We shouldn’t have been that surprised when Dumbledore died, J.K. Rowling told us it would happen way back in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
I don’t know about you, but when J.K. Rowling killed off Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I couldn’t believe it. I thought for sure there would be some sort of twist a few pages, maybe even chapters, later showing that Dumbledore was all ok and it was nothing but a diversion or something like that.
Obviously, it turned out not to be the case, J.K. Rowling killed off Dumbledore good and proper, and to this day I still can’t read that part without getting a little emotional.
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However, when looking back, I should never have been shocked at what had happened. I should never have been expecting a “surprise, I’m not dead,” sort of moment, because J.K. Rowling told us it was going to happen four books back in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
In the third book, during the Christmas holidays, 12 people, one of them being Dumbledore, where dining in the Great Hall enjoying a nice Christmas dinner. Professor Trelawney then showed up and refused to sit down.
She refused because she believes that when 13 people dine together, the first to rise is the first to die.
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Everyone tries to calm her down and convince her to sit. Eventually, Dumbledore stands up and magically produces a chair for her out of thin air.
Thing is, and some of you may have already realized it at the time, but 13 people were already dining before Trelawney arrived. She would have made the party 14, not 13.
Why? Because Scabbers was present at the table with Ron.
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We didn’t know it at the time, so you can see why none of us spotted it, but obviously, we all know now that Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew. So he actually made the party 13 rather than the 12 that it seemed to be.
So when Trelawney arrived and made a big fuss about making the dinner party 13, it was already at that number. And who was the first to rise? Dumbledore, when he stood up to produce a chair for Trelawney. He was the first to rise, and ultimately, four Harry Potter books later, was the first to die.
So although it was never obvious, J.K. Rowling had already told us that Dumbledore was destined to die.
Did you already know about this? When did you find out? Before or after Dumbledore died? Drop a comment just below sharing your thoughts.