Help me understand the importance of the prophecy, please

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 82087

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan" <tim_regan82 at h...> 
wrote:
 > My main problem is that it appears really lame. It doesn't tell 
> anybody much that they didn't already know.

> that "the knowledge of how to destroy" Harry is what "he has been 
> seeking so assiduously since his return". I.e. Voldemort is hunting 
> for a book called "Killing Harry Potter for Dummies". Instead he's 
> told by the prophecy's additional clauses that he's failed to kill 
> Harry already (4), that Harry has mysterious powers (5), and that 
he 
> needs to get a move on and kill Harry (6) and (7). Wow – how lame 
is 
> that? It's probably lucky Voldemort didn't get the orb for he'd 
>have to take it back and demanded a refund!
> 
> I haven't had a chance to trawl back through all the interesting 
> posts about the prophecy, so it may well be that these issues have 
> already been covered in full. If that's the case please please 
> please just point me to the relevant posts.


Jen: Thank you for the funny post, Dumbledad! I was chuckling all the 
way through, remembering my own "And?...this is it?" first reaction 
to the Prophecy after reading 800+ pages to get there.

For myself, I've decided that the content of the Prophecy wasn't the 
main point. There has been debate that some words are missing, or 
there's a trick to it and "either must die at the hand of the other 
for neither can live while the other survives . . ." actually means 
something different from what it appears to mean. (See below for one 
thread--I couldn't find the others).

But the part that was a revelation to me is the *existence* of the 
Prophecy at all, and how it ties together three ideas that before (to 
my mind anyway) existed separately: 

1) Voldemort targeted Harry and somehow transferred powers to him 
instead of killing him.
2) Lily died to save Harry and provided the blood protection
3) Dumbledore arranged for Harry to stay at the Dursleys until he 
could safely arrive at Hogwarts.  

Up until the point of the Prophecy and Dumbledore's explanation, we 
never had anything substantial tying these three things together, 
except our guesses that they were somehow intertwined. Now we know 
for sure there was/is a *PLAN*. 

We debate what the plan is, when it started and where it's going, but 
we know for sure that these three events were a result of Dumbledore 
and Voldemort both having knowledge (at least some) of the Prophecy, 
and that knowledge directed their actions. 

That's pretty simplistic, but it's where I am at the moment in 
regards to the Prophecy. Next week, who knows?!?

There were some threads discussing the actual wording of the Prophecy 
back in July and August.  I found one in August starting here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/74922

Jen