Prophecy Showdown, 1997

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 82318

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bohcoo" <sydenmill at m...> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> OOP, ch. 34, pages 778 and 779:
> "'Ninety-seven!' whispered Hermoine.
> 
 staring at one of the dusty glass spheres on the shelves."
> 
> 
> Okay, so now we know WHEN the ultimate confrontation between 
> Voldemort and Harry Potter will take place: a short time before the 
> end of the year 1997. I'll put my bet on Halloween. . .
> 
 
Although I think, it would be very clever from Voldemort, to attack 
Hogwarts at the beginning of september 1997, when nobody expects it, 
I am willing to put all my money of June 1998 as the date for the big 
showdown.

This has several reasons:  
1. It's always at the end of the school year, and I can't imagine it 
being different in book 7.
2. It's impossible to know when the prophecy will be fulfilled. 
Dumbledore says, he didn't know, when V would return. If he knew, 
that 97 was the year of the big showdown, he would also knew, that it 
wouldn't take Voldemort that long to come back.
3. If Dumbledore doesn't know this, the wizard (or witch) who 
labelled the prophecy can't know either. How could they know?
Trelawney didn't give a date.
4. The Dark Lord needs some time, to become more terrible than ever. 
Two years is still not very much, but it's more than one year.

So I think the 97 is just coincidence. It might be a hint from JKR, 
but I highly doubt it.  

Hickengruendler