Newbie OOP Prophecy as weapon (LV's true weakness)

[Anita]

No: HPFGUIDX 62907

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ashley" <ashley1591284 at c...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Mark D." <uncmark at y...> 
wrote:
> > 
> > Which brings us up to OOP where LV's objective is a 
> > weapon, 'something that he didn't have before.' Somewhere in his 
> > darkforce-addled mind, LV got the idea that the prophecy is the 
> key. 
> > He may think it contains specific information to final victory 
so 
> he 
> > makes it so. Because LV is after the prophecy, it becomes the 
OOP's 
> > objective to protect it
> > 
> > Agreed, Dumbledore should have known that the prophecy was not 
what 
> > LV thought and he did. For book 5, LV is not Dumbledore's #1 
> > priority. Dumbledore is concerned mostly with 1) his student's 
> > safety & well-being, 2)Fudge & the MofM and 3) Voldemort. By 
> letting 
> > Voldemort waste a year chasing a worthless prophecy, Dumbledore 
> > probably saved countless lives, allowed the OOP to gather its 
> > forces, and allowed the HRH trio to get another year of training.
> 
> 
> This message has seriously made me think.  We know why Voldemort 
> wanted the prophecy, if it's true that he thought that it could 
tell 
> him how to finally kill Harry.  But that DOESN'T explain why 
> Dumbledore and the Order set about protecting the door to the room 
> that held the prophecy--after all, wasn't Arthur Weasley stationed 
> there when he was attacked by the snake?  In truth it didn't 
matter 
> whether Voldemort saw the prophecy.  The above poster astutely 
> pointed out that this was helpful ultimately to the Order of the 
> Phoenix because it stalled time before Voldemort's return.  I 
can't 
> help but wonder whether it occurred to Dumbledore how lucky he was 
> that the particular object that Voldemort was after was housed in 
the 
> Ministry of Magic, the very institution that had been denying 
> Voldemort's return from the beginning.  After the final battle, 
Fudge 
> and his administration had no choice but to admit the truth of 
> Voldemort's return.  So, perhaps Dumbledore had more in mind in 
> protecting the rather useless prophecy than just stalling for 
time: 
> he might have forseen that, after the inevitable battle to protect 
> the Prophecy, the Ministry would be forced to admit Voldemort's 
> return.
> 
> Which could, if you wanted to be a conspiracy theorist, have been 
> Dumbledore's ultimate plan in allowing Harry's dreams that led him 
to 
> the Department of Mysteries to continue.
> 
> I don't know particularly that I believe this, having never been 
part 
> of the Dumbledore-is-evil crowd, and especially after his apparent 
> sincerity in explaining everything to Harry in his office after 
the 
> battle.  Just speculating...

Your point about stalling for time does make sense, however, it's a 
speculation, and the very fact that the issue leaves room for 
speculation, raises such questions, and was not explicitly explained 
(when it was such a major point in the book) is an enormous flaw. We 
don't know what JK Rowling actually had in mind when she considered 
the prophecy as a weapon (is there any way to ask her?).

-Anita