A Night at the Prophesy and the Niggling Details

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 171042

Mike:
To see how easy it would have been to make the two stories 
consistent, simply substitute "prevented from hearing any more" in 
place of "thrown from the building". Less dramatic than "thrown", 
sure, but would it really have detracted from the scene? I think 
not.  Besides, didn't JKR's version have you picturing the 
eavesdropper being hauled away before Dumbledore even opened the 
door? I certainly felt justified in having this opinion.

Ceridwen:
I had the same opinion.  I thought that DD was informed of the 
eavesdropper by the barman who ejected him (Aberforth), not from any 
first-hand knowledge of the incident.  I did suggest somewhere in the 
fandom, a part that was sure Snape was the eavesdropper, that maybe 
he was just prevented from hearing the entire thing as he tried to 
explain himself to Aberforth, but it was all, "Oh, no, can't be, 
that's not what DD said, and he's the Epitome of Goodness, and what 
you're saying is that he manipulated the whole thing, which makes him 
Puppetmaster!DD, a horrible character, and after all, DD is JKR's 
mouthpiece, why would JKR lie to us?"  and so on.  I forget now why I 
thought the eavesdropper wasn't ejected right away.  Darn it!  I'd 
look so cool if I remembered!

There are plenty of reason for DD to hide things from Harry in OotP.  
Harry's got LV riding behind his eyeballs through most of the book.  
I do not believe that LV stopped doing this all at once.  There were 
times in OotP when Harry's scar didn't hurt but he was still, 
apparently, channeling LV.  If DD had just assumed that LV stopped 
listening in after the MoM, I think that would have been out of 
character and incautious of him.

In fact, I think DD's been playing close to the vest, with Harry in 
particular throughout the series, in part because this might happen.  
I think he loosened up a little during HBP, but when he considered 
saying more but didn't after Harry dropped his bombshell, he was 
again protecting classified information in case LV dropped into 
Harry's thoughts.  Harry is still vulnerable to LV's incursions, 
moreso than LV is to Harry's.  LV might use Occlumency to keep Harry 
out of his head; that doesn't automatically mean he's using it to 
keep out of Harry's head.  If LV can manage to keep his feelings 
under control, it seems to me that Harry's scar won't hurt when he's 
dropping in to glean information.

Yes, I do think this connection will come into play in DH.

Mike:
And if Dumbledore "allowed" the release of the prophesy, by Snape, in 
pursuit of the lofty goal of Voldemort's permanent downfall, in the 
grand scheme of things, will that be so bad.

Ceridwen:
Yes, for the people we've come to know.

No, for the "grand scheme of things".  The Good Guys were losing, 
from what we've been told.  LV was a maniac who needed to be 
stopped.  I can certainly see DD grasping for anything after eleven 
years of defeats.  He made a mistake already in not revealing what he 
knew of young Tom Riddle to people who mattered, like Slughorn, who 
networks promising people with influential people.  DD can't say that 
telling Slughorn and others of Riddle's tendencies would have made a 
difference in LV's chances at WW Domination, but he can't say that 
telling would not have made a difference.

Good intentions gone wrong, and the impulse to fix what went wrong, 
is as risky as believing a prophecy.  For most people, accidentally 
saying something that sounds bad only gets worse as the person tries 
to explain what he or she meant while at the same time trying to 
distance himself or herself from the implications of the original 
statement.  We've all done that on one level or another.  It ends up 
just compounding the mistake; it never clears it up.

I think that DD's good intention was to give young Tom a  chance to 
change his ways.  His mistake was in keeping what he knew to 
himself.  This set up years of conflict in the WW, and DD scrambling 
to rectify this misjudgement by any means possible.  And by the time 
the prophecy came his way, the situation was desperate enough to use 
it as bait.  This is all my own opinion, of course.  Others may not 
agree.

But, things could have been different if the Potters hadn't used PP 
as their SK, if Sirius hadn't suggested that plan, if DD had been let 
in on things from the beginning, if, if, if.  If DD let the partial 
prophecy loose with the intention of drawing LV into a trap, he may 
have fooled himself into believing that the best-case scenario would 
play out - LV tries to find the Potters, hopefully through someone 
favorable to the Order, someone who would tip the Order off to where 
LV would be, and the Order could make short work of him - that is, if 
LV decided to act immediately or nearly so.  LV might have waited to 
see the threat grown, instead of going after a baby.  He might have 
interpreted the potential threat as someone already old enough to do 
him damage in that present.  So many things might have been 
different, but they weren't.

And Harry's left picking up the pieces.  Not because DD is a 
puppetmaster, but because he tried to rectify a mistake.  The plan to 
manipulate LV to his downfall was certainly a lofty goal.  But, like 
prophecies, plans can "gang awry".

Ceridwen, more opinionated than canonated this morning.