I was amazed by the amount of concealed text I managed to find on page 744 of my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ...
“Do you have any paperclips on you now, Harry?” asked Dumbledore.
Harry checked his pockets ” he usually had a few paperclips somewhere. A-ha!
“Here you go,” he said, dropping four paperclips onto Dumbledore’s desk.
“Thank you,” said Dumbledore as he slid the paperclips across the desk and into a drawer. “Tell me, Harry, are you any good at the Summoning Charm?”
“Er,” said Harry. He was getting confused again by Dumbledore’s erratic train of thought. “Well, it took me ages to learn how to do it, but I’m alright now, I think.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you see me summon the Firebolt during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament?”
“I saw you say ‘Accio’, certainly,” said Dumbledore, “and the Firebolt appeared moments later. But are you sure the two things were related?”
“Huh?”
“Could I trouble you for a few more paperclips, Harry?”
Again, Harry checked his pockets, although he was fairly certain that he had no paperclips left. There were four in his pocket.
“Oh!” he said. “Here you are, Professor.”
Dumbledore smiled at Harry and once more slid the paperclips across the desk and into a drawer.
“Harry,” he said, “I’m afraid I must tell you that you are very bad at the Summoning Charm. Professor Flitwick tells me that you use all the wrong inflections on the word ‘Accio.’ He has been most perplexed as to your apparent ability, as he knows it should be impossible.”
Harry strongly suspected that Dumbledore was being weird on purpose. Perhaps it was another disguise? Of course he could do the Summoning Charm!
“Of course I can do the Summoning Charm!” he said.
“No, you can’t, Harry,” said Dumbledore.
“Yes, I can!” said Harry.
“No.”
“Yes!”
“No ” and could I have some more paperclips, do you think?”
“Yes! ” I mean ” what?” Good grief ” it was as though Dumbledore was becoming obsessed with paperclips. What was he going to do with them all ” disguise himself as a desk-tidy? Feeling that it was better to humour his headmaster for the time being, Harry rummaged in his pockets ” fully expecting to find nothing. There was a tiny jingling noise. In disbelief, he let four paperclips fall onto the desk through his fingers.
“Thank you so much,” said Dumbledore smoothly, sliding the paperclips into the drawer. “I have a theory, you know.”
“Okay ... ” Humour him, humour him.
“I think ” in fact I am sure of it ” that you have an innate ability to reclaim anything belonging to you that you really need.”
“Right ... ” How far was it to the door?
“You needed the Marauder’s Map ” and there it was, without your having to do anything to retrieve it.”
“Um-hmmm ... ” Would it be safer to disarm Dumbledore and call for help?
“You needed your Firebolt ” and it was always there for you, no matter how often young Mr. Weasley borrowed it.”
“Yeah ... ” Could the portraits do anything useful? He tried winking at Phineas Nigellus.
“You needed your quill ” and consequently it too has always been there, no matter how often Miss Granger has taken it to augment her own large quill collection.”
“Of course ... ” He could smash that mirror over Dumbledore’s head and jump out through the window.
“And of course you always have a ready supply of paperclips, don’t you, Harry? Could I bother you for a few more, by the way?”
“Er ... ” How high up was this room anyway?
“Paperclips, Harry?”
Harry jumped slightly in his chair, and automatically began to rifle through his pockets. Wordlessly he placed the four paperclips in a neat row on Dumbledore’s desk.
“How many paperclips have you given me now, Harry?” asked Dumbledore.
“I’m not sure, Professor. It must be a dozen at least by now.”
“Come and have a look in the drawer.”
With shaky legs Harry tottered around Dumbledore’s desk and peered into the drawer.
It was empty.
He checked it for holes, gaps, secret flaps, pet paperclip-eaters ” but there was absolutely nothing in there. Dumbledore beamed at him, overflowing with happiness.
“Do you see?” he said.
“Where’ve they gone?” asked Harry, dazzled by the gleaming light of Dumbledore’s teeth. He was getting bored of this. Was Dumbledore trying to entertain him with the kind of cheap magician’s trick that he’d seen (through the keyhole) at Dudley’s childhood birthday parties?
“Check your pockets, Harry,” said Dumbledore. “I think you will find that you currently have four paperclips in your possession.”
Of course, he was right.
“Is this my special power, then?” asked Harry. “I don’t lose paperclips?”
He thought about it for a moment and grinned: his paperclips against Voldemort’s spoons. Their final battle was going to be interesting.
“You’re not far from the truth, but it goes a little deeper,” said Dumbledore. “What you have is an absolute sense of self-preservation. There is something in you, Harry, which calls out to the things that you need to help you through any situation. Obviously you are always in need of paperclips, and hence they always come back to you. Think back to Chapter 32 of the Goblet of Fire. Do you understand now what I meant when I said that Voldemort had made a fatal mistake?”
Finally Harry saw what Dumbledore was driving at. “The end of the prophecy ... it was something about ... neither can live ...”
“... while the other survives,” said Dumbledore.
“So,” said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, “so does that mean that ... that one of us has got to kill the other one ... in the end?”
“Yes,” said Dumbledore. “You know what you have to do, Harry.”
“You mean ... ”
Dumbledore smiled ruefully, and said, “I’m afraid it’s going to be a bit messy.”