Is there a Major Flaw in OOP?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 70617

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "flussbiber" <flussbiber at y...> 
wrote:

> Question number 1:
> Why is there no security in the ministry - either from officials 
or 
> from the Order?

Annemehr:
I don't think Ministry security would have been anything out of the 
ordinary, so I believe someone like Malfoy would have been well up 
to clearing it out at the critical time.

The question of the Order guard who was supposed to be on duty is 
much tougher, though.  I was afraid that a traitor was helping the 
DEs, but I don't think that works.  I don't think Voldemort could be 
sure of exactly *when* he would be able to show Harry the image of 
Sirius being tortured in Row 97; after all, he seems to have been 
trying for quite a long time as Harry kept accidentally waking up.  
Therefore, it would be difficult for Voldemort to plan this for a 
night when his spy was on duty.  I guess I'll just accept that the 
DEs "took care" of whoever it was in some way (but not murder for 
some reason or it would have been mentioned) -- not so farfetched, 
is it, since after what happened to Sturgis Podmore and Arthur 
Weasley we know that the Order guards were no secret to Voldemort.
> 
> which leads to question number 2:
> Why did Voldemort not just go there, unseen and pick up the 
prophecy?

Annemehr:
The explanation is a bit shaky -- it doesn't seem all that risky for 
Voldemort to do it -- but he's been burned on a "sure thing" before, 
so maybe he wanted to be more cautious.  I'm not losing any sleep 
over it.

Your question about how long it took Snape to alert the order, I 
have no real answer for, although I would mention that his contempt 
for Harry may have lessened the urgency he felt to respond at first 
(remember in GoF when Harry was frantic to talk to Dumbledore after 
meeting Crouch Sr. at the edge of the forest).  He surely couldn't 
have expected them to be leaving on thestrals, either.

Finally, I have a few thoughts about why the Order spent so much 
energy guarding the Dept. of Mysteries.  I agree that Voldemort 
hearing the full prophecy might make him fear Dumbledore less even 
though he knows that Dumbledore is not "the one with the power to 
vanquish the Dark Lord" who was born at the end of July.  Also, 
Harry still has power the Dark Lord knows not. I take that to mean 
that Voldemort neither understands this power nor knows that Harry 
has it.  So there is good reason to keep the prophecy secret.

Still, why not just smash the prophecy, if Dumbledore knows the 
whole thing already?

I wonder.  Maybe they tried to.  *Maybe* Sturgis Podmore was really 
trying to break into the Dept. of Mysteries for just this purpose 
and got caught, so the Order decided it was too risky to try again.  
Dumbledore decided to have Harry learn Occlumency.  He decided to 
leave the prophecy in the Dept. of Mysteries, behind that Order 
guard.  The guard who was protecting the "weapon".  And that weapon, 
I believe, is whatever is behind the locked door that melted Harry's 
knifeblade...the thing that Voldemort does not understand.

Annemehr
with the strong feeling that OoP was just the first part of 
a "trilogy"