If Harry Potter Cleaned His Boots in The Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore Would've Lived
Were it not for Harry’s dirty shoes, Bill Weasley wouldn’t have been mangled by the werewolf, and Albus Dumbledore would’ve lived. We know it sounds bizarre, but let us explain this butterfly effect.
As we all know, at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy brings a bunch of Death Eaters into Hogwarts to assist him in killing Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster. As we also know, he’s only able to do that because of the Vanishing Cabinet he found that was linked to the Borgin and Burkes shop.
What if we told you that this was merely the result of a butterfly effect set in motion by Harry Potter when, four years before the attack on Hogwarts, he came back to Hogwarts after his Quidditch training wearing dirty shoes?
It only sounds bizarre because it is, we promise.
So, years ago, in The Chamber of Secrets, Harry returned to the castle after his Quidditch training and was caught by Argus Filch. For Filch, bringing dirt into Hogwarts was a crime, and Harry’s boots were covered in nasty wet mud — so he brought Harry into his office for detention. And this event started a butterfly effect.
To set Harry free from Filch’s grasp, Nearly Headless Nick convinced Peeves to drop the Vanishing Cabinet on top of Filch’s office. That distracted the grumpy man enough for Harry to escape — and that was also how the Cabinet got damaged.
Fast-forward three years, and we’re at The Order of the Phoenix. The Weasley twins shove Montague, one of Dolores Umbridge’s minions and a buddy of Draco Malfoy, into the broken Vanishing Cabinet. He gets trapped there and is severely injured.
Fast-forward one more year, and here it is: as Draco is desperately trying to find a way to bring the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, Montague tells him about his terrifying experience with the malfunctioning Vanishing Cabinet, and this gives Malfoy a brilliant idea: if he can fix the Cabinet, he’ll link Hogwarts to Borgin and Burkes!
The rest is history: Draco’s Death Eaters enter Hogwarts using the Vanishing Cabinet; Bill Weasley gets mangled by Fenrir Greyback; and Albus Dumbledore gets murdered on top of the Astronomy tower. He would’ve died anyway, but perhaps, not so soon — and this would’ve given Harry quite an advantage of time.
And all this happened just because Harry didn’t clean his boots four years prior!
Source: Quora