Weapons of Mass Destruction

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 97890

probono wrote:
> Just curious. At the beginning of OotP we learn Voldy is desperately 
> searching for some all-powerful weapon; something he didn't have the 
> last time he was in power. This weapon is one of the major mysteries 
> in the book, and at the end DD explains the "weapon" Voldy was 
> seeking was actually the power to destroy Harry Potter. 
> 
> Two thoughts.
> 
> First, during most of Voldy's first reign of terror, he had no idea 
> who HP was or why he would need to destroy him. So how can HP's 
> destruction really be considered a weapon that he lacked the first 
> time around? 
> 
> Second, although DD, the Order, and the MoM all took extreme pains 
> to guard this most important "weapon", once it is revealed in the 
> end, I don't see how this could be a weapon at all or how it was 
> suppose to help Voldy destroy Harry in the first place. It just 
> doesn't seem worth the trouble or worth the loss of life and limb. 
> 
> Harry speculates at one point that this great weapon could actually 
> be him, but he dismisses the thought. <snip>

Carol:
IMO, Sirius is deliberately misleading Harry by using the word
"weapon." Consequently the reader is also misled--just as we were in
PoA when we were told by the Weasleys and virtually everyone else that
Sirius was a murderer.

And the Order members were taking great pains to keep Voldemort from
acquiring the Prophecy because doing so delayed the "war" and kept him
from striking before the other side was ready. Note what he *wasn't*
doing--amassing armies of goblins, giants, dragons, and whatever other
 "weapons" he can get his hands on. Granted, he sent Macnair to the
giants (or maybe Fudge did, at Malfoy's suggestion, not realizing that
Macnair was a Death Eater), but he was too obsessed with the Prophecy
to use the few giants who haven't killed each other.

I don't think the Prophecy is a weapon--except in the sense that
knowledge is power and Voldemort thinks he needs that knowledge. The
word, IMO, is just another red herring.

Never trust anything any character says, whether that character is
Sirius or Mr. Weasley or Voldemort. Even Hermione can be wrong if
she's not spouting facts she's read in books, and Dumbledore, wise
mentor or not, deals in half truths and partial explanations as a
matter of course. And, of course, we know not to trust Harry's
perspective. The only one who knows less than he does about the WW
(not counting the Dursleys) is the reader.

Carol