OOP: The Prophecy was a Decoy

[lhunneb]

No: HPFGUIDX 63098

 "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> The whole prophecy thing doesn't make sense unless 
> Dumbledore was  using the prophecy as a decoy. 
> 
> If he believes the prophecy, Dumbledore knows Voldemort is 
> going to be vanquished. That "The one with the power to 
> vanquish the Dark Lord approaches" can only prove out if 
> someone *does* defeat Voldemort for good. So, if the prophecy 
> is genuine then Voldemort is doomed and Dumbledore knows it, 
> but Voldemort does not. The prophecy does not, in fact, contain a 
> loophole for Voldemort. At the end of OOP,  Dumbledore is still 
> trying to keep Voldemort persuaded that it did.

I don't agree.  Just because the prophesy says that there is someone 
with the POWER to defeat Voldemort doesn't mean that this person will 
be successful.  After all, the prophesy also says that one must be 
killed by the hand of the other.  That means that there is a 
possibility that it would be Voldemort who kills Harry.
> 
> 
>  Dumbledore has never, since he received the prophecy, had to 
> do anything with the object of  destroying Voldemort.  No matter 
> how powerful Voldemort becomes, he's still going to lose. The 
> real danger Dumbledore sees is twofold. One, that the one who 
> vanquishes Voldemort will be even more evil than Voldemort is. 
> Two, that Voldemort will realize he is doomed and 
> concentrate on taking as many people as he can with him.
> 
>  Harry is not a good enough actor, or occlumens, to conceal this 
> knowledge if he knew it, so Dumbledore dare not let him know. 
> Logical Hermione will probably figure it out, but Voldemort isn't 
> linked to her mind, and she's much better at keeping  her 
> thoughts to herself than Harry is.  
> 
> Meanwhile, Dumbledore is doing his best to help Harry choose 
> the good side. That is where Harry's choices count. Otherwise, 
> Dumbledore's strategy was to keep Voldemort convinced that 
> stealth was the best way to gain his objectives, so that 
> Voldemort would refrain as long as possible from open war or a 
> terrorist campaign against the populace.  
> 
> This was the goal of setting a watch on the Prophecy and 
> tempting Voldemort to try to steal it. As long as Voldemort was 
> after it, he would need to continue to keep his return a secret, 
> and not unleash his Death Eaters. I believe this is why the Death 
> Eaters did not use Unforgiveables on the DA. They couldn't risk 
> either themselves or Fudge being blamed for that many injured 
> children until their master was ready to reveal himself and they 
> didn't need Fudge's blindness anymore.
> 
> I believe the  Philosopher's Stone was also a decoy. 
> Dumbledore knew that even if Voldemort achieved the Stone, he 
> would still be defeated.  

Again, not necessarily.  And even if Dumbledore was absolutely 
convinced that Voldemort will be defeated in the end, that doesn't 
mean that Dumbledore wouldn't do everything in his power to inhibit 
Voldemort.  After all, Voldemort could do an incredible amount of 
damage to the magical community before his eventual defeat, up to and 
including destroying all the relationships and organizations that 
make the current society work.

>The reason the Stone had to be 
> destroyed was because it couldn't be guarded from Harry.  If 
> Harry achieved immortality, he would also be prolonging 
> Voldemort's life.
> 
> Pippin