Does a prophecy have to be fulfilled? (Why is everyone so convinced ...)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 82354

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "slgazit" <slgazit at s...> wrote:
<snip>
> No. A prophecy must be fulfilled. The fact that it is heard and who 
> actually hears it is part of the conditions that set out its 
> fulfillment. In that way, it is no coincidence that it was DD that 
> heard the first prophecy and Harry that heard the second. The 
> prophecy *would not have happened* without the right set of 
> listeners. That of course includes the eavesdopper. For the 
>prophecy to be fulfilled, DD had to hear the entire thing, as he was 
>the best person around to help bring it about - and the spy had to 
>hear just enough of it to get Voldemort to act on it thereby sealing 
>his doom.
> 
> It may sound like a circular argument, but it works somewhat like 
> the time turner in PoA. To save people in the present, their future 
> selves had to do the right things at the right time. In some 
> respects, the prophecy is a message from the future designed to set 
> in motion the right sequence of events to bring about what it 
> predicts.
 

Jen: 

You make an interesting point here, comparing the Prophecy to the 
time turner.  I totally agree that Dumbledore was somehow *chosen* to 
hear the 1st Prophecy, and that the process of fulfilling a Prophecy 
can be very different from what the listener expects. 

The part I continue to wonder about though, is whether a prophecy 
*has* to be fulfilled.  Since you compared the Prophecy to the time 
turner, we have this remark from canon:

"...Hasn't your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, 
Harry? The consequences of our actions are so complicated, so 
diverse, that predicting the future is very difficult, indeed....." 
(Dumbledore, POA chap. 21, p. 426).

This indicates there are many (almost infinite) ways the future can 
play out. But if a Prophecy *must* be fulfilled, and a certain path 
*must* be taken, i.e. there has to be an eavesdropper who only hears 
the first part and Voldemort must act on that part, etc., then a 
person's choices along the way aren't required. It is a pre-ordained 
outcome.

Besides negating the canon information we have about choice, this 
theory of prophecies also indicates that the fates (or whatever 
governs prophecies), have an opinion on the outcome--they determine a 
certain one to be *right*. If Voldemort needs to attempt to kill 
Harry to "seal his doom" as you said, then the fates aren't observers 
but participants who are actively trying to bring about LV's end.  

Now that's an option--JKR can make her fates do whatever she wants! 
But the choice factor is undermined if certain events have been 
prescribed by the future. 

Also, if all the prophecies at the MOM are certain of being 
fulfilled, why are they stored? I guess they could be safeguarding 
them, but if the future has already predicted the events that will 
take place to fulfill a prophecy, then there's no need to safeguard 
them. And they wouldn't be keeping results data if they are all 
fulfilled. How would that piece fit in?

My opinion is that a Prophecy is made to a chosen person at the point 
a situation has reached "critical mass" --the time at which a 
Prophecy has the highest probability of coming true. A person's 
actions (or non-actions) can still interfere with the process of 
fulfillment. Now whether my opinion coincides with JKR's beliefs--
well let's say my predictive abilities are far below average so far!