Did the Potters know the prophecy?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 117301


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "katevldz" <kb1195 at h...> wrote:
> 
> In the middle of reading PoA (again), I began to wonder, did Lily and 
> James know about the prophecy?  Did DD ever tell them exactly what 
> Trelawney said that night?  
>
> ...edited...
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> kate, 

bboyminn:

I think the first thing we need to do is make a distinction between
knowing ABOUT the prophecy and literally KNOWING the Prophecy.

Lots of people know about the Prophecy, but very very few have heard
it quoted in it's entirety. Dumbledore is not one to give out
information unnecessarily; he is very much a minimalist in that
respect. So, I suspect most people got varying degrees of a summary of
the Propehcy.

First even if an infant has the power to vaquish the Dark Lord, what
can the child do about it? He can't walk, he can't talk, he doesn't
know any magic, hasn't had any training, so he's not really much of a
threat. Dumbledore and any rational person would know this. If and
when Harry was able to vanquish the Dark Lord, common sense would tell
 anyone who gave it a second thought, that that time would be in the
distant future; most likely a couple decades away. 

In the mean time, would that lead Dumbledore to say well we'll just
forget about the fact that people are being killed today and wait 20
years. I think not. While it's wonderful the /someday/ Harry will be
able to do this, they need to solve the problem right now. Reasonably,
Dumbledore would have hope to have defeated Voldemort long before
Harry grew up and that task fell to him.

Voldemort most likely had thoughts along the same line. He thought it
better to vanquish his own potential opponent while that opponent was
weak and helpless.

Rule #38 - Evil Overlord's Handbook
If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring
anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead
of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards
me in my old age.

However, even given his desire to kill young Harry (and/or Neville)
the threat wasn't immediate. Given Harry's age, Harry was unlikely to
sneak out of his crib and come crawling after Voldemort. So, I have no
concern that Voldemort waited a year and a half before attempting to
kill Harry. Voldemort is afteral, a very busy man, he's trying to take
over the world; that's very time consuming. 


Back to Dumbledore and the Potters (and probably, the Longbottoms),
I'm sure the Prophecy was cause for concern, but not cause for any
immediate action. I mean were Lily, James, and Harry suppose to go
into hiding forever? I think not, we need to look at practical
considerations. So, I suspect they cautiously went about their normal
lives.

However, at some point they weren't operating under the vague idea the
Voldemort wouldn't like having a /vanquisher/ out there. At some
point, they receive specific information via a spy that Voldemort had
immediate plans to attack the Potters and probably the Longbottoms.
Only under that imminent threat did the situation call for immediate
action. At that time, the Potters and probably the Longbottoms went
into hiding. 

Obviously, I don't see the Prophecy itself as a call to action for
Dumbledore or the Potters. However, when news that an attack by
Voldemort was imminent, certainly that called for action.

To the original point, I think the number of people who have heard a
direct quote of the Prophecy are extremely few. The number of those
who have varying degrees of general and summary knowledge of the
Prophecy is much larger. 

As to the Potters themselves, would Dumbledore have quoted it to them,
or just explained it to them? Remember that realistically, Harry has
no likelihood of fullfilling the Prophecy in next 15 to 20 years (from
his birth), so I don't think Dumbledore saw any need to quote the
Prophecy to them.

That's just one man's opinion.

Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)