Prophecy (was Re: What would Snape have done if Lily had lived? (Was: Mothers)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 187575


> 
> Mike:
> IMHO, if the prophecy does not play out as it was intended/foretold, then the prophecy dies. IOW, we needed all of the actors here, we needed Snape asking LV to spare Lily, we needed Lily unwilling to step aside, we even needed Dumbledore allowing Snape to go to LV with the partial prophecy. Without everything coming together as it was, then, like you said Carol, Harry doesn't get the "power the dark lord knows not" and that's it for the prophecy. It's as null and void as a box of poorly wrapped china in the hands of the post office.


Potioncat:
(Hi Mike, good to see you posting!)
Scenario 3 (or whatever) Snape over hears and tells LV. LV waits a few years before taking action. Longbottom family is worried Neville is a Squib. Potter family is chasing Harry down the street on his broom and undoing accidental magic. LV makes his choice and targets Potters. Snape asks for Lily and goes to DD. LV attacks little Harry. Lily refuses to step aside and things progress as before. Only LV was around a few more years.

It could work, but the way it did happen is better. 

The more I think of it, recalling myths with prophecies, the magic of the prophecy if you will, seems to include the necessary ingredients at the telling. Parents learn the baby will grow up to kill his father and marry his mother so they leave him out to die. He grows up unaware that he is not the biological child of his adoptive parents. When he is of age, he learns that he will kill his father and marry his mother, so he leaves to protect them. He travels to a far land, kills his unknown father and marries his unknown mother.

So some magic works to have everything in place for the prophecy to be fulfilled. I think DD's actions are just as important as those of Snape, LV and Trelawney--from the standpoint of the prophecy.

I'm not really contradicting myself. I still think the prophecy can be fulfilled in a few alternate ways, sticking closely to canon. But the way it did work seems the best way.