As the 7th month dies...

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 126260


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "finwitch" <finwitch at y...> wrote:
> 
> I believe that Dumbledore made a mistake interpreting the prophecy. 
> ..., it's more likely very *exact*!
> 
> What I was thinking of the phrase 'As the 7th month dies' - well... 
> ...
> 
> So, thinking globally, 'as the 7th month dies' refers to a 24-hour 
> period, beginning from Midnight at the International Date-line, on 
> GMT+12 - time zone, where the '7th month dies' and becomes 1st 
> August first. ... And, 7th month is completely dead when even at 
> GMT-12 time-zone 31st July turns to 1st August. 
> 
> And what does this mean? We've heard that Neville was born on 30th 
> July, which makes it too early for him to be 'the one' - ...
> 
> Finwitch


bboyminn:

Well, my first thought is to make a distinction between...

'WHEN the seventh month dies...'

and

'AS the seventh month dies...'

Just my interpretation but 'WHEN' implies an event, a precise point in
time; whereas 'AS' implies a process, that is a general span of time. 


Shifting the context to illustrate the point...

'When he died...' is the moment the person in question died. 'As he
died...' implies a span of time leading up to /this person's/ death.

In otherwords, by my interpretation, 'WHEN' it dies is, as you say,
the exact time and place when the month dies. 'AS' it dies, could mean
as the last week of July is winding down. 

Also, as I'm sure you know, there has been an agruement that SEPTember
was originally the seventh month ('sept' being the prefix for 7). On
the Gregorian calendar, September is the 9th month, on the
pre-Gregorian/Latin calendar, September is the 7th month. 

While it's true this had been pointed out, I don't think JKR would
enage in such an obscure reference. I think she says seven and means July.

All that said, I think there is tremendous room for Dumbledore to have
misinterpreted the Prophecy. Here is a classic example of a
misinterpretation. Suppose, Voldemort kills Harry, and in a burst of
fury and daring, Neville kills Voldemort to avenge Harry. Perhaps,
Harry dying opens a vulnerability in Voldemort that allows Neville to
truly kill him. That seems well within the scope of the Prophecy.

Just a bunch of speculation, but none the less, there it is.

Steve/bboyminn