Harry as The Sacrificial Lamb in Harry Potter

Do you sacrifice all of humanity in order to keep the one you love alive or sacrifice this person to save all of humanity? This is the decision that Dumbledore (the Headmaster of Hogwarts) had to face when he had to choose whether to tell Harry Potter the truth of being a Horcrux. Dumbledore knew of the horcrux’s due to the suspicions against Voldemort and his curiosity of dark magic. Dumbledore not telling Harry was the right thing to do. A Horcrux it is either an object or living being in which a dark wizard places a hidden fragment of his soul for the purpose of immortality.

Thus, if he is killed or destroyed in one form, he still remains alive as a horcrux. It is only created after committing murder, which is considered the supreme act of evil in the wizarding world. In this case, Voldemort (one of the greatest dark wizards) was obsessed with immortality when he discovered the term Horcrux in one of the dark arts book in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library. The soul is not meant to be torn apart, and so making even one horcrux can immensely weaken the host, let alone doing it six times over. One can imagine just how fragile Voldemort’s state had been when he attempted to murder Harry Potter. When Lily (Harry Potter’s Mother) casted a powerful protective charm over Harry, it rebounded Voldemort’s death curse, and the backfiring curse caused his loosely held soul to part and attach to the only living thing in the room, which was Harry Potter who became the unknown seventh horcrux.

If Dumbledore told Harry the truth, Harry would have released a hint to Voldemort about being a possible horcrux. These hints would have been discovered by Voldemort’s powerful ability of Leglimency, which is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a persons’ mind and correctly interpreting that person’s findings. Dumbledore knew Voldemort was able to penetrate Harry’s mind in the fifth year, therefore he attempted to get Snape to teach Harry Occlumency (which is the power to close one’s mind). But Harry was unable learn the spell and failed to close his mind when Voldemort tricks Harry to come to the Ministry of Magic to retrieve the prophecy. What would have happened if Harry did know that he was a Horcrux. Would Voldemort have killed him or would he have kept Harry captive? If Voldemort would have known who would know what he would have which is even more reason not to tell him. Now say if Dumbledore did tell Harry the truth. What would happen? Well, that would mean that Dumbledore is playing with fate and interrupting what is supposed to happen based on the prophecy. If Harry knew that the Deathly Hollows made him invisible, would he have gone after the Horcrux’s or the Hollows?

Obviously, Harry would want to master death before taking on Lord Voldemort, but that in turn would have led him to his demise due to that fact that he would be more focused on getting the Deathly Hollows rather than going after Voldemort. Dumbledore, knowing how greedy one can be with the Hollows, did not tell him, which was the right thing to do. Another incident that would have occurred if Dumbledore told Harry the truth is that Harry would have tried to sacrifice himself, because as a child he would have felt the need of being the only way to stop Voldemort and for everyone else to survive. After the death of many people he loved, and the fact he is in Gryffindor, which is sign of how brave he is willing to be. The consequence of this would be that no one would have known where the other horcrux’s were because Harry was the only one who was able to see through Voldemort’s mind. Dumbledore still cared for Harry.

It was even mentioned in the 6th book where Dumbledore said to Snape: “Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done”. Dumbledore knew that it would be difficult not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well, for Harry to complete the task himself. If Dumbledore were to send harry to look for the Horcruxes and told him he was one himself, he is practically sending him on a death wish. In conclusion, Voldemort would have found a way to protect the last Horcrux and humanity would be ruled by him.