent many hours in the school library, trying to discover a way to defeat Voldemort. (hisses)

One night I fell asleep there; and I dreamt. I was flying and from my shoulders sprouted sooty wings instead of arms. (murmurs) I was flying over bright green hills and valleys and sparkling streams. It was perfect and effortless. I was free. So I flew faster and faster and faster.

Then I was flying over a dark field, and there was a battle raging beneath. I could just make out the figures moving beneath me and the bright flashes of spells. I knew then that I was watching the final battle between our side, and Voldemort.

I swooped lower. And as I grew closer I could see that this was not a real battle, but a travesty of piles of stick and bark shouting spells at each other across a sea of mud. These stick people were drowning in the slick mud even as they fought. One side could not be told apart from the other. And at the edge of the mud the bright green was growing closer at amazing speed, devouring the mud before it.

I realised as I woke that all of this was useless. What did it matter who won or lost in this stupid war that we fought? What did it matter who suffered? Because in the end, every single one of us will be gone. We'll all be gone, dead, and maybe even not buried. No one will remember us! The world will go on and on and on and we are absolutely nothing to it. (murmurs, cries)

But while in the end, I know that all will be the same and this life forgotten, I don't want the world to tear itself apart over this world.

And I can never defeat Lord Voldemort. (hisses, cries)

Here is my proposal.

I, Harry James Potter, 16^th scion of the Potter family, hereby relinquish all rights the fulfill the destiny described in the prophecy 'from SPT to APWBD, concerning Dark Lord and Harry P.'. In return for every life in this room (cracks of apparition), I swear to never, from this instant onward, to try to fulfill the terms of that prophecy, (screams) assist in their fulfillment, or permit them to be fulfilled. By blood and magic. (screams)

Is that acceptable?

[Lord Voldemort] No. Avada Kedavra! (screams)

Kill everyone. (screams)

[Unidentified] Avada Kedavra!

Avada Kedavra!

Crucio!

Avada Kedavra!

Hahahahaha!

Avada Kedavra!

Avada Kedavra!

Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!

Avada Kedavra!...

[Brief magical overload, static]

[Lord Voldemort] Lucius, in which direction is the Minister's office? (moans)

[Lucius Malfoy] This way, my Lord. (soft cries)

(silence)

[End of tape]