Read exciting prophecy theory!

[Paul Smith]

No: HPFGUIDX 83690

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the replies I got, I just thought I'd expand a tiny bit 
more and remind anyone who missed it of the main bits.

> Just been looking through the FAQs for OotP and a thought occured 
to me when looking at the ones concerned with the prophecy.  Are we 
> being lured by JKR into thinking Trelawny's first prediction is 
more important than it actually is?  
> 
> Consider Trelawny's second prediction in POA.  In contrast to how 
her first prediction appears, it is relatively short-term.  Apart 
from the "greater and more terrible than ever before" part, the 
prediction is concerned with the events that take place later that 
night.
> What if, contrary to popular belief, the events of the first 
> prediction have already happened?  If the second prediction was so 
> short-term, I find it entirely plausible, given the necessary 
> interpretation, that the first prediction has the same properties.
> 
> Here's how I see ambiguous discrepencies in the first prediction, 
by looking at the meaning of certain words.
> 
> vanquish
> verb  
> to defeat an opponent, especially in war: (taken from the Cambridge 
> Advanced Learners Dictionary)
> 
> If Harry had the power to defeat his opponent (especially in war), 
> then he has already done it.  Voldemort was comprehensively 
defeated 
> at Godric's Hollow, and it took him 14 years and the help of a 
> servant to be able to reply.
> 
> The fact that one of them has to die is trickier, but Voldemort was 
> *hit* by an Avada Kedavra, and so in theory did die.  His spirit 
left 
> his body as in death (I wonder what happened to that original 
body), 
> but his spirit, through whatever spell or transformation Voldemort 
> had managed, stayed in this world, rather than going on to the 
next.  
> <snip>
...my mind wanders again to whatever Wormtail has been up to, and the 
> possibility that Trelawny has made a third prediction to someone 
off-stage.  Perhaps it's been a little too convenient that her two 
> previous predictions were made in the presence of Dumbledore and 
> Harry.  Can she control when they happen, and in front of whom?  

I just thought I'd add that I don't really like the idea of Trelawny 
making another prediction, and that I hope she doesn't.  I'd like to 
think an enduring message from the series is that fate is in our own 
hands at the end of the day.  It'd be nice for Harry to not *have* to 
kill (again!), and it would be nicer if the realisation that his 
future is his to determine made him happy.  Nice bit of relief from 
all that angst.
Anyone else?  Has the first prophecy already happened?  Has it not?  
Someone put me in my place, that way I might be able to develop it a 
bit further.

Love flavoured Beans for all, Suze xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx