Prophecy (WAS Re: Why not let Harry destroy the Prophecy from the beginning?)

[vividscribbler]

No: HPFGUIDX 132693

Po:

> Also, is there any evidence in canon that the prophecy was indeed  
the weapon 
> that Voldemort was looking for?  It seems  almost inconsequential, 
especially 
> since he knew half of it  already.
>  
> - Po

Viv:

Yup, I just finished rereading OOTP today, and spotted this:

"This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his 
return: the knowledge of how to destroy you."
-Dumbledore, American version of OOTP, pg 840 (CH 37)

This comment makes me wonder, though. Dumbledore clearly states that 
Voldemort only heard the beginning lines of the prophecy, ("The one 
with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those 
that have thirce defied him, born as the seventh month dies...). 
However, just from hearing those words, and assuredly, frothing over 
it as Voldemort has apparently done for the past 16 years, the 
prophecy doesn't strike as the place to find out how to defeat 
Harry. Quite the opposite; if I were Voldemort, I would assume it 
held the information about my own demise. So then wouldn't it have 
been more accurate to say he wanted to find out how Harry might 
defeat him, so he could safeguard against the possibility? Or did 
Voldemort have other information that would lead him to believe 
information about Harry's defeat could be found inside that specific 
prophecy? Was that even Voldemort's intention, or was he simply 
curious, and didn't bother to fetch it himself because it wasn't 
important enough to risk his skin for? If that were the case, why 
did he materilize at the MOM at all, (i.e., for the convienent 
chance to off Harry)?

Futher, it seems to me that it would have been very easy for 
Voldemort to sneak into the Ministry and remove the prophecy. After 
all, no one was alerted that a handful of the most wanted Death 
Eaters were in residence. In fact, no one was even alerted of 
Voldemort's precense until two of the statues from the fountain 
fetched Fudge and his aurors. For example, there evidently were not 
have been any alarms in the Hall of Prophecy to signal when one was 
removed or damanged, nor any in the DOM in general, nor any relating 
to raising the aurors that deranged escapees were roaming the 
Ministry, much less Voldemort himself. Or at least, none that 
couldn't be negated for a suffient amount of time. Wouldn't the trip 
have been much faster if Voldemort had simply siezed the prophecy 
himself? It seems as though it would have been easier to 
orchestrate, and make a lot more sense than the plan of luring Harry 
there. What take that route? Where there further ulterior motives 
than we know about?

Anyhow, those are my thoughts,
Viv