The Prophecy

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 174938

Bart Lidofsky wrote:
>
> JKR claims that she worded the prophecy VERY carefully.
> 
> Well, I'm still scratching my head over it. Specifically, "and
either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while
the other survives..." Well, clearly, they both lived for several
years while the other survived. And one did NOT die at the hand of the
other; Morty kept offing himself until it took. All he needed was
antlers, a squirrel, a hat, and "This time for sure!" before casting
YAAK. 
> 
> So, can anybody here, who actually understands the prophecy, explain
it to me?


Carol:

Well, our first step should be to quote the whole thing, right?

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. . . .

"The one with the power" is Harry (given the power he would not
otherwise have had through Voldemort's attempt to thwart the
Porphecy). He "approaches" in the sense that he's been conceived and
will be "born as the seventh month dies" to "those who have thrice
defied the Dark Lord" (how or why, we don't know, but they're Order
members, so they must have fought his DEs at several points). "The
Dark Lord will mark him as his equal" is a bit misleading since Harry,
though "marked" with the scar and "a marked man" in terms of DD's
viewing his death as indispensable (though he's not "the only one [LV]
ever feared"). Clearly, though Harry has received at least one power
(and a unique form of communication through the scar/soul bit
connection), Harry is by no means Voldemort's equal in power or skill,
with possession, flying, and Legilimency as just a few examples. That
Harry's victory will not be through his own power is emphasized, IMO,
by his wand's taking action on its own when he would otherwise have
been hit by Voldemort's AK (but not killed, thanks to the shared drop
of blood). Hermione insists that the power is Harry's, but Harry knows
better. He is not Voldemort's equal, or even Hermione's equal, with
any spells except his exceptional Patronus (which matches Snape's).
Matters are quite literally out of Harry's hands, and continue to be
so when his wand is broken. What power he had was tied, in his mind,
to his wand. He has been counting on the protection of the twin cores,
and that protection is gone. (Ironically, with Harry's wand broken, LV
no longer needs the Elder Wand and would have been better off using
his own.) 

Back to the Prophecy. "He will have the power the Dark Lord knows
not." I think we agree that that power is Love, the willingness to
sacrifice himself for the whole WW, and particularly for his friends,
to protect them from LV by making him mortal. At this point, he
parallels Regulus, who died to destroy a Horcrux and make Voldemort
mortal (as he thought). Harry is the next-to-last Horcrux, and he has
arranged for Neville to destroy the last one, Nagini, if Ron and
Hermione fail. But his self-sacrifice does more than make Voldemort
mortal; it strips him of his power and his spells no longer hold.

Now for the tricky part. "Either must die at the hand of the other"
seems to mean that "either," meaning "one or the other of two" will
kill or cause the death of the other. And really, that's what happens.
One, Harry, causes the other, Voldemort, to die by causing the AK to
rebound on its caster, exactly as it did in GH. (That plot, like the
Snape subplot and the Hagrid subplot and the entry into Hogwarts
subplot, comes full circle.) Harry doesn't murder Voldemort, as he
feared, but he certainly "vanquishes" him and brings about his death.
"Neither can live while the other survives" is easy, too, if we see it
as meaning that LV has not "lived" since he started creating Horcruxes
and cannot be immortal (his definition of living) until Harry is
killed. Harry can't truly live (become Just Harry with no Dark powers
or connection to the Dark Lord or terrible destiny as the Chosen One)
as long as Voldemort survives.

IOW, I don't think we need to bring the drop of blood or the Elder
Wand into the Prophecy. Neither of those events was inevitable; both
were mistakes that Voldemort made in his hubris and anger and lust for
power.

Carol, just giving her own interpretation and complicating things as usual