OK, so I was sitting in bed, reading OotP for the millionth time, and a new theory came to me. Tell me if you think this is any good.

New Theory: Dumbledore lied to Harry about the Prophecy's contents. Instead of "Kill Voldemort or die trying," it's "Join Voldemort, surpass him, and then kill him."

Hear me out.

First, until Dumbledore shows Harry his memory of the prophecy, the Order members all refer to it as a "weapon" that Voldemort will try to steal and then exploit. But the knowledge that he can only be killed by the Boy-Who-Lived is not a weapon. In fact, it's a hinderance, since Voldemort previously thought himself completely immortal, and now it turns out he has to be a little cautious, at least around Harry. If the prophecy is my version, however, Voldemort does gain a weapon, at least temporarily.

Second, Dumbledore is the only one in the world that truly knows the full contents, so he could easily lie about it. Harry knows it only through Dumbledore, Ron and Hermione know it through Harry (thus through Dumbledore), Voldemort only knows a part of it, and Trelawney doesn't even know she's given a prophecy.

"Lord Supremo, you silly man," you sneer condescendingly, "Dumbledore couldn't've lied because he showed Harry the memory of it in a Penseive." Oho, but if Half Blood Prince is any guide (like it or not it is canon), Dumbledore could easily alter a memory. After viewing Slughorn's altered memory, Dumbledore comments that the memory has been "inexpertly" tampered with. Almost as though he knows what an expertly altered memory would look like. Being a Master Occlumens, Dumbledore could easily alter that memory.

Third, Arthur Weasley, in OotP states, "Dumbledore realizes the position has changed...Harry wil have to be filled in to a certain extent." So, everyone is chill with Harry asking about Voldemort recruiting the giants, etc, but when the "weapon" is mentioned, Molly goes ballistic. At the time, we assume its because she wants to protect the children, or some similar nonsense, but her being a major Dumbledore ball-licker, it would makes sense that she realizes that the conversation has strayed into Dumbledore-forbidden waters. Dumbledore wouldn't want Harry to know that something is a "weapon," since that is inconsistent with what he's planning on telling Harry.

This would also explain a lot of questions in the books.

It explains why Harry was never trained in combat, even after OotP; Dumbledore is trying to prevent the prophecy and Voldemort will never accept a follower that can barely defeat a second year in a duel, prophecies be damned.

It explains the various ways Neville is kept down. First, the Longbottoms are an old pureblood family, as such it would follow that they have money. So why does Neville go through the first five years of school with a second-hand wand? Well Neville is the other boy that the prophecy could apply to, so Dumbledore, wishing to keep all his bases covered, would've leaned on his grandmother to keep him down by not getting him his own wand. Also, so far as we know, the only thing Neville has done to Snape is get sorted into Griffindor. So why does Snape treat him worse than anyone else without a scar on their forehead? Because Snape was pretending to be Dumbledore's kiss-ass-in-chief, so when Dumbledore comes to him asking him to scare Neville and convince him of his lack of worth, Snape will do that just that.

This even allows the "power he knows not" to be love, if you want to keep up with Dumbledore's lame explaination. Because if Harry can understand love, which Voldemort can't, he can effectively use it against the huddled masses when he's a reigning Dark Lord.

So what do you think? Yeah, JKR will probably NEVER use anything close to it, but its good food for thought, nay?

 

Hmm perhaps, but aren't prophecies self-fulfilling? If Voldemort had ignored the information his spy gave him, would any of it have come true? It's debateable. But I think that prophecies only come true when acted against or upon.

 

And even if they do have to come true, would that stop him trying to stop it from doing so? Voldemort sought to undo the prophecy as he understood it, and if it were prophecied that you would die at sea, you would avoid the sea like the plague, even if you knew if would eventually have to come true.

 

Very plausable and well thought out. Good work!

As for Dumbledore trying to fight the prophecy, I see no problem with that. He's been doing that in canon too, right? Refused to train Harry and tell him the Prophecy... Maybe he's just an old man, trying to hold on to some semblence of peace in the last few years of his life... and then the world can go to hell, with his name being remembered in good light. Many old people are like that.

