[OOP] First thoughts on Prophecy

[sirius_sam1]

No: HPFGUIDX 62074

 But lets see 
> what we have to to start with:
> 
> "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 vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the 
seventh month dies..." 
> (OoP, Ch.37, Br. Ed)

Some jewish biblical scholars have a rule that every single word in 
the bible is significant, so when something is repeated, it's not 
just writing style, it adds more meaning than if it were just said 
once. With that in mind, why the last line of the prophecy? Some 
thoughts:

*It is repeated because the first time refers to Harry, the second 
refers to Neville.

*The repitition indicates the outcome of the above part of the 
prophecy. In other words, the first part says "one of them has to 
die," and the repitition says "the dark lord will die"

*Comparing this prophecy to Prof. Trelawney's prophecy in PoA, they 
are pretty similar in style. Both repeat the main action, and the 
time that it will occur. At the end of the PoA prophecy, she 
says "Tonight...before midnight...the servant...will set out...to 
rejoin...his master..." So maybe we shouldn't read into the 
repitition. One difference between the two: The PoA prophecy is a 
whole lot more helpful and specific.

Other prophecy thoughts:
*What's the deal with "he has power the dark lord knows not"? Aren't 
we told by DD that the power came from Lily? Was that a lie? Only 
part truth? Does DD not know?

*The whole neither can live  while the other survives deal. Well, 
haven't they both been living for 15 years now? Or if you make the 
argument that Voldemort was not alive for most of it,  he was pretty 
alive ever since the end of GoF. How soon does the prophecy need to 
be fulfilled? There's no timeline.

Also, that part kind of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo 
and Tybalt are fighting (before Tybalt dies), when Romeo says "Either 
thou or I, or both, must go with him [die, like Mercutio]". Don't 
forget, it's possible that Harry and LV are going to annihilate each 
other, or something, and both die. It's even possible that when Harry 
kills LV, Harry will die too, since that part of him is gone (though 
that would be pretty harsh for JKR).

*Do we know even one of the times that Lily and James defied LV? What 
counts as defying? It must have to be a pretty big thing or else 
there would probably be more families qualifying for the prophecy.

*As everyone else has pointed out, this prophecy does not contain any 
information useful to Voldemort. Ah well.

Sirius Sam