Who knows? DD knows, that's who.

[carolynwhite2]

No: HPFGUIDX 117949


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, a paranoid Barry Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

>OK. It's that Prophecy again. 
>There it sat on a shelf in the Ministry, gathering dust, complete 
>with it's own little label dated 16 years previously - "S.P.T. to 
>A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?)Harry Potter.

Carolyn:
I think it is a very interesting question what is going on in the 
Hall of Prophecies. For a start, it appears that the keeper must know 
what the prophecies contain, otherwise how could he have re-labelled 
the orb ? If he doesn't, and was only acting on instructions, who 
told him to re-label? Dumbledore? How convenient.

And what a great job. Snooping around all those shelves with a 
duster, pursing your lips over so-and-so prophecy: `ha..they won't 
like it when their number comes up
wonder if he's still alive
 that 
was a crap seer, always gets things wrong
.serve `em right
'  

Bet the Keeper gets bought a few lunches.

But does it stop at a nod and a wink? Worryingly, of the four people 
we have had identified as working in the Department of Mysteries 
(Bode, Croaker, Rookwood, Avery), two are DEs, and a third was easily 
Imperioed, then murdered. The fourth is unpromisingly 
called 'Croaker' – who's he destined to talk to?
 
But, intriguingly, neither Rookwood nor Avery felt inclined to tell 
their master what went on at the Department before they ended up in 
Azkaban all those years ago. Why not? It would have saved Voldie a 
lot of grief if he'd been able to hear the prophecy in its entirety 
before GH, but from the evidence of Harry's dreams, Voldemort did not 
even have a clear mental picture of what the Department of Mysteries 
looked like until they explained it to him 16 years later (Ch 26, 
OOP). Even then, Avery got some crucial facts wrong, and delayed 
Voldemort's plans by many months.

Could it be that both were/are hedging their bets because they knew 
something more powerful than the Dark Lord was emerging from the 
research department ?

What does the Department of Mysteries do anyway? FB&WTFT mentions 
that, unlike the other six departments at the MoM, it is possibly not 
answerable to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (the largest 
department at the Ministry, under Fudge's direct control). So, who 
does it answer to? Effectively, it's a secret intelligence service, 
pursuing its own agenda, collecting prophecies about future events 
from around the WW.
 
Who is on the circulation list for the analysis reports? Probably not 
Fudge. A security risk if there ever was one. Bet he's only been 
cleared for need-to-know, deniable information. But Dumbledore? 
Probably acts as a specialist advisor, even though he's not formally 
on the staff.
 
And then there are the clandestine research activities. The time 
room. The brains floating in tanks. The locked room. Could they have 
finally discovered something more powerful than magic ? DD certainly 
hints that that's the case: 'a force that is at once more wonderful 
and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the 
forces of nature.' Crikey; hope they've put in for a Ludicrous Patent 
up on Level 7.
 
And apparently, whatever this force is, our Harry has it in 
spades: 'That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also 
saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to 
reside in a body so full of the force he detests...it was your heart 
that saved you.' 

Queue stirring music. 
 
Now, this is all very touching, that Harry cares for Sirius enough to 
die for him, but like Lily's sacrifice before that, he's scarcely the 
first human being to feel such emotions about someone he loves, 
surely?  Why can't anyone else kill Voldie? Why should these well-
known human responses identify only him as the nemesis of one of the 
most powerful dark wizards the WW has ever known?  
 
Well, not to disappoint Harry or anything, but in truth it's all a 
bit beside the point.
It is probably more useful to view the Possession incident rather as 
a lab test, where DD is checking a hypothesis about the way Harry and 
Voldemort are likely to interact.
 
Look at the calm way he says 'Are you all right?'  to Harry, after 
the boy has experienced the equivalent of the electric chair. After 
pulling Harry to his feet, there's not even a brief hug, or manly 
clap on the shoulder. An  'apparently satisfied' DD moves on promptly 
to dealing with Fudge. It's a pretty clinical reaction. The outcome 
of an experiment had been correctly predicted; the subject had 
responded as expected. 

Yes, yes, it's probably all true that Harry has a particular innate 
ability to focus his emotional energy, and that's something that 
hurts this particular Dark Lord real bad. Stands to reason really, 
he's scarcely human, and has lodged a chunk of himself in Harry's 
head which is probably helping to fine-tune the effect. What with the 
research department as back up, they'll find a Final Solution at some 
point. If necessary, the back-up, Neville Longbottom could be put on 
as a substitute if Harry backs out.

Dumbledore's seen it all before. He's getting to be an expert on evil 
overlords, and the latest incarnation isn't really proving that much 
of a challenge to such an experienced bomb disposal expert. DD 
thought Tom might be a harder nut to crack, since he'd taught him 
himself originally, but Voldy's making all the mistakes in the book.

Kneasy:
>>>Two things -
1. DD knows much more than he's let on so far,
2. I bet there's more to come about prophecies; I bet there's another 
one somewhere, probably from Cassandra Trelawney. >>>


Carolyn:
In fact when you think about it, isn't Dumbledore doing rather too 
well? Effortlessly, it seems he's a step ahead all the time. Sitting 
up there in his office, sucking sherbet lemons. He's been proved 
right about Voldie and as a result, can kick ass at the Ministry. 
They've only lost Sirius so far, who was a liability anyway. The 
kid's a bit upset, granted, but, hey, welcome to the real world; he 
needs to grow up. Various key players are all in position – the rat, 
Snape. He has a good idea who might try to betray him, or be unequal 
to their task.

Voldy, by contrast, is on his knees. None of his best curses work on 
the brat, his wand's about as much use as stick of celery, and even 
his trademark speciality, Possession, has left him with some nasty 
burn marks all over his nice new hands. Most of his top team are 
(temporarily) banged up in Azkaban; he's trapped in a cave somewhere 
having to listen to the ravings of lunatic Bella, and he also still 
doesn't know what's in the prophecy, dammit. The only people he can 
rely on are the Dementors, and frankly they are not great company. 

But are we so very sure that we understand what Dumbledore is up 
to ?  People are fond of insisting that `he's the epitome of 
goodness', as though no further explanation is required. Hm. By that 
is meant, perhaps, a person adhering to higher moral values, who 
always tries to do the right thing? Who wouldn't be satisfied with 
just killing Tom Riddle and knows there are things much worse than 
death ?  That sort of stuff can go to your head, you know, 
understanding so clearly what is right and what is wrong, especially 
when there are few people to argue with you.

He is also old, very, very old, and extremely tired. In practical 
terms, despite being such a Good Person, his efforts at trying to 
steer the WW into becoming a more acceptable society frankly haven't 
come to much. In fact, he's really beginning to wonder what's the 
point of it all, if the WW never learns.

And then there's a couple of other prophecies to consider:
''..at the solstice will come a new..' said the figure of an old 
bearded man' 
`...and none will come after'..said the figure of a young woman.'

Over the years these factors have persuaded him to believe the WW is 
doomed, and the Right Thing, the Best Thing would be to help speed 
its end. He has laid his plans accordingly. He intends to wake the 
sleeping dragon under Hogwarts, and whilst it is defending the school 
in the coming battle against Voldemort, he will destroy the source of 
all magic that it was guarding.

Meanwhile, Lucius and Rookwood are scheming to use the force in the 
locked room at the MoM to zap Voldy themselves. 

And, as in all the best thrillers, a confused, but honourable 
schoolboy will get caught in the crossfire, and eventually determine 
the course of events at the cost of his own life.

Carolyn
Who thinks Kneasy is a bad influence