The only problem I see is the existance of the Prophecy in the Ministry... It took Harry so little to grab a hold of it and hear it... would Dumbledore really allow that to happen?

 

Hmmm thats a good question...I don't know.

Wait, the whole deal was a Death Eater trap, right? So maybe theres a secret Dumbledore and Voldemort are having a steamy affair and they concocted the whole deal as an attempt to kill off Harry! I dunno, I'll work on finding evidence for that one.

Maybe the DoM figured no one knew anything about them or what was there and thus, no one would try to break in, so they arrogantly decided to not put up any wards. Or maybe they figured that no one that wasnt an insider could get past the weird spinning doors room.

 

He wouldn't even need to do to alter the memory. Let's see, the memory of the Pensieve was of Trelawney speaking. Hell, just Imperio the woman to say the false prophecy, or kind of enter a memory with Legilimency of Dumbledore saying it into her mind. She'll say it out loud and wahey, he has a memory. Or yeah, he could have easily altered the memory..

Good plausible theory, though.

 

Nice arguments. May be you should write a fic on those points. I certainly would be interested to read it.

That said, I think the whole Prophecy thing was a lame plot device by JKR. I'm sorry no matter which way I look at it I cannot imagine it as a 'Weapon'.

 

Thanks. Yeah, I was thinking about incorporating that into the fic I'm working on entitled (shameless plug warning) Harry Potter and the Rise of the Amphiptere, coming soon to a computer screen near you, but that's a sixth-year fic which might make incorporating the bits from HBP a bit difficult. But who am I to resist a challenge, eh?

Word, I think that was only to reassure the brainless H/G fandom that hadn't figured it out yet that, no, the series will not end with Dumbledore killing Voldemort and Harry reads about it in The Daily Prophet.

 

God why cant dumbledore just have a bloody heart-attack or something? he makes things to irritating in the book lol...oh wait he does die eh? oh well im happy now

I think that would be good to use in a story though , to be honest it makes more sense then what will probably end up happening in the last books.

Phrophecies are god-almighty irritating , you ignore them and they bite you in the ass , and you try to destory it like Voldy-moldy did and they bite you in the ass anyway.

 

This is actually a very plausible theory and as for Harry grapping the prophecy only the people that the Prophecy is about can get it.

So Dumbledore had no control over it and never thought Harry would be lured there by his dream of Sirius. He wasn't even at the school so that's why Harry even got it in the First Place.

 

you guys take the whole munulapativeDumbledore way too seriously.

I don't think dumbledore is the kind of man who would imperio the old hag. beside if dumbledore does gives harry the reason to a 11 year old kid and decides to train him then harry will feel like a weapon. training 11 year old by so he can train to kill a boogyman that's been terrorizing the wizarding world is not something a kid can handle or take seriously.

besides if some one said that to me i would laugh at there faces and lock them up in a ward.

 

It still would have been nice too see Dumbles die of a heart attack. Just for the humor.

 

good one

a very good theory in my opinion and one that (i think) no one has even thought of until now.
but i do want to comment on the "weapon" thing.
i think that Dumbledore and the order of the big red turky refer to the prophecy as a weapon becuase when big V dosnt know it he is sure that the only one that has the chance to kill him is dumbldore, but the second that he learns of the prophecy and that the only one that can kill him is actually Harry then the first chance he has he will come and kill Harry before he has enough time to say "snivulus"(sp?).
and another point that i thought about - lets say that Dumbledore did tell Harry the truth when he came to Hogwarts and traind him for 5 years strait - that would make Harry a very powerful, if somewhat young wizard but still not anywhere near the levels of Voldemort in knowladge,
the power diference can be debated but it is obvious that Voldemort has more the 3 decades worth of knowladge and experiance and the only way to try and even the odds in Harry's favor would surly require massive use of Rituals to make learning faster and stuff like that - and Dumbledore will never do that becuase it is "dark magic"...