OoP: More Prophecy Stuff (Spoilers!)

[betseywebster]

No: HPFGUIDX 62563

Hello. I'm a first time poster, recent lurker, and long-time fan. 
Here's my take on the thing.
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 It seems that quite a few posters have been wondering why the Order 
needed to guard the Prophecy in the Dept of Mysteries. To try to 
figure this out, I think you have to look at each part of the 
prophecy and consider how important it is for the Order to keep 
Voldemort in the dark about that specific bit.
 
 First part:
"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..."
Okay, so this is the part Voldemort does know. He hears it, he draws 
conclusions from it ("It must mean that Potter boy, and I will kill 
him before he is old enough to use this power! MUA HA HA..." or, you 
know, something along those lines). He finds out where they are, and 
we know the rest. Next comes the...
 
 Second part:
"...And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have 
power the Dark Lord knows not..." 
The "mark as his equal" phrase has been thoroughly discussed, and, 
personally, I think that while Neville has become a more important 
and certainly more interesting character in the story, Harry is 
definitely the guy. The One. The Dude Who Has to Save the World. But 
I digress. 
 Now, what Voldemort's incomplete snippet of the prophecy (see First 
Part above) does NOT tell him is exactly WHAT power the "one" in 
question will use to, uh, "vanquish" him. He doesn't know that Harry 
is predicted to defeat him with a "power he knows not" (I am 
assuming that "knows" here implies that he is unfamiliar with it, 
not that he's totally unaware of its existence). Voldemort, with his 
limited information, may just figure that Harry is destined to 
become an extremely powerful wizard who will someday penetrate all 
Voldemort's anti-death defenses with one heck of an AK curse backed 
by unprecedented magical prowess. 
 But we know better, because we, like Dumbledore and now Harry, have 
heard the whole thing. Harry's power is not his magical ability, nor 
is it his intelligence. Voldemort has both these things. Tom Riddle, 
as Dumbledore said (in CoS), was one of the most brilliant and 
talented students Hogwarts has ever known. He was a prefect, and he 
was chosen as Head Boy to boot. But as Hermione protests in PS/SS, 
when Harry indicates that she's a better witch than he is a 
wizard, "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things --
friendship and bravery..." Harry has these, not to mention boundless 
love and unwavering loyalty (okay, you can stop gagging now), and 
they constitute the single, solitary power that Harry has over 
Voldemort -- his heart. And Voldemort doesn't know it. Moving on...
 
 Third part:
"...And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can 
live while the other survives"
Any way you interpret the "either", the sentence can really just 
mean one thing: "that the person who has the only chance of 
conquering Lord Voldemort for good"(to quote Dumbledore in chapter 
37) is our little Harry. Not the MoM. Not the Order of the Phoenix. 
Not even Dumbledore himself. Just Harry. That's it. And, of course, 
if he can't, then Voldemort will kill him instead.
 Then the first part repeats.

 Okay, so imagine you're the Order of the Phoenix (wait, one person 
can't be the whole Order, so each of you pick your favorite and be  
him/her ;-) ). What don't you want Voldemort to know? 
 First and foremost, you don't want him to know how Harry can defeat 
him. You don't want him to know that Harry has some ambiguous "power 
the Dark Lord knows not," and you certainly don't want him to know 
what that power is. You can imagine what Voldemort could do to Harry 
to destroy his proverbial "heart", should he eventually get hold of 
the prophecy and find out that that is where Harry's power resides. 
If seeing Sirius die was enough to make Harry try to perform the 
Cruciatus Curse (anyone else feel creepy when that happened?) and 
then say what he said to Dumbledore, who knows what he would do if, 
say, Voldemort killed (God forbid!) Ron and/or Hermione? Could 
Voldemort intentionally cause Harry to (gasp!) descend into darkness 
by killing those the boy loves, if only to destroy the one power 
Harry has over him? Maybe, maybe not, but you're not going to take 
your chances. Even if Voldemort were to fail in this pursuit, he 
could sure do a lot of damage in the attempt (the dead Ron and 
Hermione spring to mind). So, yeah, you're hoping to keep that part 
of the prophecy a secret.
 You also have to consider the Third part of the prophecy. The part 
that says only Harry can kill Voldemort. You know that Dumbledore 
is the "only one [Voldemort] ever feared," presumably because 
Voldemort thinks that Dumbledore is the only wizard who stands even 
a teeny tiny chance of killing him. But Dumbledore doesn't. Now, 
that's something you certainly don't want Voldemort to know...that 
the world's most accomplished and powerful wizard can't really do 
him much harm. What would Voldemort do if he knew that? Try to kill 
Dumbledore? Take over Hogwarts? You and the rest of the Order figure 
it's probably best for Voldemort to retain his fear of Dumbledore, 
and the only way to do that is to make sure he doesn't get his hands 
on that prophecy.

 Am I reading to much into this? Maybe. Have I given the whole thing 
way too much thought? Probably. Does my family think I'm crazy? Oh, 
yeah. But I think there were some pretty good reasons for that 
prophecy to be kept from Voldemort, and I'd love to hear what you 
all have to say in response. Oh, and give yourself a big pat on the 
back for making it through my inane ramlings. Thanks :-)


Betsey