The Prophecy

[Arya]

No: HPFGUIDX 104491

> <catlady at w...> wrote:
> > Suppose The Other is a third party. 'Either (The Dark Lord or the One
> > or both) must die at the hand of The Other for neither (The Dark Lord
> > or the One) can live while The Other survives'. 
------------------
>  "carin_in_oh" <aldhelm at e...> wrote:
> To me the strongest argument against the Third Party argument is the exchange 
> between Harry and Dumbledore that concludes the discussion of the prophecy 
(OotP 
> Scholastic hb, p. 844):
> 
> Harry: "So does that mean that... that one of us has got to kill the other one...in 
the 
> end?
> 
> Dumbledore: "Yes."
> 
> When Harry asks that straightforward a question and Dumbledore gives that 
> straightforward an answer, I think we've got to take it at face value. We know that 
DD is 
> a very important conduit of authorial information. And there's no way in the logic 
or 
> context of what Harry has just heard that he could be introducing some 
mysterious, 
> unnamed "other" into the conversation when he says "one of us has got to kill the 
other 
> one." Harry has got to mean simply Voldemort or Me. So even if there is a fair bit 
of 
> ambiguity in the prophecy itself, this exchange narrows the ambiguity 
substantially.
---------------

So perhaps that is just what Dumbledore believes.  Do you not think that Harry will 
attenpt to comtemplate alternative meanings to the prophecy?  Do you not think 
that Hermione, if and when she is told, will not dissect each and every word of that 
prophecy with a dictionary and thesaurous at hand just like we are?  I think Harry 
will most certainly wish to find as many alternatives to the prophecy once he learns 
that his fate is limited only to that which can be in accoradance with the damn 
prophecy.  

Therefore, it matters not if Dumbledore thinks things can only be one way and it 
doesn't even matter if things are really are only one way--it matters which 
interpretations are *possibly* derived and plausible to Harry as he attempts to deal 
with it and prepare or....not.  

Unless there is a standard book of interpretting prophecy's that Dumbledore didn't 
mention to Harry, I think all possibilities are indeed "valid" if not for no other 
reason than, allowing Harry his interpretation gives him some semblance of choice 
in the matter.  

Arya