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

[shelaghcol]

No: HPFGUIDX 63819

I'll start out with a rather nonsensical sentence to use up spoiler 
space along with throwing in some meaningless asterisks, pound signs 
and other non-letter-related keyboard symbols.
@@@
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~~~
***
+++
>>>
&&&
@@@
###
~~~
***
+++
>>>
&&&

Okay, that should be sufficient.

Since this was such a pivotal part of the plot and ultimately, was a 
direct contributor to Sirius' demise, I'd like to throw this out to 
the group for discussion.
 
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 the Order just either move the bloody prophecy or destroy 
it themselves instead of leaving it there for just anyone totally 
naughty to find?

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
(with many thanks to the mods for saving me from the need to recreate 
this post)