Why were they guarding the prophecy in the first place?

[Karen Barker]

No: HPFGUIDX 130978

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bciss1" <bccissell at h...> wrote:
> But I wonder why they didn't just destroy it in the first place (I 
> know, then we wouldn't have had that whole book).  Dumbledore knew 
> what it said, so the order didn't need to keep it around, and it 
> would seem that the best way to keep anyone else from hearing it 
> would be to destroy it.

But how were they going to manage that when Harry and Voldemort were 
the only people who could pick it up?  Also I doubt that Fudge would 
have allowed any of Dumbledore's known associates to set foot in the 
Dept of Mysteries, and even if he had I can't seee him allowing them 
to blast a whole shelf full of prophecies for six, which would seem to 
be the only option bearing in mind the handling issue.

Karen