Why not let Harry destroy the Prophecy from the beginning?

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 132665

davenclaw <daveshardell at y...> wrote:
> I have another question about the Prophecy:
> 
> Since it was ultimately of little consequence that the orb recording 
> the prophecy was destroyed, why didn't the Order just have Harry go 
in 
> and destroy it from the beginning, rather than have people risk their 
> lives to guard it?  

zgirnius:
Interesting question, I never really considered it before. (The end of 
OotP is just too action-filled for reasoned consideration I guess!)

Well, prior to the end of GoF, there was no reason to worry about the 
prophecy in the DoM, since only Harry (who does not know about it) or 
Voldemort (who is not around) can access it. So why not have Harry 
retrieve and destroy it? I agree that the value of keeping the prophecy 
from Harry to keep him happier is not worth the risks it entailed. 
Possible other reasons that come to me:

1) Voldemort is back, but the MoM refuses to acknowledge this. HE wants 
the prophecy to understand what went wrong the first time. By guarding 
the prophecy the Order hopes to force an open move by Voldemort and/or 
the Death Eaters, which can then be used to expose 
the truth of his return to the WW at large. This might arguably be a 
sufficiently important reason for the risk involved, since it may gain 
the Order allies, and will make "neutral" people on their guard, making 
them less vulnerable to the more underhanded methods of Voldemort and 
his followers. The prophecy is needed as "bait".

2) Who knows what the prophecy states? My reading is that at the start 
of OotP, the answer is "only Dumbledore". This is a very good state of 
affairs if we assume that the full prophecy may warn Voldemort of some 
danger against which he can prepare himself, or may save Voldemort from 
making some mistake he would otherwise make. (I'm not good at 
Divination...count me in with Hermione there, so don't ask me WHAT LV 
could possibly learn that is of use. But maybe Dumbledore is better at 
this sort of thing that I!) The the problem with having Harry fetch the 
prophecy and destroy it is that Voldemort may be able to learn of its 
contents from Harry using the "scar link" and his Legilimency. (Since 
Dumbledore confides the secret at the end of the book, we must assume 
if we buy this theory that Dumbledore now believes that Harry will be 
able to keep Voldemort out of his mind in the future...)

3) My imagination has run out of steam...