Sunday, 28 February 2016

harry potter - Why must "either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives"?

First, a nitpic. You said:




But clearly Voldemort was smart enough to see that there was no mechanism that would kill him just because Harry stayed alive.




This may be applicable to a muggle world. But in magical world, Prophesies are basically seen by everyone - with reason - as causative (e.g. if it's prophecied that Harry's survival will kill Voldemort, that WILL happen, as far as Voldemort knows). This is fully normal in magical universes, starting with Greek Mythology (and before) - see Perseus prophecy, Cassandra, Oedipus, etc...



So Voldemort WAS smart by taking the Prophecy seriously.




Second, to address your 2 valid points:




"Harry can't live while Voldemort survives and vice versa." - It clearly worked until the end of book 7.




This is a very good observation. I will put it down to language impreciseness - what was meant by "neither can live" wasn't "neither can avoid dying" but "neither can lead the life they want/need". This matches well with what actually transpired.




"and either must die at the hand of the other" - Again: Why? If somebody else destroyed all Horcruxes and then killed Harry, Voldemort would be just as vulnerable and could be killed by anyone. On the other hand, Harry could have been killed by anyone - his mum's protection transferred to Voldemort by Harry's blood was only helping against Voldemort.




Another valid observation. I can't really prove anything with canon facts, but "entering the realms of guesswork and speculation" - to quote Professor himself- I can venture a guess.



As you yourself noted, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes, Harry could have been killed by someone else (heck, Barty Crouch Jr. wanted to try). But Voldemort wanted to kill him himself, to prove he was The Boss... so he worked hard to make sure nobody else among Death Eaters did.

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