OOP: Possibly a *really* silly question about the prophecy

[Brooke]

No: HPFGUIDX 63761


> 
> As I ruminated over the previous books and what I consider their 
> biggest flaws (PS/SS - why even bother retaining the stone?; CoS - 
> Harry's refusal to talk about the parseltongue; PoA - possibly 
Lupin 
> forgetting to take the Wolfsbane draught?; GoF - why all that 
bother 
> on Barty Jr.'s part waiting all through the school year just to get 
> Harry into the graveyard where they could have portkeyed him easily 
> enough from the beginning of the year), I looked at the big picture 
> and came to this question:
> 
> Why the heck, when it was clear enough to those who knew just about 
> everything but weren't imparting that knowledge to those who needed 
> to know, instead of placing a guard at the Department of Mysteries, 
> why didn't they just either move the bloody prophecy or destroy it 
> themselves?
> 
> There certainly were enough people who belonged to the Order that 
> worked at the MoM to have arranged somehow to do such a thing. And 
> they certainly didn't *need* to have that particular prophecy 
> recorded if Dumbledore had been a witness to it.
> 
> And, just like the stone, they *knew* Voldemort was after it. Yet, 
> they left it there anyway.
> 
> So? Let us discuss.
> 
> Shelagh
> encouraging a nice debate



That sort of irked me as well.  Why didn't AD get rid of the prophecy 
years ago?  Maybe he has a soft spot for posterity.  The way I 
justified it in my mind was that Harry was the only person who could 
actually take the prophecy from the shelf (remember, V needed Harry 
to retrieve it for him because V himself could not lay his hands on 
it, otherwise he would have just gotten it himself).  So maybe Harry 
was in essence the only person who had the ability to destroy the 
prophecy?  Then again, the Death Eaters made sure not to harm Harry 
or the DA until they had the prophecy safely in their posession- they 
were afraid that it would get destroyed during the rumble.  They 
obviously needed the prophecy intact, and it seemed like once Harry 
took it from the shelf, anyone could touch it.  Aah! I think I just 
talked myself into a circle??  Much like time travel, this whole 
prophecy thing befuddles me!   

Brooke