Editors' Notes: V. What really happened in the Shrieking Shack

V. What really happened in the Shrieking Shack

Although extensive Pensieved memories of Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall, Severus and Hermione Snape are available and have been analysed individually, and by numerous experts many times over, their evidence remains inconclusive.

As Scorpius Malfoy-Snape wrote in My Father's Lives and Loves: "What really happened on that fateful day must, I think, remain obscure. It was too much. In a single day the history of the whole wizarding world changed forever. In mere moments some of the brightest lights of that time were forever extinguished. Such momentous events cannot possibly be reduced to a simple explanation of 'what really happened'."

Of course, that has not kept survivors or descendants, neither lay-witches nor experts, from searching for just that explanation.

The interested reader should avail themselves of the opportunity to see an abridged copy of the Pensieves of Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall, Severus and Hermione Snape at the Shrieking Shack museum, as well as the reading recommendations listed in the relevant section of the appended bibliography.

Within the scope of this book, a brief summary must suffice to put the narrative of the diary entries into perspective.

On 2 May 1998 Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts in order to apprehend and kill Harry Potter and thus bring about the end of Sybill Trelawney's prophecy. Among them was Draco Malfoy who had taken over Severus Snape's task as spy for the Light after Severus Snape's true allegiance was revealed during the battle on the Astronomy Tower on 21 June 1997.

The battle raged on for most of the day, until Harry Potter, Hermione Snape, Severus Snape, and Ronald Weasley barricaded themselves in the Shrieking Shack in order to set up a desperate back-up plan in motion that was developed by Hermione Snape.

Eventually, Voldemort, accompanied by Nagini and his most loyal Death Eaters broke through their defences and entered the Shrieking Shack. In this moment of crisis, Draco Malfoy dropped his disguise and joined the battle openly on the side of Light. This act, meant to provide the necessary moment of surprise to overpower Voldemort, backfired badly when Harry Potter leapt to the defence of his lover.

At this point Severus Snape was reduced to defending a now immobile Hermione Snape. Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley were forced to fight nearly the entire inner circle of Death Eaters, most notably, Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, leaving Voldemort and Nagini to Harry Potter.

Thus, it is perhaps not surprising that not one surviving combatant saw the debilitating curse that left Harry Potter helpless on the floor, so that Voldemort could order Nagini to attack him and end his life.

What Voldemort did not anticipate was the brilliant back-up plan that Hermione Snape had devised with the help of her Muggle parents, as well as with the assistance of Severus Snape and Luna Lovegood.

The pertinent literature concerning the creation and execution of that curse fills libraries by now. In the context of the probationary diaries the briefest of explanations will, however, serve.

Unbeknownst to himself for most of his life, Harry Potter suffered from low-level lactose intolerance. Because Voldemort had used Harry Potter's blood to regain a physical body, he shared enough of Harry Potter's genetic make-up to be susceptible to the same condition. Since—even in his regenerated form—his main source of sustenance remained Nagini's milk, the probability for Voldemort to develop serious physical reactions due to lactose-intolerance were significantly higher than for him to acquire a propensity for suffering a deadly anaphylactic shock from the sting of a wasp, for example. Based on the research of Lyra Lovegood—who had experimented with self-Transfiguration of molecular and sub-molecular structures before her tragic death—Hermione Snape was able to instil and intensify Harry Potter's lactose-intolerance in every single cell of Voldemort's new body. Once she cast the curse, Harry Potter's death activated it. After that, Voldemort's demise was just a question of time and diet.

During their probation, Severus and Hermione Snape naturally had to take pains—and literally did—to avoid mention of anything that would incriminate them beyond their recorded sentences as traitors and terrorists. Especially since they could not, at this point, know the events that had led to their release from prison.

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