What was the Order of the Phoenix?

[jodel_from_aol]

No: HPFGUIDX 101448

> 
> Jodel, they weren't just members when the kids were born, they were members
> before DD ever heard the prophecy. (see my quote in the previous reply)
> 
> Alina.

I'm sorry, but we are leaping over conclusions here. Probably both of 
us. There is no evidence that DD founded the Order before he heard the 
Prophesy. I agree that you are right, the Potters and the Longbottoms 
clearly *were* members before Harry and Neville were born. But that 
does not automatically mean that the Order was of any great 
longstanding. In fact I am personally convinced not.

For one thing, given the notorious opacity of the terms of almost any 
Prophesy one has ever encountered in fantasy literature, to the extent 
that the majority of them are only evident after they have come to 
pass, unless there was something about the circumstances under which 
that prophesy was made that narrowed the possibilities, I'd say that 
the recieved interpretation of that Prophesy as it stands already looks 
damned dodgy.

The relevant information of that prophesy were that the birth would be 
to people who had "defied" the Dark Lord three times and that the birth 
would take place as the "7th month dies". Which 7th month? The 7th 
month of the year? or the 7th month after the Prophesy was made? Are 
you sure? are you prepared to risk the welfare of the whole wizarding 
world on the outcome of a lucky guess?

So what else do we know about the circumstances regarding that 
Prophesy? Well, it was made on a "cold, wet night" and that the reason 
DD was called out in such a night was that he was giving a job 
interview. Just when, under normal circumstances, does a Headmaster 
interview prospective teachers? How about during term breaks. Hogwarts 
has three breaks in the academic year. There is the summer break at the 
end ogf June, lasting to the end of August. Not a lot of cold wet 
nights there, typically. There is the "Easter" break around the end of 
March. That one is a good deal more likely, but there is still the 
confusion of which 7th month. And there is the "Christmas" break from 
mid-December until just after New Year. From that vantage point it 
doesn't matter which interpretation you put on "the 7th month" you are 
still going to end up with the end of July, and you are more likely to 
find the weather cold and wet than otherwise.

So, barring further information -- which we may yet get -- I am going 
to postulate that the prophesy took place toward the end of the 
Christmas break around the start of the year 1980. And that Dumbledore 
reported the event immediately to the MoM. 

By the end of 10 years of terrorist activity there were probably a 
number of people who had managed the requisite 3 escapes, but it 
wouldn't have been a large number. And at that point the Potters and 
the Longbottoms may not have been the only ones to have been expecting 
children. But their boys were the only ones actually born at the 
crutial time.

I think DD founded the order, possibly folding an older organization, 
probably that of an information network, into it, and cored it with the 
people who had made the 3 escapes, their closest friends and fgamily 
members, along with his own most trusted associates.