Why is the prophecy written the way it is?

[mompowered]

No: HPFGUIDX 137865

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "adamjmarcantel" 
<adamjmarcantel at y...> wrote:
> "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
> ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have
> power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand 
of
> the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one
> with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the 
seventh
> month dies..."
> (The above is taken from the Lexicon)
> 
> An interesting thought occured to me as I am sitting here looking 
for
> clues about Snape and what is ultimate role will be.  Before going 
any
> further, I will say I am one who believes Snape will be redeemed (I
> also think Draco will be redeemed, but that is another topic).  Ok,
> the first line of the prophecy SEEMS to say the same as the last, 
but
> knowing what we know about a certain eavesdropper, could the first
> line be in the present tense? Sybil could have been telling DD that
> the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord
> approaches...literally...he could be right outside.  I only thought
> this because it seems such an odd way to begin and end the
> prophecy...why couldn't she just say "The one with the power to
> vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies" to
> start with?  Why begin it the way she does?  Does the whole 
prophecy
> discuss one person?  JK rarely phrases things, especially important
> things, in a random, haphazard way.  I am convinced there is a 
reason
> the prophecy was written like this.
> 
> Go ahead and poke holes in this...I will just send you the bill 
for my
> counseling :0)
> 
> Adam

Hello, 

I also had this idea a while back, check the following post for my 
comments:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/134657

I like thinking of the "approaches" in the immediate sense, but it 
was a stretch to make the rest of the prophecy fit Snape instead of 
Harry...so I am not sure if I actually believe this theory myself, 
still it's fun to theorize.  I think the prophecy refers to two 
people, and not more  -- the One and the Dark Lord.  We assume the 
One spoken of here is Harry and the Dark Lord spoken of is 
Voldemort, but wouldn't it be a twist if the One spoken of here was 
Snape (if you believe in a Good!Snape who would use the "power he 
knows not" to destroy Voldemort), or the Dark Lord is actually not 
Voldie, but Snape (if you believe in TW!Snape and want Harry to 
finish off Voldie and then go after Snape).  I'm sure Voldie isn't 
the first to call himself, or have others call him a Dark Lord (look 
at Sauron is LOTR...the "Dark Lord on his Dark Throne").

As I said once before, though, one thing that might blow this theory 
out of the water was that Harry was able to take the prophecy off 
the shelf in the Department of Mysteries.  Then again, this could 
just be because his name was written on the prophecy.

Cheryl