Why were the sacrifices different? (was: A moral theory of Magic )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 95462

Carol wrote: 
> > If the Prophecy said straight out, "Harry Potter will destroy
> > Voldemort," there would be no mystery, no suspense, and no free
will, only predestination, which I don't think is what JKR intends.
> 
> 
> Kneasy:
> Dumbledore and JKR have shot your fox. OoP Chap 37.
> 
> "...so does that mean that...that one of us has got to kill the
other one..
> in the end?"
> 
> "Yes," said Dumbledore.
> 
> Not a lot of choice there. The Prophesy is introduced and three
pages later DD tells us what it all boils down to. Harry will kill
Voldy or vice versa. No ifs, buts or maybes.

Carol responds:

Harry's choices are
1) To meet his doom or to avoid it (what's right vs. what's easy; we
know which choice he'll make, but nevertheless, he *must* make it)
2) To confront Voldemort or wait for Voldemort to confront him
3) To "murder" Voldemort (Harry's own word) or find some other way to
destroy him--so the "how" is the big choice. IMO (I know you don't
agree), he has to find a way that doesn't bring him down to LV's
level--a way to defeat evil without using evil means (not to mention a
way that gets around the problem of the "brother" wands)

IMO, the ifs, buts, and maybes do exist. They involve how and when and
which of the two will die. (We can pretty much guess that last one,
but Harry can't.) And note that LV hasn't yet learned that the best
way to fulfill a prophecy is to attempt to thwart it. Maybe Harry can
use that blind spot of Voldemort's to destroy him.

Harry is not predestined to defeat or kill Voldemort, much less at a
certain time and in a certain way. He is simply the only one in the WW
with the power to do so. If he doesn't do it, no one else can or will.

There is also, I think, the possibility that Harry, who is not
immortal, could be killed before the final confrontation. (*We* know
that won't happen, but the characters don't.) Both Quirrell and
Crouch!Moody have attempted to kill Harry and would have succeeded had
other characters (Snape and Hermione on the one hand and Dumbledore on
the other) intervened. Or do you think that their interventions were
predetermined and that Fate or some other power has determined that
Harry will survive until the final confrontation no matter what? If
so, Snape and DD are not acting of their own accord and Quirrell and
Barty Jr. are not experiencing the consequences of their own choices.
It's all just a pointless acting out of the will of the Fates or
whoever is in charge, and any talk of choices is meaningless. (At the
risk of being jumped on yet again, it's rather like Frodo's choice of
taking or not taking the One Ring. It was his burden, but it could not
be forced on him. He had to *choose* to take it, regardless of the
consequences to himself.) 

Destiny (being fate's chosen agent) is not necessarily predestination,
and however limited Harry's choices, he must still make them, just as
his mother did before him. Both Harry and Voldemort have already made
choices that turned out to be mistakes. They will face other choices,
and perhaps make more mistakes, before the final confrontation. And
it, too, will involve choices. You yourself have said that he'll
probably be tempted by the Dark Side but will end up (presumably) on
the side of good, facing his duty squarely. And isn't that a choice?

Carol