OOP: Dumbledore DIDNT explain everything

[Judy]

No: HPFGUIDX 62417

-CareALotsClouds at a... wrote:
> > why did James need to die and not Lily? 

And Darrin replied:

> There is no canon proving that Lily was specifically meant to be 
> spared and nothing saying that James was a specific target....
> James died because he was trying to hold off V-Mort.

Actually, there *is* canon saying that Voldemort tried to spare Lily.
 He repeatedly tells her to stand aside. Now, it's *possible* that
Voldemort also offered James a chance to cooperate and live, but I
doubt it. Voldemort *likes* killing people, so why would he
give a person a chance to live without an ulterior motive for doing
so?  I think he wasn't willing to spare James, and must have had a
particular reason to spare Lily. Remember, the Potters were people who
had already defied him three times, so under ordinary circumstances,
he'd want them both dead. 

Darrin also said:
> Now, I do wonder what the big deal was about the prophecy. I don't 
> know why 
> Dumbledore was so worried about V-Mort getting ahold of it

Well, the prophecy informs Voldemort that *only* Harry can kill him. 
If Voldemort knew this, it would allow him to take considerably more
risks.  Dumbledore tried to scare Voldemort off by saying that the
Aurors are coming, and that won't work if Voldemort knows that only
Harry can kill him. 

What I want to know is, why didn't Dumbledore just destroy the
prophecy?  Why not go to the Minsitry some night, and smash the thing?
All I can think of was that he was trying to stall Voldemort, knowing
that Voldemort wouldn't do anything else until he got the prophecy. 
But, I'm not sure stalling like that would be worth the risk it
involved.

Another question is, why give a copy of the prophecy to the Ministry
in the first place?  It seems like a pointless risk.  Maybe true
prophecies are automatically recorded, so Dumbledore had no choice?

-- Judy Serenity