double-Black / Sirius & Slug / Half-brothers / Prophecy

[dungrollin]

> Dungrollin wrote in
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/3935 :
> 
> << "If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have 
been
> fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not! Do you 
think
> every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?" >>
> 
> If they don't expect them to be fulfilled, why do they file them in
> the Ministry of Magic? I don't understand why the wizarding folk 
make
> a BFD about prophecies if they know that prophecies are a pile of 
trash.
>

Dung:
I'm not sure that they *do* know. Voldemort certainly doesn't, he's 
as credulous as a newborn. Dumbledore's attitude to the prophecy 
doesn't strike me as one that's likely to be common in the WW. Even 
Percy Weasley suggested that Harry take Divination, for example, and 
the fear of Thestrals and Grims suggests to me that there's quite a 
good bit of superstition in the WW.

Those prophecies that don't come true (I suspect) are those which 
are never heard by the people they affect. 

Which really would make it *all* Snape's fault. 

Except that... except that if he hadn't told Voldemort the prophecy 
and caused him to go after Harry and mark him, then maybe nobody 
would *ever* have been able to defeat him.

What was that "and none shall come after" bit in OotP again...?