Voldemort's animus toward the Potters/the prophecy (was Replay)

[Diana]

No: HPFGUIDX 85620

To me, Voldemort's animus toward the Potters was because of his 
anger at finding out that a child would be born that *could* have 
the ulimate destiny to kill him.  And the *could* brings me to the 
prophecy.  
Voldemort only knew that a child would be born at the end of July 
(the seventh month) who could defeat him.  His spy was discovered 
and thrown from the inn, so he missed the part about Voldemort 
marking him as his equal (Harry's scar, passing on his 
powers/parseltongue) and Harry having "power the Dark Lord knows 
not" (the abiliby to love maybe?).  He also missed the important 
part about how "either must die at the hand of other for neither can 
live while the other survives."  
How is this important info to Voldemort?  Because it would tell 
Voldemort that once he kills Harry, no other force/being/wizard can 
stop him.  And it also lets Voldemort know that Harry CAN be 
killed.  At this point, after numerous attempts to kill Harry, 
Voldemort must be wondering WHY he can't seem to kill this little 
boy - he may even wonder if he is even capable (due to 
prophecy/fate/etc) of killing him at this point.    
The prophecy would give an edge to Voldemort and his followers.  
They would stop at nothing to get ahold of Harry and bring him to 
Voldemort.  There would be no more playing around if Harry was in 
front of him - Voldemort would kill him immediately as soon as he 
laid eyes on him.  Harry wouldn't be able to walk anywhere without a 
squad of wizards protecting him because every follower of Voldemort 
would be out to grab him because Voldemort would know that he can't 
take over the world at all unless Harry is dead.  
Unlike Harry, who has to have something horrible happen (Sirius 
dying in front of him) to even try one of the Unforgivable curses on 
a person, Voldemort kills without a second thought.  Harry needs 
time to learn and grow so he will be capable of taking on Voldemort 
and killing him when the time comes (book 7, of course).  And 
keeping the prophecy secret from Voldemort will give Harry that all-
important time to become Voldemort's murderer.  

To make sure the prophecy is kept secret, Dumbledore even keeps that 
old fraud Sybil Trelawney living inside Hogwarts so that all her 
future prophecies (two so far, after all) will be heard by the good 
guys -and ONLY the good guys.  

Diana L.


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "blueangelcvhp" 
<BeckyCartwright1405 at h..wrote:   
> > I don't think that really matters. If I were Voldeort, I would 
> > have 
> > tried to kill Harry and Neville. Therefore the Potters and the 
> > Longbottoms were both on his "to die" list. But maybe Frank and 
 
And another list member replied (sorry I forgot your name):
> I've never really understood why getting the prophecy was so 
> important to Voldemort. From the beginning he's been trying to 
kill 
> Harry so why was it so important to get the prophecy?It didn't 
> really tell us anything new or anything that would help Voldemort 
> defeat/kill Harry. It just seems that he spent the whole book 
trying 
> to get the thing for no real reason. It was a brilliant book and I 
> was thrilled with it the whole way through but I found the 
prophecy 
> a bit of a let down. Especially without knowing how or why the 
> Potter defied Voldemort or why he chose Harry not Nevile.