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

[pippin_999]

Rita:
> > 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. 

Pippin: 

The willingness to accept Harry as the Chosen One on the basis of a
prophecy only rumoured to exist shows how credulous
the WW is about these things. I suspect Dumbledore's skepticism is
unusual.


A true believer would never concede that a prophecy had failed, only
that it must have been misinterpreted. The prophecies we have
are obligingly vague. For example, nothing in Trelawney's
prophecies specifies that the Dark Lord in question is Voldemort.

Pippin