Snape as "the One"? (Was: A couple of little theories!)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162194

Abergoat writes:
> 
> I really love your idea that Snape will (after a few choice words
directed at Harry) try to kill Voldemort himself. And I too have
wondered if everyone is focusing on the wrong end of the prophecy for
JKR's 'worded the prophecy very carefully'. I suspect Dumbledore let
Snape hear the first part because it wasn't clear the prophecy DIDN'T
refer to Snape until the seventh month part...exactly where Snape's
knowledge ends (Dumbledore sealed the room at that point? We see this
in OotP with Order meetings...). And if Snape didn't register the
seventh month bit because the barman yelled over it (even though the
seventh month bit would be in Snape's memory for Legilimens Voldemort)
did Snape think the prophecy DID refer to him because he didn't
register the 'born as the seventh month dies'? Is that why he was
surprised to learn how Voldemort 'interpreted' it? 

Carol responds:

As a faithful DDM!Snaper who trusts that Dumbledore's faith in Snape
will be validated in Book 7, I would love to believe this hypothesis,
and as I've already said, I'm not convinced by any explanation that
I've read so far that the discrepancies in the two versions of the
eavesdropping incident that we've encountered so far can be
reconciled. (Please, JKR, don't let them be mere careless
inconsistencies!)

However, Dumbledore says that Snape heard only the first half of the
Prophecy, which means that the first of two lines about the seventh
month would be included in what he heard. Not to be pedantic, as I've
been accused of being for sticking to canon, but here's the Prophecy
as Harry hears it in OOP:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.... Born
to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies
... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have
power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of
the other for neither can live while the other survives.... The one
with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh
month dies...." (OoP Am. ed. 841).

If we take Dumbledore's version of events at face value, Snape would
have heard at least the first two lines, up to "born as the seventh
month dies." Technically, the first half of the Prophecy would end
with "power the Dark Lord knows not" (or somewhere in that sentence,
if we're really getting nitpicky, but neither JKR nor DD seems to be
when it comes to fractions or numbers in general). It seems unlikely
that Snape heard (or at any rate reported to Voldemort) the part about
marking "the one" as his equal or Voldie would have been much more
cautious about approaching "the one with the power," but he must have
heard more than the first sentence (or rather clause) which is more
like an eighth than a half of the Prophecy.

Snape almost certainly heard at least the first two lines of the
Prophecy, regardless of whether the rest was blocked out by the
struggle with the barman (surely Aberforth) or by and Impervius Charm
or whatever else could have kept him from hearing it. (Needless to
say, being kicked out by the barman doesn't fit with Trelawney's
version of events and nothing can persuade me that it does.) As for
hearing it but not registering it, how can you not register "born as
the seventh month dies"? Young Snape might not have realized, in his
excitement and haste, that the words referred to an unborn infant, or
at any rate that Voldemort would resort to infanticide rather than
waiting for the one to reveal himself, but surely he would have
realized that that "born to those who have thrice defied him, born as
the seventh month dies" didn't apply to himself. And if he did think
*he* was the on, why on earth would he report that line of the
prophecy to Voldemort?

Abergoat: 
> What about the idea that the house was destroyed by James's
> 'courageous' (to use Voldemort's own word in PS/SS) fight? I agree
> that there are many puzzles from that night.

Carol responds:
I don't think that's possible, either. According to JKR, Harry was in
his cot (crib, in American English) when Lily was killed, which
occurred after James's death. Also, IIRC, Harry hears a door opening
in one of his Boggart!Dementor memories. The house must still have
been intact, or at least, the upstairs bedroom was still undamaged,
when Lily died.

My own view is that the blocked AK burst *out* of Harry's forehead,
creating the lightning-shaped cut that later became his scar, with
such explosive force that Voldemort was blown apart, his fragmented
excuse for a soul forced out of the mutilated body. Either the force
of the expelled curse or the secondary explosion caused when Voldemort
burst into fragments blew up the house. (A normal AK doesn't damage a
body, but this deflected one isn't normal. It acts more like the
missed spells, some of them far less powerful than an AK, that destroy
the Fountain of Magical Brethren in OoP or the so-called bathroom in
"Sectumsempra" in HBP.)

I do agree that there are many unsolved puzzles related to Godric's
Hollow and, as you didn't say but did imply, the eavesdropping scene
as well.

Carol, still in shock from the below-freezing temperatures in Tucson
this morning