Why Harry will Live

[Josh Warren]

No: HPFGUIDX 110554

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "misty_december" 
<misty_december at y...> wrote:
> II was thinking about the last part of the prophecy 
> today and decided to approach it logically.  I am horrible at 
logic, so maybe someone will blow some holes in it and relieve me!
> 
> "And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live 
> while the other survives" OP pg.841
> 
> "Neither can live while the other survives" == One *must* survive 
> this duel, or else neither one will die.  The only way one dies is
> if the *other* survives.

What you are attempting is to find the contrapositive... the glass-
half-opposite truth of any statement... for example, given the 
statement that "all apples are fruit", the contrapositive is "no non-
fruit are apples" ... it's the negative-reverse, or to apply 
DeMorgan's Law in Boolean Algebra, Not(A or B) = Not A and Not B.

Unfortunately, there are no happy contrapositives in this prophesy. 
Except for the "at the hand of", both parts say essentially the same 
thing... The One and the Dark Lord will be irresistably drawn into 
battle with each other until the combination no longer exists... i.e. 
at least one of them is dead. "one must die" does not mean that "one 
must live" but that "both cannot live". "neither can live" by itself 
would be that "both must die" except that the "while the other 
survives" means that the death of one MAY exempt the other from this 
requirement... i.e. it IS possible that the final battle may yield a 
survivor, but there are no guarantees.

Josh