Re: The Prophecy From Voldemort’s POV (long)

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> wrote:
> 
> "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches".
> 
> Read that again. ALL of Voldemort's strategy since before GH and
> throughout the series has been based on this single sentence. And of
> course on his guess regarding the part that he doesn't know, which
> apparently wasn't a very good guess. 
> 
> If we are ready to take DD's word, he tells us several additional
> things about Voldemort's view of the prophecy. First, it seems that
> before GH Voldy didn't see the prophecy as a threat at all. DD words
> are: "He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he
> was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost,
> that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired."
> 
> Several paragraphs later DD stresses again that, until GH, Voldy
> didn't realize that baby Harry could be dangerous: "He <the
> eavesdropper> heard only the beginning, the part foretelling the birth
> of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort.
> Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be
> to risk transferring power to you, and marking you as his equal. So
> Voldemort never knew that there might be danger in attacking you, that
> it might be wise to wait, to learn more. He did not know that you
> would have power the Dark Lord knows not." 
> 

Kneasy:
This passage has bothered me for since I  first read it. Is DD reporting fact
or indulging in a little post-facto rationalisation? And where in the Prophecy
does it mention the transfer of powers that Voldy's little helper couldn't
warn him about? It doesn't so far as I can see, yet DD acts as if it were
an unavoidable adjunct to Voldy's actions at GH.

Can't see how Voldy would jump to the conclusion that knocking off a
snotty rug-rat is a fulfillment of the Prophecy either. Just the opposite - if
I were on the receiving end my interpretation of the fragment whispered
into his shell-like would be "If you want a long, satisfying career killing 
Muggles and terrorising the WW, stay the hell away from H. Potter." 

Our beloved arch-villain is supposed to be intelligent, powerful, all that
good stuff, with a traitor to help fill in the blank spots, yet he tip-toes 
through the Potter's tulips and bursts into the haven of domestic felicity 
like a neophyte numpty who's forgoten that the Potters are DD's ewe-lambs.
"Aha! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Oops! Oh bugger!"
Does not compute.

I've argued previously that Voldy may well have intended rounding off a
pleasant evening's entertainment with a touch of infanticide, but he 
wanted something else first. There's that word, you see. 
The one that'd prick his ears up as if he were the household mutt and 
somebody says "Walkies!" 
Power. 
Isn't that what he's all about?

Dunno if you remember, but about a year back there was a discussion on
HPfGU that resulted in great wailings and gnashings of teeth for some, and
blank incomprehension for others. All about the 'morality' of Harry killing
Voldy and how doing so would 'stain' or 'pollute' his noble character. Ah
well, takes all sorts, I suppose. The argument seems pretty pointless, 'cos 
if the Prophecy is to be taken at face value it'll be Harry or nobody. He's the
one with the power; nobody else - not DD, Dung or Daedelus Diggle - Harry.
(Assuming that the Prophecy is about him.) Which means that Voldy can't be
made to bite the dust by something as mundane as an AK. Lots of wizards, 
good and bad have used that one as the last word in an argument, but 
apparently they're not gonna be successful against ole Snake Eyes. 

We know remarkably little about how an AK works. Yes it kills folk, it's 
forbidden, it takes practice (not the same as 'power', I think) and it leaves a
lovely corpse. Does it stop the heart, coagulate the blood, fry the autonomic
nervous system or turn the brain into a species of molten cheese? We don't 
know. Perhaps it has no physical effect at all but removes what could be 
referred to as anima, the vital principle. (Not to be confused with 'soul'; that's
what Dementors extract and the result is coma, catatonia or something similar,
but not death.) 

Anyway, the Prophecy indicates that young Potter has the 'power', it's 
something innate, not something to be learned once this lisping mite has 
grown up and learned how to handle a wand without blowing his own 
buttocks off. And since our malevolent malefactor has spent years researching
ways to up his survivability index, it's a fair bet that he'd be really interested 
in finding out just what this power was that could scupper his dastardly plans.

It's from this line of thinking that two of my favourite theories can be deduced:
1. Possession
2. DD's trap
They're linked to a certain extent, though each could  stand on it's own.
Voldy wants to find out what this power is, so he invades Harry's mind. DD 
knows or surmises that this will happen and sets up or arranges/suggests 
that the protective charms be emplaced, much to Voldy's embarrassment. 
He probably hoped that they'd knock Voldy out of the game, but they didn't,
not quite. And remember, at this time Voldy was winning; the Potter ploy 
might be the only decent chance that the goodies have for a shot at Voldy. 
'Course to make it work he must make sure that Voldy walks into the trap 
with his eyes wide shut, leading to interesting speculations about the role 
of el ratto grande in the affair. And not just that - did DD see the Prophecy 
as a fortuitous opportunity, or was the Prophecy his idea in the first place? 
A deliberate contrivance whose whole object was to lure Voldy to the bleating 
kid staked out at Godric's Hollow. 

I do like it when discrete theories can be linked into an harmonious thread. 
Not that that makes it right, but it do make it intellectually satisfying. Could 
be a tie-in with Neri's quotes from the Book Festival too; we don't really need
to worry about the contents per se of the Prophecy, just when, where and 
how it was produced.  

> Neri:
> DD also tells us about Voldemort's current guess regarding the second
> half of the prophecy: "And so, since his return to his body, and
> particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he
> has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the
> weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the
> knowledge of how to destroy you."
> 
> I know I'm not the only member who has a problem with these words of
> DD, "the knowledge of how to destroy you." The second half doesn't
> seem to contain any special knowledge how to destroy Harry. But Voldy
> thinks it does.
> 

Kneasy:
Yeah, it bothers me a bit, too.
My free-floating paranoia suspects a link to Diary!Tom and his assumption
that  "there's nothing special about you at all." Plus his obsession with 
learning the entire Prophecy seems to date (roughly) from his renewed 
association with Peter (him again). Plus he never seems to be worried about
exactly which of his powers have been transplanted into Harry.  Plus why 
couldn't he have gained at least an inkling about the 'power' during the 
Ministry possession? 
Or perhaps he has. 
Only 73 days until we find out.