LV not fulfulling the terms of the prophecy? (long)

[gelite67]

No: HPFGUIDX 128277

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "littleleahstill" 
<littleleah at h...> wrote:
> Angie wrote:
> What the heck did DD mean in OOP when he told Harry that, "He [LV}
> set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was
> fulfulling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his 
cost,that
> he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired."
> and in a later post:
> "nkafkafi" wrote:
> > <snip>
> Lets look at the prophecy from Voldy's POV. Try to
> > forget for a moment that you know the second half, and look only 
at
> > the part that HE knows:
> >
> > "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... 
> born
> > to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month
> dies..."
> >
> <major heinous snip>
> 
> Angie replies:
> It just occured to me as I read your post: How could LV think he
> was "fulfulling" this prophesy, when it didn't require him to DO
> anything? He had nothing to do with the "one" who was approaching.
> 
> Am I being too simplistic or hyper-technical?
> 
> Leah;
> Excuse me massively snipping these posts. I've read through the 
> thread and I don't think Angie has had an answer to something I've 
> never noticed before and is a really interesting question. 

<snip, sorry> 

  By trying to destroy Prophecy Boy, Voldemort is 
> acting in a long tradition of mythic villains.  Perseus, Oedipus, 
> Jason, Paris, were all prophesied as bringing doom on their fathers 
> and grandfathers, and were therefore sent away, exposed on 
mountains 
> etc in an attempt to defeat the terms of the prophecies ( and of 
> course thereby bringing about the conditions to fulfill them). But 
> Perseus' grandfather and the others weren't trying to fulfill the 
> prophecies, they were trying to prevent that fulfillment, and the 
> general assumption, I think it's safe to say, is that Voldemort is 
> also trying to prevent the prophecy from coming true, ie. prevent 
> his vanquishing, even though his actions in doing so are a mistake 
> from his point of view. 
> 
<snip>
  To fulfill the prophecy by killing Harry, 
> Harry must be the Dark Lord, and Voldemort the one with the power 
to 
> vanquish him.    I hope that doesn't make sense.  And it doesn't in 
> terms of the prophecy  wording. > 
> 
Angie again (who greatly appreciates Leah's post and wonders if 
anyone has officially been driven crazy by this series!):

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I wish I'd said that!  That's been 
nagging at me for a while and I couldn't put it into words.  

That makes sense, that Voldy was trying to defeat the prophecy. Even 
though Voldemort hadn't heard the entire prophecy, he knew enough to 
know that he wanted to get rid of anyone with the power to vanquish 
him.  

But I wonder why crafty old JKR didn't have DD just say that, 
instead, if that was the case?  It makes sense that Voldy, (who 
obviously had never read about Perseus, Oedipus, Jason, or Paris) 
thought he was fulfulling the "must die" part of the prophecy, but of 
course it doesn't make sense because he hadn't heard that part of the 
prophecy yet at the time he tried to kill Harry -- aaaargh!  Is there 
a cure?????