Harry has the POTENTIAL to love, the key to understanding the prophecy

Thu Jul 17 19:25:47 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 71209

here is an excellent concise explanation of Harry's potential 
to "love" per a spot on http://hpprogs.blogspot.com/

"There seems to be some confusion about the prophecy as explicated at 
the end of Book 5. I thought I would give you my take as to what it 
means and doesnt mean. Take it or leave it.

Just for the record, let's set the text down:

"The One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born 
to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month 
dies....and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will 
have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand 
of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one 
with the power to vaquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh 
month dies..."

Dumbledore tells Harry that this prophecy could have applied to two 
people: Harry and Neville. Upon hearing this, Harry is hopeful that 
perhaps this was all a big mistake. Call up Voldemort, let him know, 
he's got the wrong guy. No such luck, says Dumbledore:

"Then -- it might not be me?" said Harry.
"I am afraid," said Dumbledore..."that there is no doubt that it is 
you."
"But you said -- Neville was born at the end of July too -- and his 
mum and dad --"
"You are forgetting the next part of the prophecy, the final 
identifying feature of the boy who could vanquish Voldemort... 
Voldemort himself would 'mark him as his equal.' And so he did, 
Harry. He chose you , not Neville. He gave you the scar that has 
proved both blessing and curse.
"But he might have chosen wrong!" said Harry. "He might have marked 
the wrong person!"
"He chose the boy he thought most liekly to be a danger to him," said 
Dumbledore..."and in marking you with that scar, he did not kill you, 
as he intended, but gave you powers and a future, which have fitted 
you to escape him not once, but four times so far..."

Dumbledore's answer to Harry is that there was no wrong choice for 
Voldemort to make. Whomever he saw as the greatest threat, whoever he 
marked, would be his enemy, and eventually have to face him. This 
fits with JK Rowling's overall theme of personal choice: we are not 
defined by our abilities, but by our choices. Harry became the 
Prophecy Boy, not because he is the great-grandson of so-and-so, or 
the mixture of this house or that house's bloodlines. Harry became 
the Prophecy Boy because Voldemort chose him. Had Voldemort chosen 
Neville, it would be his burden to carry.

A little insight in to this, I think, will show us where things are 
going to go with Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort's essence (indeed, 
even his name, the French Vol-de-Mort) represent a Flight from Death. 
Voldemort is terrified of one thing only: death. He does not wish to 
die, to fade from this world. Because of this, he can not love. When 
we love, we invest a part of our selves in another person, but in 
doing so, we open our selves up to pain and loss. Because when a 
loved one dies, when they leave this world, they take a part of us 
with them, and we can never get that part back. It is a bitter 
bargain that we make. Voldemort, fearing Death in any form, refuses 
to love, refuses to invest part of himself in others. When he hears 
of one who will vanquish him, he sets out to destroy that person, and 
all connected to him.

And here is the trick. Voldemort goes to kill Harry and his parents. 
Harry, who is saved by the love of his mother, has a preternatal 
connection to both Death and Love. Part of Harry is gone from the 
beginning, his parents having sacrificied themselves to save him. 
Harry knows of Death, and is not afraid of it. In the Death Room at 
the end of Book 5, Harry is drawn to Death, to the voices behind the 
veil, unlike the others (apart from Luna). Harry's connection to 
Death allows him to love without fear. He has experienced Death, the 
pain that comes from losing someone you have invested part of your 
soul in.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

In Memoriam, Alfred Lord Tennyson

This knowledge of Death gives Harry the ability to Love. His soul is 
already incomplete, his parents having died before he knew them. But 
this gives Harry the ability to love, to invest in others without 
fear of Death taking it away.

And who gave this to Harry? Voldemort did. By killing his parents, 
Voldemort created the exact type of person who will have the power to 
defeat him, the person who Loves, and does not fear Death. Dumbledore 
says as much to Harry, intimating to him that his one strength over 
Voldemort comes from his ability to love. It is with this Love that 
Harry will overcome Voldemort, unafraid to die to protect that which 
he cares about.

So Neville is not the guy; his life experience does not give him the 
proper knowledge to ultimately defeat Voldemort (that is not saying 
he isnt a great guy...). The marking of Harry by Voldemort created in 
him the unique consciousness of Love and Death that is required to 
take on he who flees from Death at all costs. He, and only he, is the 
Prophecy Boy. 

Prognosticated Sunday, July 13, 2003 7 Comments, last by Greg 

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ggershman77" 
<ggershman77 at y...> wrote:
> I recently composed a logical analysis of the language used in the 
> prophecy.  I posted the analysis on <a 
> href="http://hpprogs.blogspot.com/">Harry Potter 
Prognostications</a> 
> (http://hpprogs.blogspot.com/).  The analysis has some startling 
> conclusions, where we see that within the language of the prophecy 
is 
> a specific case that Dumbledore does not explain to Harry.
> 
> Greg