Major Spoilers Down Below!
I like thinking and writing about Harry Potter theories (based on facts in the canon, not wild, unfounded, and apocryphal speculation) that aren't discussed a lot. Take the prophecy we learned about in Book 5, Order of the Phoenix. I have a theory that I haven't read much about.
Backstory: At the end of the book, after the death of his godfather, Sirius Black, young Harry is enraged and grief-stricken. He begins smashing objects in Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore takes the blame for Sirius's death. Had he told Harry the whole truth about why Voldemort wanted him dead, Sirius might still be alive.
Dumbledore decides to come clean. He tells Harry about his scar, why he's been so distant all year, and why he must return to his dreaded aunt and uncle every summer.
Because of some ancient charm related to his mother's blood, Harry must return to his mother's sister's home, where he is protected from the Dark Lord. (I wondered about that from Book 1. Why did Dumbledore make Harry return to the Dursleys? The Weasley's would've gladly taken him in. J.K. Rowling made us wait until Book 5 for the explanation).
Dumbledore was distant because he realized Voldemort was practicing Legilimency on Harry through his scar, which allowed him to read the boy wizard's thoughts and emotions. The headmaster surmised that Voldlemort would use Harry to get to him, so he asked Potions Master Professor Snape to give Harry Occlumency lessons. As readers know, Harry hates Snape and hated the lessons. He made little progress.
Had Harry understood why the lessons were important, he might have tried harder. If he'd tried harder, perhaps Voldemort wouldn't have been able to trick him into trying to rescue Sirius, who was safe at home, relatively speaking. When Sirius found out that Harry had gone to the Ministry of Magic looking for him, he took off after him and was subsequently killed by his cousin (Long story!).
No, Dumbledore chose not to tell Harry why the lessons were so important. The reasons will be discussed in a future post.
Dumbledore continues his explantion. Before Harry was born Professor Sybil Trelawney made this prophecy 16 years ago:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…
The first part of the prophecy could have applied either to Harry or his classmate Neville Longbottom, born around the same time. But Voldemort only knew about the first part of the prophecy. He wasn't privy, we're told by Dumbledore, to "the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord…" and all that followed. Dumbledore tells Harry that Voldemort, in a sense, chose Harry to fulfill the prophecy by going after him as an infant. Whether this means the prophecy could have gone either way (Harry or Neville), I'm not sure.
Dumbledore tells Harry that he has power that Voldemort doesn't have: love.
There is much, much more to Dumbledore's explanation to Harry, but I'd be writing for days. I'll get to the point of the post: my theory about the prophecy. From the wording of the prophecy it appears that Harry must kill Voldemort in order to survive, or vice versa. I'm not so sure JKR would make it that easy. She worded the prophecy very carefully. It's almost ambiguous. For instance, is she making a distinction between live and survives? Why not just say, "for neither can live while the other also lives?"
The word other is curious, too. On the surface it seems to refer to either Harry or Voldemort, right? But other could be a third person. Someone else besides Harry and Voldemort must kill either Harry or Voldemort, or both. Remember when Harry saved Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew from Lupin and Sirius? He owes Harry a debt for saving his life. Could Wormtail be the other who must kill either and be faced with the choice to side with "good" and kill his evil master?
Back to live and survives. Why this particular wording, JKR? I think it means both Harry and Voldemort must die. Dumbledore's interpretation — that Harry must kill Voldemort in order to live — could be wrong. Remember he said it himself: because of his awesome power and great wisdom, when he makes mistakes, they're bigger than most.
Voldemort may be destined to kill Harry, which may be Voldemort's suicide. If Harry dies (see Kill Harry Potter?), Voldemort dies, and vice versa. Why? Let's say Harry's scar is the final horcrux. I don't think it is, but let's say so for now. The horcruxes must be destroyed, and if part of Voldemort's wretched soul lies within Harry's scar, Harry must be destroyed.
But…in Book 5 we learned that the love inside Harry is excruciating to Voldemort. Can the same be said of that part of his soul residing inside the boy wizard's scar?
As I said, I'm not in the Harry-is-a-horcrux camp, but it provides the clearest way for me to explain my theory about the prophecy. That is, until I re-read the books to uncover more clues. 
Now we know Voldemort wants Harry dead, but Voldemort didn't hear the second part of the prophecy, which means he missed the part about "neither can live while the other survives…" If my theory is correct — that both must die — then Voldemort will be unknowingly killing himself as he kills Harry. I'll add something else to the mix. The power that Voldemort knows not is love. Harry may discover that his scar is indeed a horcrux (No!) and that he must allow himself to be destroyed in order to destroy Voldemort.
Is this reminding you of something? Driven by his mother's love and the love he has for his friends, Harry will sacrifice himself to save them all from the Dark Lord.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13
Harry's death would accomplish much more than just saving a few friends. I'll return to this topic later. Stay tuned…
What are your prophecy theories?
(Any typos you see will be fixed in the morning!)
Maintained by La Shawn Barber, this site is not affiliated with Time Warner Entertainment Company, LP, Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company, Walden Media, Scholastic, Inc., or Bloomsbury Books. Copyrights and trademarks for books, films, articles, and other promotional materials are held by their respective owners. Their use is allowed under Fair Use.
Unless otherwise noted, site design modifications, original writing, and photography are copyrighted by LBC Media, All Rights Reserved.
Original WP theme Copyright Mike Little
December 8th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
Harry can't be a Horcurx because while Voldemort can physically touch him without feeling pain, he cannot possess him because of his love for his parents and Sirius.
I believe that Harry will live and Voldemort will die. Harry and Voldemort's wands have already been forced to do battle once and Harry's wand won because of the evil that Voldemort had already done. Voldemort's victims coming back to haunt him is especially telling, as he has not had to be accountable for his crimes. The only one who could do that was Dumbledore, and he couldn't even kill Dumbledore except through a Judas character, which was Snape.
