Weapons (was:Re: Will Harry Tell Ron & Hermione About The Prophecy?)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 76353

> Lziner:
> 
> This brings up the question of who in the order knew about the
> prophecy?  Everyone was guarding it but did DD tell them why?  We
> never really find out.
> 
> 
> Now Joj:
> 
> 
> Well, they talked about a weapon.  Were they talking about the 
prophesy?  If
> yes, I don't think they knew.  Were they talking about Harry?  
That would
> mean they did.
> 
> I think it would be dangerous for anyone who did know the prophesy.
> Voldemort  would do anything to get that info from them.  That's 
why I don't
> think Harry will tell Ron and Hermione, at least not right away.  
To protect
> them

Annemehr:
You know, I am seeing several plot threads here where I think JKR 
may be deliberately confusing us.

Ch. four, Ron speaking: "'--and some of them are standing guard over 
something," said Ron.  "They're always talking about guard duty.'
'Couldn't have been me, could it?' said Harry sarcastically.
'Oh yeah,' said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension."

Ch. five: "'What's he after apart from followers?' Harry asked 
swiftly.
He thought he saw Sirius and Lupin exchange the most fleeting of 
looks before Sirius said, 'Stuff he can only get by stealth.'
When Harry continued to look puzzled, Sirius said, 'Like a weapon. 
Something he didn't have last time.'"

Ch. twenty-one, Harry dreaming about the attack on Mr. 
Weasley: "Harry put out his tongue....He tasted the man's scent on 
the air....He was alive but drowsing...sitting in front of a door at 
the end of the corridor..."

Ch. thirty-seven, Dumbledore beginning to explain why he should have 
told Harry the prophecy long ago:  "'Yet there was a flaw in this 
wonderful plan of mine,' said Dumbledore. 'An obvious flaw that I 
knew, even then, might be the undoing of it all.  and yet, knowing 
how important it was that my plan should succeed, I told myself that 
I would not permit this flaw to ruin it.  I alone could prevent 
this, so I alone must be strong. ...'"


There are many things going on here that I believe are all 
interconnected.  In the first quote, Ron and Harry are talking about 
the guard duty the Order members do, and they think they have the 
explanation -- it was Harry who was being guarded.

The third quote illustrates the fact that there is other guard duty 
which continues  -- the guard before the entrance to the Department 
of Mysteries.

Going back to the second quote, Sirius informs Harry that the Order 
believes Voldemort to be after some type of 'weapon' that he didn't 
have before, and the fourth quote is part of Dumbledore's 
explanation of the prophecy: that there is "One" who can defeat the 
Dark Lord, and that Dumbledore has a *plan* for him.

Coming around to my point then.  Is the prophecy the weapon that 
Sirius tells Harry Voldemort wants?  It makes perfect sense -- 
knowledge is a vital weapon in war.  But I note that the order are 
guarding the entrance to the entire Department of Mysteries.  Is 
this merely because it's the most strategically sensible place to 
guard the prophecy, or ought we to allow for the possibility that 
there is more in there that the Order would not want Voldemort to 
find (whether he knows it or not)?  One thing I am thinking of here 
is the locked door where Harry melted his knife, the room where they 
keep the power that Harry possesses in vast quantities and Voldemort 
not at all, according to Dumbledore.  Even if this power is Love, 
and Voldemort has no understanding of it, Dumbledore, it seems, 
still would want to keep Voldemort out of there and does seem to 
consider it as a weapon on his own side.

So we have the Order closely guarding the Dept. of Mysteries and 
Harry Potter. Harry Potter does seem to be the weapon Dumbledore's 
truly counting on with his power that's also locked up in the Dept. 
of Mysteries.  As I said, Dumbledore has a *plan* for 
these 'weapons'. I do have to wonder how much of this the rest of 
the order knows.  In the quote from ch. five, Sirius and Lupin 
exchange a "fleeting look" which suggests to me that they certainly 
believe they know what it is that Voldemort is after.  

We also know that Voldemort was after the prophecy, yes, and though 
we can see the value in knowing it, some readers have reacted to it 
by thinking, "is that *it*?"  But I'm not sure that that is "it" 
even for Voldemort.

Now, consider this quote from Ch. twenty-two, Harry eavesdropping at 
St Mungo's, Moody speaking first:
"...'So Potter says he saw it all happen?'
'Yes, ' said Mrs. Weasley.  She sounded rather uneasy.  'You know, 
Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see 
something like this....'
'Yeah, well,' said Moody, 'there's something funny about the Potter 
kid, we all know that.'
'Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this 
morning,' whispered Mrs. Weasley.
''Course he's worried,' growled Moody.. 'The boys seeing things from 
inside You-Know-Who's snake.... Obviously, Potter doesn't realize 
what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him --'"

Harry stops worrying about this after Ginny tells him that Voldemort 
can't have been possessing him, but personally I think this is much 
more important.  I think that *both* sides in this war are 
considering Harry as a weapon.  I also think it's quite possible 
that Voldemort's possession of Harry at the MoM was a first attempt, 
that Voldemort was taking advantage of an opportunity to make an 
impromtu test.

Voldemort did not get Harry into the DoM by possessing him, but my 
misleading him.  Dumbledore had been worrying about Harry being 
possessed, according to Moody in the above quote.  Even though 
Voldemort tried it once and failed, it seems to have been a 'spur of 
the moment' attempt, and I think it's something Harry is going to 
have to deal with again.

How can I summarize all this when this post is basically about how 
JKR is confusing us (well, me anyway)?

Voldemort wanted the prophecy because knowledge about HP is a weapon 
he hopes to use.  Dumbledore is guarding the DoM to safeguard that 
prophecy and *maybe something else*.  To Dumbledore, Harry Potter is 
a weapon, along with the power behind the locked door, and he has 
made plans regarding them.  It seems quite probable that *Voldemort* 
also hopes to use Harry as a weapon, by possessing him.  There are 
so many clues that OoP is about so much more than just that prophecy.

Harry himself seems quite unaware of any of this because he's 
focusing on "murder or be murdered."  I am hoping that, with the 
help of his friends, he will be able to find his own way.

Annemehr