OotP Spoiler -- - Connecting the Dots

[ronale7]

No: HPFGUIDX 63995

s
p
o
i
l
e
r

s
p
a
c
e


Now that it's canon that Dumbledore makes mistakes, doesn't remember 
everything he should, and doesn't tell the whole truth, let's look at 
the prophecy from another point of view, not his.

For those of you who don't have OotP at hand as you read this, I am 
retyping the prophecy as it appears in Chapter 37.  In my U.S. 
edition, this is on page 841.

   "THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD AP-
PROACHES. . . . BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE 
SEVENTH MONTH DIES . . . AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK 
HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS 
NOT . . . AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEI-THER 
CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES. . . . THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO 
VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES. . . ."

There are at least three problems with the prophecy.  First, it uses 
pronouns whose antecedents we can't be sure of.  There are perhaps 
three males we could be talking about: Harry, Voldemort, and 
Neville.  To which of these do the various "he's," "him's," etc. 
attach?

Second, the prophecy uses words and phrases that have more than one 
meaning.  

Third, those &*$%^#@ dots.  An ellipsis means one or more words have 
been left out.  Reading the prophecy is like trying to discern a face 
in a photo where significant features have been blacked out.

Let's tackle those dots first.  There are five sets of them.  Two 
sets have only three dots.  This means that words were left out from 
the middle of a sentence.

Three sets have four dots.  This can mean one of four things:

(a) the missing words are the last part of a quoted sentence
or
(b) the missing words are the first part of a quoted sentence
or
(c) the missing words are the last part of one sentence and the first 
part of the next   
or
(d) a whole sentence or more has been left out.

As I see it, we can fill in those missing parts as we choose.

Now let's look at some of those tricky words:

vanquish
does not mean to kill.  It means to overcome in battle, to gain 
mastery over someone.  Sure it suggests a complete defeat, but, I 
repeat, it does not suggest a death.

mark
can also mean to take note, as in "mark my words."

know
can mean to understand, to recognize, to be familiar with, to have 
experience of

hand
can be metaphorical or literal

Thus we have no reason to believe the power that can vanquish the 
Dark Lord will necessarily kill him.  We can believe that this power 
is something Voldemort either doesn't recognize or have any 
experience with.  We can consider that Voldemort took note of the two 
boys, Neville and Harry, and that Harry's scar is not what "mark" 
refers to.  And finally, we can decide whether the hand mentioned is 
literally the silver hand Voldemort gave Wormtail or a metaphor 
meaning the cause of an action.

Let me give my translation of that prophecy.  I will make no attempt 
to be poetic.  But I will try as hard as I can to make my meaning 
clear:

A child with the power to defeat Voldemort will soon be born.  Also 
soon to be born is another child, whose parents have defied Voldemort 
three times.  This child will be born at the end of July.  Voldemort 
will take note that the two children are equally threatening to him, 
but he will not realize that one of them has a power that he, 
Voldemort, doesn't understand or know how to use.  For this power is 
alien to Voldemort, which makes the Dark Lord very different, an 
Other.  One of these children must die because of Voldemort, and 
neither child can live if Voldemort survives.  The child with the 
power to defeat the Dark Lord will be born at the end of July.


Okay, I'm going into hiding after all that.  My apologies for its 
being so long.  Hope someone reads it.  And makes kind comments.

--Ronale Stevens