Help me understand the importance of the prophecy, please

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 82136

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "leb2323" <lbiles at f...> wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan"
> <tim_regan82 at h...> 
> wrote:
> > > > 7) neither can live while the other survives . . . 
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
> <arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> 
> > A while back I speculated that this one stretches a bit further
> > than you've cast your net.
> > 
> > The two of 'neither' could be James and Lily, the 'other', Harry.
> > 
> > So it would be foretold that if Harry is to survive, James and 
Lily 
> > must die. Helps with the elimination of Neville, too. His parents
> > survived.
> > 
> > The rest of the posters were overwhelmed - by apathy!
> > If you're interested it was 'That Damn Prophecy - an alternative
> > take.' (75081)
> > 
> > Kneasy
> 
> Wow!  When I read this post the fireworks and allelluiah chorus 
went 
> off in my head.  I must have missed it the first time around because
> I reached a point where I was so burnt out on trying to figure out
> the prophecy that I just began ignoring it and skipping those 
posts.  
> 
> This makes perfect sense.  Neither can live while the other 
survives. 
> They died to protect Harry and had they handed him over presumably 
LV 
> would have let them live.  Don't we hear him tell Lily in one of 
> Harry's dementor flashbacks that he doesn't want to kill her and 
just 
> hand him the child?

Richard here ...

I think you are both so far off the canonical reservation as to be on 
a wholly different story line.  I'm not trying to be rude, but you 
just don't seem to be reading this prophecy, and looking at its 
context, logically.

The prophecy is about Voldemort and Harry, and the "neither" refers 
to Harry and Voldemort.  Now, the "Harry et Voldemort" parts are both 
presumptive, since it only refers to the the one who can vanquish 
the "Dark Lord," but we all understand what was being said was about 
Voldemort as the Dark Lord, and Harry from the clues of date of 
birth, parental defiance and being marked by Voldemort as 
his "equal."  BUT, you've dragged in James and Lily as the "neither," 
which makes no sense at all!  The tip off is the part that preceeds 
the "neither," which says that one must die by the other's 
hands, "... for neither can live while the other survives."

Obviously, neither James nor Lily died by (or at or anything) Harry's 
hands.  Harry was an toddler at best, and the target of an attempted 
murder.  Both of Harry's parents were murdered by Voldemort.  If 
that "neither" meant what you think it meant, Harry would have had to 
kill ONE of them, but then the neither requires that he kill BOTH of 
them BY HIS HAND, else he cannot live.

Now, if you look at it as being about Harry and Voldemort, it makes 
sense.  Harry is Voldemorts nemesis and vice versa.  Either Voldemort 
must die at Harry's hands for Harry to live, or Voldemort must kill 
Harry for Voldemort to live.

Now equally as obviously, both are alive now (in the story line, post 
OotP), which would seem to be in direct conflict with the prophecy.  
However, I think neither is "living" in a certain sense: each 
is "seized of" the other's existence, and the threat this poses to 
each others' lives.  Until one of them is dead, BOTH are stuck in a 
conflict that must end in death for one of them.

leb continued:
> I hope you get feedback this time because I would love to read 
> response to this!
> 
> leb


Well, you got your wish, but I don't think you got quite what you 
expected.  I don't and can't agree with your interpretation, and 
cannot see how you confused the English to arrive at it.


Richard, whose English major mother is showing through.