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

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182242


> 
> Leah:
> In any event, to return to my original
> point, the fact that they were alive on 1 November 1981 does not
> mean that, had the war continued, that they, or Lily and James (and
> Harry) would have been alive on 1 November 1982.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Of course not. My point is that they **may** have been alive after 
> surviving that day and till the end of times.
>

Julie:
Nothing is certain of course, but the point many have been 
trying to make (I think) is that all available evidence 
pointed to the end of the Potters, along with the rest of 
the surviving Order members, in a WW ruled by Voldemort *had*
Snape NOT revealed the Prophecy. That evidence being the
fact the Voldemort was already winning the war, the prophecy
stated "the ONE who will defeat him" (not "one of the few
who can defeat him"), and that Dumbledore was the only other
who conceivably *might* have been able to defeat Voldemort
yet knew nothing of the Horcruxes at the time, and even 16 
years later could only manage to destroy one of them at the
cost of his own life.

So, *could* Voldemort have been defeated, allowing the Potters
and every other Order member to survive, and Harry to grow up
happy and loved in a stable and free WW? We can't discount a
remote possibility but it still seems VERY unlikely from the
evidence. Much more likely, Harry would have died along with
his parents and most other Order members and their families, 
or been spared because he was still a baby then raised in 
a Voldy-ruled WW and schooled at a Slytherin-only Hogwarts.

Snape very likely saved Harry and the WW from a terrible fate,
even if he did so without a shred of noble intent initially.
He also deserves no credit for that initial destruction of LV,
which was equally a result of a number of other actions of
varying good and evil intent influencing each other. That is
a fact of existence, the Butterfly Effect, that every action
begets another action, and eventually the original intent of
any one action often becomes unrelated to the final outcome.

So, yes, the Potters *may* have been alive after surviving that
day, living as a happy family raising their well-adjusted son.
But very probably not, no matter what Snape did or didn't do.
He simply didn't have the power to change their ultimate fate.
(Dumbledore, however, is another matter, but not the subject
of this discussion.)

Julie