The Keeper of the Hall of Prophesies

[luna_loco]

No: HPFGUIDX 156052

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "steven1965aaa"
<steven1965aaa at ...> wrote:
>
> In HBP Dumbledore tells Harry, in the broom closet, that the only 2 
> people alive who know the full contents of the prophesy are in this 
> spidery broom closet (not an exact quote, don't have the books with 
> me).
> 
> In OOP, in the scene in Dumbledore's office at the end, Dumbledore 
> tells Harry that the Keeper of the Hall of Prophesies inserted 
> Harry's name (with a (?)) on the prophesy after Voldmort's attack on 
> the Potter family, because that attack made it clear which boy 
> Voldemort believed to be the one named in the prophesy.
> 
> It seems to me that for the Keeper to have come to that conclusion, 
> and even for the Keeper to have known that there was a question 
> about which boy was "the one with the power to vanquish the Dark 
> Lord", the Keeper must have know about the contents of the prophesy.
> 
> I guess he could have known just about the first half, being told 
> about it by Dumbledore, but his decision to put Harry's name on it 
> after the attack ("mark him") would make a lot more sense if he knew 
> the full contents.  
> 
> If the Keeper potentially knows the contents, why wouldn't Voldemort 
> go after the Keeper?  Maybe Voldemort doesn't know.  Maybe the 
> keeper who knew the contents of the prophesy is dead and the current 
> Keeper doesn't know the contents, which would make Dubmledore's 
> statement to Harry true.  Maybe as an unspeakable there would be 
> something to magicallly prevent the Keeper from blabbing.  
> 
> Sorry I'm rambling.  Any thoughts?


There are several possible explanations that jump to mind for this:

1) The Keeper of the Hall of Prophesies at the time of the update is
no longer in a position to talk.  If this option is the correct one
then hopefully it is due to death from old age or some similar reason,
but we know that there were spies working in the Ministry of Magic
that were sent to Azkaban and at least one innocent wizard was sent
there in addition.

2) The change was made upon the recommendation of Dumbledore.  At the
time the update was presumably made (in the days immediately after
Voldemort's fall) we know that Dumbledore was held in very high regard
by the Ministry, having been offered the position of Minister and
serving as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, so his recommendations
should have carried great weight.  It is thus reasonable to assume
that if Dumbledore had recommended that Harry be added to the prophesy
then it would have been very likely that the Keeper would have made
the update based on Dumbledore's known knowledge of the prophesy
details and his position within the political hierarchy.

3) The update was performed by magic.  It is possible that the Keeper
might periodically perform some type of divination spell as part of
the day-to-day maintenance of the Hall of Prophesies.  We know from
JKR that the Hogwart's invitation letters are generated by a magical
pen that somehow detects qualified students living within the
appropriate geographical area.  With this knowledge it is not too far
fetched to then assume the existence of another pen that is enchanted
to determine who meets the Ministry guidelines for access to each
prophesy.

Each of these options is obviously pure speculation but should help
show that the update of the name tag can be explained through more
than one means.

Allen