Why is it significant if LV learns the whole prophecy Re: JKR ITN interview

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 144903

h2so3f wrote:
> CH3ed:
> Somebody (please forgive my atrocious lack of memory!) up
> thread speculated that the whole prophecy would alert LV
> to the vulnerability of his horcruxes. I think that makes
> sense. If LV takes the prophecy seriously that Harry has a
> realistic chance of killing him (one must die at the hand
> of the other) because the prophecy doesn't specify who
> will live, and if the only way to kill LV is to first
> destroy all of his horcruxes, then that does mean that the
> horcruxes should be checked on. And it is essential to
> Harry's mission that LV doesn't give much thought on his
> hidden horcruxes before Harry could get to and destroy all
> of them. DD doesn't think that LV is alerted physically
> when a horcrux is destroyed. Hopefully he doesn't hear
> about them being hunted either until it is too late for
> him so his last fight with Harry would be a fair one. 

Richard here:
I think you have much of this entirely correct, though a little re-
phrasing might help, as well as a couple of points being interesting 
speculative points to add.

There are two primary reasons for Voldemort to want to know the full 
prophecy, and several lesser ones, with most centering on the fact 
that knowledge is power, and in this case Voldemort is ignorant ... 
and knows it.

One reason he needs the rest of the prophecy is that he needs to be 
absolutely certain he's killing the right enemy.  Yes, he "knows" 
Harry is "the one," but ... what if the rest of the prophecy adds 
material that lets him know that Harry's survival was pure accident, 
and the REAL threat to him is someone whose parents fled to Nova 
Scotia, for example.  Much though he wants and needs to kill Harry 
(face must be saved), if he does so and Harry ISN'T the one, we're 
talking serious lapse in paranoia, here.

Second, Voldemort does not know what else the remainder of the 
prophecy may contain.  For all he knows, it may tell how he may kill 
Harry (or whoever), as well as information about the specific means 
available to "the one."  If he can obtain the full prophecy, it MAY 
tell him how best to defend himself and attack his nemesis.  But, he 
just does not know, and so must, if he is to be truly paranoid and 
obsessed with personal immortality, find out what the rest is.

One of the lesser, but still important, reason to know the prophecy 
is that it might reveal information that would indicate the strategy 
of those seeking to help "the one."  It could reveal when the threat 
is to reach its crisis.  It could identify where the crisis is to 
occur.  There are so many things it COULD reveal, and which he just 
does not know, that it must surely be an imperative for him to learn 
it, given his personal motivations and ambitions.

Now, why is it important to keep him from getting the rest of the 
prophecy?  Well, it is information, and there is SOME additional 
information in the rest, even if not much of substantive character.  
I don't see how knowing the rest would substantially aid Voldemort, 
except that it would remove a great deal of doubt from the situation 
for Voldemort, and thus allow him to expend his resources elsewhere, 
and for other purposes.  How then is this bad?  Well, if he DID 
start using his resources for other purposes, they would probably be 
used for more effective purposes in dealing with his enemies.

Think of an occupying army dealing with an active conventional war 
front and an active effective insurgency in its rear.  Significant 
forces have to be committed to dealing with security in rear areas, 
and thus are not available for use on the front.  The insurgency 
suddenly ends, and the divisions dealing with it suddenly are freed 
to serve on the front ... Bad for the other side, wouldn't you think?

To the extent Voldemort wastes time trying to learn something that 
now can only be learned from the trio, he is wasting resources that 
might be used more effectively for other purposes.  As it is, he has 
lost several supporters trying to get the prophecy, and wasted a 
good deal of time, too.

Finally, I do agree that Voldemort would be more likely to further 
protect, and even add to, his horcruxes, were he to obtain the full 
prophecy.  Knowing the little that remains unknown to him would 
allow him to refocus efforts on his personal safety, which includes 
the horcruxes.  So, let him be less than blissful in his ignorance 
of the rest of the prophecy: it keeps him from thinking and acting 
more productively in his own defense.

Richard, who likes to think strategically