GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182194

> Carol responds:
> They were alive at the end of VWI because Voldemort was vaporized
> before they could be killed. Had he not been, there would not have
> been two Voldie wars separated by some fourteen years. There would
> have been one continuous war of Voldie and the DEs against the WW,
> which lasted from ca. 1970 onward. I think that all of Voldie's
> enemies (except possibly Dumbledore, who would no doubt have 
managed
> to kill himself via the ring Horcrux or the fake locket Horcrux) 
would
> have been killed sooner rather than later, including the Potters 
and
> the rest of the Order. The DEs would not have stopped "picking off 
the
> Order members one by one" until all of them were dead.

Magpie:
Yes, I think it's one of those situations where if you had the power 
to go back and change that one thing, it would be better if you 
didn't. Going back in time and making Snape not pass on the prophecy 
could very well result in ending up under a Voldemort-regime WW. 
(Err...that is, if we weren't in a series where we know Time Travel 
is never going to effect the events we've seen, that is.) Things 
could have gone far far *worse* if Snape hadn't passed on the 
prophecy--or maybe some other unforseen thing could have happened 
and we would wind up with Voldemort defeated another way. But we 
couldn't depend on anything based on this change. All we'd know is 
that it wouldn't happen *this* way.

As it did happen, the prophecy gave them the means by which they 
ultimately destroyed Voldemort (and the years between the two wars). 
It also gave them Snape as an ally of the good side and it 
ultimately outed Peter as the spy. Basically it happened and it 
can't be changed, and here's how they made the best of it. No point 
in really saying "if only Snape hadn't..." because he did and now 
they had to deal with it (with Snape himself leading the way).

-m