Harry's "Little Voice"

[brewpub44]

No: HPFGUIDX 35051

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "roseswicegood" <rose at s...> wrote:
> The other idea which occured to me:  I hope this has not already 
been 
> covered, that Harry's birth had been prophesied, that Dumbledore 
and 
> others knew this baby would be special.  It seems V wasn't after 
Lily 
> and James at all, but Harry himself, perhaps aware of his special 
> gifts.  

I, for one, hope it is not some sort of prophecy. One thing I have 
always hated about fantasy fiction is the whole prophecy plot line. I 
have always related it to modern-day fortune-telling, a scam true and 
true. That's one thing I liked about PoA: the silliness of 
Trelawney's ramblings and the futility of prophecy. I really think 
JKR hates it as well, hence her harsh treatment of hte topic.

I also think prophecies cloud the central theme of the books, as 
outlines by Dumbledore's constant mantra: it is our own decisions 
that matter most. He uses it to discuss bloodlines or birthrights or 
inherited wealth, etc., but IMHO it also applies to prophecies. 
Prophecies inherently preclude freedom of self-determination, that 
most important of freedoms.

So how could JKR solve the problem you brought up, the main reason LV 
wanted to kill Harry? Hmm, a tough one. I would like to see JKR 
explain it in a totally different way. I just had a brainstorm: at 
some point it was stated that Hogwarts has some sort of magic quill 
(?) that can detect when magic-capable children are born. These names 
are logged in a book, and the children are contacted in ten years. If 
this is truly the case, perhaps the quill detected that Harry wasn't 
just magic-capable, but was the most gifted child to have been born 
since LV or DD themselves. And if, as others have speculated on this 
messageboard, LV manages to use Nagini to suck power from wizards to 
extend his life or give him power, then LV would try to take the 
child and feed him to Nagini instead, and gain a LOT of power!

But his attempt to use the AK curse sort of throws a wrench in that 
idea, but perhaps there is something similar at work here. 

In any event, I prefer very, very smart people learning things that, 
to us lesser mortals, looks like "prophecy" but is simply researching 
and predicting outcomes based on facts.

A Barkeep in Diagon Alley