Why were they guarding the prophecy in the first place?

[bciss1]

No: HPFGUIDX 130998

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Julie Rice <julierice8 at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> Just because there wasn't a mention of someone
> guarding the prophecy (and possibly being disposed of
> before Harry and his group came) doesn't mean there
> wasn't one.  We just can't tell for sure.


Bciss1 replies

Sorry if I wasn't clear, this is exactly what I think.  There 
probably was someone still guarding it somehow and that person was 
disposed of (as was the main Ministry guard at the front desk) and 
it wasn't important to the plot so it wasn't explained later.

  
> Julie Ohio wrote> 
> The only people who could take the prophecy from the
> shelf were the people the prophecy was about.  So,
> only Harry or Voldemort could have taken the prophecy.
>  AFter that, anyone could have destroyed it (as so
> happened).  So no one in the Order could have
> destroyed it without getting Harry to take the
> prophecy out.  And considering that both Harry and
> Dumbledore were not in favor at the ministry and the
> ministry saw no reason to believe that Voldemort was
> back, there was very little chance that the prophecy
> could have been destroyed.

 
Bciss1 replies

True, no one but Harry or Voldemort could have removed it from the 
shelf, but I think that anyone could have blown it up.  In OOTP 
Chapter 35 (when they find the right room in the Ministry and are 
trapped by the DE)  in order to escape they knock the shelves down 
and shatter "a hundred glass spheres".  So I would think that 
someone could have gone in there and cast a reducto spell at it.  A 
good wizard might have managed to only destroy the one he was aiming 
at.