Destiny & Predestination (Re: Why were the sacrifices different? )

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 95539

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> 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?

Jen: I see where our disagreement is, Carol, over whether Harry was 
born with the Power (activated and augmented by LV's and Lily's 
choices) or marked as the one with the Power only after LV's attack.

To me, being fate's chosen agent IS predestination. If LV was chosen 
by the Fates to be an agent of the Prophecy, he has no free will. He 
is forced to choose in order to fulfill the Prophecy, not because he 
is acting of his own volition. Who he chooses makes no difference 
because he is acting only in the Prophecy's best interest and not his 
own. 

IF, on the other hand, LV discovers that Harry was born with a Power 
that no one else possesses and it could be his own (LV's) undoing, he 
has a real choice to make: "Do I wait until he gets older? Do I kill 
him now? Do I try to hide him somewhere and hope he never realizes he 
has this power? Do I try to injure him and hopefully ruin his power?" 

In choosing to attempt murder against Harry as a baby (by LV's own 
free will), LV inadvertently bestows upon Harry additional powers and 
also happens to fulfill the next part of the Prophecy in the bargain, 
marking Harry as his equal. 

If LV is *not* merely an agent of the Prophecy, but free to choose, 
another choice like waiting until Harry is older would have a 
different outcome from the one that happened at Godric's Hollow. So 
when Harry suggests LV chould have waited to see "which one was 
stronger" out of he and Neville, Harry was right--another choice 
would have given a different outcome. 

If LV's merely an agent of the Prophecy, any choice he makes leads to 
its fulfillment. If he had chosen Neville, the same events would 
occur to mark Neville as his equal. IF LV waited to decide on one or 
the other, he would still mark one as his equal whenever he chose (or 
events would cause this to occur 'accidentally' because the Prophecy 
*must* be fulfilled). 

Harry being born "with the Power" is not predestination. Like a child 
who can sing beautifully by age three or who innately understands 
mathmatics by age four, Harry has an in-born ability to defeat LV. 
Does he have to use it? No. Does a child have to sing or do math just 
because he/she can do so beautifully? No. In fact, the gift can be a 
burden and perhaps the person will turn away from the very thing that 
is a gift. Perhaps we'll see Harry do this is the next book--"I don't 
*want* to be the One. Give me a break, Dumbledore."

But, as my DH says, "Why write seven books about Harry if he's not 
the One?!?" Harry will come around to his *destiny*, which isn't the 
same as his predestination (see, we do agree on one thing <g>).

Just my two knuts--Jen