One thing that occurred to me when dealing with the prophecy is how vague it is, and how many different ways it can be taken. In this post, I'm only focusing on the first line.

"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches..."

It seems to me that while this obviously says that there is someone who can kill Voldemort, it does not necessarily mean that there isn't anyone else. Rather, that at least one person can do it, if not more.

Your thoughts?

P.S. I apologize if there has already been a thread relating to this, I searched, and did not come up with any results.

 

I doubt the actual use of this. Harry is the main character. Someone else shunting Harry off to the side to kill Voldemort would be sorta annoying.

And besides

I see "The one". As in a single person. It's just my personal way of viewing it.

But you're right, it is vague, and you can view it in different ways.

 

Not to mention the ambiguity of prophecies in general. Who's to say this particular prophecy actually refers to events hundreds of years in the past of future, and these events were mere coincidences?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but could the prophecy have also been fulfilled that Halloween night, rather than in book seven? It bears looking into.

 

Depends on the interpretation I guess. Most people see the scar as evidence to the whole "mark him as his equal." But I guess it could also be argued that the very fact that Voldemort decided to eliminate Harry first is what marked him. Add to that the ambiguity of the "power he knows not" and you have a good basis for argument(and perhaps a fanfic where Harry finds out the prophecy had already been fulfilled, and therefore, was not applicable at the end of book 7, hence the AK actually kills him)

 

When I first read the prophecy I assumed that it'd already been fulfilled on the night that Harry's parents died and Voldemort's attempts at coming back were bypassing it.

 

"Vanquish" is nice and vague. It doesn't have to mean kill at all.

An idea I always thought was fun was "either must die at the hand of the other" where "the other" is not "each other" but a third person who will kill them both.

 

Now that would be interesting. I would certainly read that if it was worked into a story well enough.

The trouble is ending a story with both characters dying. Or beginning one, unless it's some type of time travel.

 

That actually gives me an idea for another potential plot.

Harry turns dark/evil at some point(preferably some time pre-HBP due to the fact that I personally detest the idea of horcrux's) and DD decides to travel back in time to kill baby Harry just after Voldy fails to. AK rebounds yet again, but DD manages to dodge or whatnot, people find out and hail DD as the next dark lord, hence they interpret prophecy as HP vs DD, with LV coming back at some point and making it a 3 way war.

 

dude...please send me whatever you're smoking.

 

The prophecy was given orally, so punctuation is ambiguous. For instance, you can as easily read the prophecy to mean that Harry or Neville was the Dark Lord:

The remainder of the prophecy could refer to Harry marking someone in the future who is a threat to him, yadda, yadda--standard Dark Harry thing. Or, it could reference a joe6991-esque struggle between a Christ-like being (He) and an immortally transcendent Harry, as obtained from the prophecy by some advantageous capitalization:

How it goes from here is anyone's guess, but "die", "live," and "survive" may have nontraditional meanings for immortals. (Christ became so much more after his death after all). One thing is clear: Voldemort is entirely incidental in the matter of the prophecy.

Another thought would be to have "born as the seventh month dies" refer not to Harry or Neville, but to a being born in 44 BCE, when Julius Caesar was slain. Perhaps a dragon, fae, or vampire. (Scratch the last--vampires suck).

 

I have always tought that the mark was the scar, and that Lily's sacrifice was in vain given the fact that the prophecy was protecting Harry from death until after he was marked. I would love to see a fic where Lily doesn't die to protect Harry and he still survives.

 

Dudley Dursley is the next dark lord? I knew it!

 

You have absolutely NO idea how close to the truth you just hit.

It's really not hard to make original(if a bit left of field) plots. I honestly can't see how there are so many cliche's going around...

That being said, it's probably a lot easier to write a cliche'd story than an original one.

 

An idea being original doesn't make it less stupid. A cliched story done right can be far better than an original one.

 

Then why all the "ZOMG CLICHE" talk in some of the recycle bin threads? I've personally read a lot of the stories that get 2-3 stars, and have people villifying the author for overuse of cliches, only to find that the actual story is quite good. I think it is most likely due to the fact that I'm still fairly new to the fanfic domain, and therefore what you see as cliche, I see as fresh material.

 

Since you're new here (sort of), I'll give you a couple. It is a pretty common thing.

Meghanreviews's Unsung Hero, an otherwise fine H/Hr story with arguably the worst ending in fanfiction.

kb0's Harry Potter: Lily's Child also fits. It starts very well with one of the most gripping "night Voldemort comes to attack" I've read. The rest of the story is meh, though. (Harry and Lily go to Japan. Then they come back. Yawn).