December 8th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Harry can’t be a Horcurx because while Voldemort can physically touch him without feeling pain, he cannot possess him because of his love for his parents and Sirius.
I agree with you there. But…I can't help thinking we'll see more than one person's life sacrificed. I think Snape is doomed, and Harry might be, too. The main reason I don't like the Harry-horcrux idea is that according to what we know so far, a horcrux can't be created accidently. The books imply that some sort of complicated spell is involved. If that's the case, Harry can't be a horcrux.
I predict that in the end, Harry will have to give his life for "the world," so to speak.
December 8th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Interesting theory. Now here's my crazy spin-off that allows Harry to live:
What if you're right, and "the other" from the prophecy doesn't refer to Harry or Voldemort, but is actually more like "The Other" - and refers to Peter Pettigrew?
Then, I posit, the conclusion could already be determined and Harry bound to win. Taking "live" to mean "live well” or “live as they desire to live” and “survive” to mean simply to be alive, we see that either Harry or Voldemort must die at the hand (hmmm, at the special, silver hand?) of The Other, for neither Harry nor Voldemort can really live their lives while The Other is still alive.
But then the prophecy repeats: the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord is born as the seventh month dies…” and this is, presumably, Harry. So if The Other in the form of Pettigrew kills Voldemort, how is Harry the one with the power to vanquish him? Simple: vanquish doesn’t necessarily mean kill. It just means conquer, or win out over – if Voldemort dies at Pettigrew’s hand, then Harry will have won out over Voldemort. But that still doesn’t explain how it is Harry that does the vanquishing.
Harry has a power that the Dark Lord doesn’t – and that is his love. As we see in book 6, it is his love for his parents and friends that really drives him into his final confrontation with Voldemort, whereas the latter’s motivation for the conflict is the threat to his own power. But Harry’s love for his father, and his father’s friends, has already led him to spare Pettigrew’s life back in book 3. That decision meant that Pettigrew had a life debt to Harry. What if the decision of Pettigrew, The Other, on which of the two will die at his hand ultimately comes out of that loving sacrifice? Then Harry will have vanquished the dark lord with his ability to love.
Actually, I doubt it will be that simple, but I really don’t want to see Harry die at the end, so perhaps now I’m really grasping at straws. I have a whole list of reasons why I don’t buy into the Harry-as-Horcrux theory, also driven by a deep desire to see him, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny – at the very, very least – live.
I love the new blog, by the way
December 8th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
Thanks for sharing your theory, Merry. The cool thing about JKR's master plot is that there are many plausible theories about what may happen. I think she did that so we'd have something to do while we wait two years between books!
December 9th, 2005 at 10:02 am
Here's our comments thread on horcruxes. Credit goes to John Granger on the accidental horcrux theory. I wrote, "…Granger says that it's an "accidental horcrux". Think about it - Voldemort's death is fairly normal in that it is his soul being separated from his body. But his soul at this point, described as "shattered" at the end of HBP, is practically damaged beyond repair. He has already created multiple horcruxes by the time he goes to kill the Potters. Out of pure malice and evil he kills James, Lily and when he goes to kill Harry and can't he inadvertently leaves part of himself with Harry, the rest of the soul seems to float away like shapeless mist, not spirit, not body - kind of an "anti-matter" or a negative being. That's my interpretation of the theory."
December 9th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Snape is not a Judas character. He was only doing what Dumbledore wanted him to. The reason Dumbledore was pleading with Snape was because Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him so Snape could gain the trust of Voldemort thus setting the stage for Snape to betray Voldemort by allowing Harry to do him on Harry's terms not Voldemorts. If you want to make an analogy to christ, The Christ character should be the ever kind and forgiving Dumbledore, not Harry. Go back and read the paragraph where Dumbledore dies if you don't believe that Snape is only following Dumbledore's wishes.
December 10th, 2005 at 11:04 pm
A few things:
1. If there is an “Other”, I think it is a big assumption that Pettigrew is it. It’s possible, but the Other could be one of a thousand people. Remember the note left inside the fake Horcrux? Perhaps the person who wrote it is the Other. Also, it seems very likely to me that the other could refer to Neville Longbottom. We already know that the Prophecy essentially addresses three people, Voldemort, Harry, and Neville. It seems odd that Neville should figure so prominently in the Prophecy as a possible candidate for the “one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord” and yet be totally closed out now.
2. Someone mentioned the ambiguousness of the word “vanquish”. That got the wheels in my head a’ turnin’. I am confident that the Department of Mysteries will return in Book 7 and I know many others who are as well. Perhaps the mysterious stone archway that Sirius fell through after he died will have something to do with the “vanquishing”?
3. In Book 6, a strange thing happens during Dumbledore’s funeral service. After the “little man in black” (presumably a priest) is finished speaking, flames erupt from around Dumbledore’s body and a white marble tomb materializes around him. This surprises everyone there so I think we can safely assume that this is not a regular occurrence at a wizard funeral, nor was it planned by anyone. There is also an interesting quote. As the smoke from the flames rises, for one moment Harry thinks that he sees “a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue”. This is a rather dramatic event and I would not be surprised if JKR has something up her sleeve story-wise. She’s never been hesitant about leaving innocuous clues and tidbits that later turn out to be vital story elements, why stop now?
4. I agree with the last poster, Dumbledore may be a trusting person but he is not stupid. There is definitely something else going on with Snape. JKR would never be so pedestrian as to make Snape just turn evil again, especially after he’s spent all this time as the closest thing the Harry Potter series has to an anti-hero character.