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

[Debbie]

No: HPFGUIDX 62946

"Mark D." 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.
> > 
> > Ashley wrote:
> > 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...
> 

> Anita wrote:
> 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?).

Me:
YES! We can ask her. On Friday night, there will be a live webcast 
and JK is taking questions.

As for Ashley and Mark - thank you for your explanations! Finally, it 
mostly makes sense now. Why DD didn't go over the explanation with 
Harry, I don't know. I think there were several things we were 
supposed to understand but didn't. JK should have added another line 
or two to help us out. I don't think she's trying to confuse us more 
(although I know she meant to be vague about the Veil).

I think the OoP was guarding the door to see when Voldy would break 
through Harry's inner defenses and take over him. When Arthur was 
attacked by "Harry", then they knew. As for leading Voldy on a wild 
goose chase about the prophecy - awesome! And saving many lives 
too....wait a minute...if Voldy is just waiting around to make his 
move, I don't think he'd be killing people anyway, so I guess that 
trashes part of that theory. I just wish she would've explained that 
a little more. 

But some questions now seem answered. Thanks to all.

-Debbie