I’m a sucker for a good prophecy. The trope of the Chosen One may be clichéd; but I’ll never get tired of a melodramatic tale of a fated hero versus an insurmountable evil.
But that doesn’t mean all prophecies are created equal.
Take the one from Harry Potter, for example.
“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 …”
In and of itself, this is a perfectly fine prophecy. It details who and what—someone born at a specific time to parents who fulfill a specific requirement. (The movies won’t tell you this, but Neville actually qualifies as well. Always nice to leave a little wiggle room like that.)
The Chosen One has the power to defeat the Dark Lord. Great! He seems like a bit of a problem.
Now, the prophecy never clarifies in more than vague terms what’s going to happen, because that’s where the story gets to play with our expectations.
Take Star Wars. Did Anakin end up fulfilling the prophecy? Hell yeah! Did the Jedi anticipate he’d turn to the dark side and slaughter most of their kind before doing so? Hell no! (They probably did not appreciate how much wiggle room was left there. Sorry, guys.)
So here, the Chosen One will allegedly be “marked as his equal” and “have power the Dark Lord knows not.”
We know “marked as his equal” is probably referring to Harry’s lightning scar—a physical mark to remind Voldemort that he could’ve just dropped the baby out a window, but he decided to use magic instead.
The last part—“either must die at the hand of the other”—is deliciously dramatic and intriguing. Does it mean both will be so powerful, that only one can stop the other? Does it mean they share some strange life-force-style link, where one can sap the energy from the other?
Though in the execution, Rowling bungles the prophecy into a case of “did she even remember what she wrote here in the first place?”
* * *
A pivotal question centers our critique—why is Harry the only one who can defeat Voldemort?
In a world where there were only about thirty Death Eaters at their peak, and probably a few hundred more capable adult wizards (including at least one who was powerful enough for Voldemort to consider an equal), how come one traumatized teenage boy had to end up doing the dirty work?
Egregiously, this question is never answered.
Dumbledore manipulates the situation so Harry is the one to execute many of his plans—but he does so in a self-fulfilling-prophecy sort of way. Dumbledore was told by the prophecy that Harry would be the key; and so he put Harry in position to be the key.
* * *
In order to understand exactly how the prophecy fails, we must take look at how Voldemort needs to be defeated.
Our heroes must destroy his seven horcruxes, then kill him himself.
Harry is not the only one who can destroy the horcruxes. Dumbledore takes care of the ring; Ron and Hermione use the basilisk’s fangs to destroy Helga Hufflepuff’s cup; one of Draco’s goons triggers the fiendfyre that consumes the Ravenclaw diadem; and Neville takes out Nagini with the sword of Gryffindor.
Harry destroys Tom Riddle’s diary, as well as the Slytherin locket—but he wasn’t the only one who could’ve done that.
So Harry wasn’t the only who could dispose of the horcruxes.
He wasn’t the only who could find them, either. He stumbled upon the diary by accident, and Dumbledore figured it out for the ring, cup, and locket (and the reasoning behind why they were horcruxes; which led our heroes to realizing the diadem was probably one of them too). Harry was never the one to figure it out, by means only he could access.
When Voldemort finally dies, it’s because Harry, as the master of the elder wand, deflected the spell that Voldemort cast back at him.
But how did Harry become the master of the elder wand?
He’s clearly not the only with that ability. Dumbledore, and a long line of wizards before him, were able to wield it.
Draco ends up the wand’s master when he disarms Dumbledore. Later, when Harry and Draco are fighting over Draco’s wand at Malfoy Manor, Harry happens to end up with Draco’s wand, thus disarming him, thus making him the master of the elder wand.
Rowling herself said it was supposed to be a coincidence—the freak chance Harry would end up winning that fight. The fate of the wizarding world quite purposely came down to the chance ending of an unpredicted tussle.
So Harry was, once again, not the only who could’ve wielded the wand. Draco could’ve been the one, in the end battle at Hogwarts, to deflect Voldemort’s spell back onto himself.
And even if Draco had never disarmed Dumbledore back in Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort still wouldn’t have been the master of the wand either.
Not to mention, at the end of Deathly Hallows, nobody needed to kill Voldemort with the elder wand anyway. His horcruxes were all gone. He was just a (fugly) mortal again. Anyone could’ve offed him—Harry, Neville, Peeves, a particularly determined duck. Harry just so happened to be in the right position by coincidence.
What about Harry being a horcrux? you ask. Didn’t he have to fulfill the specific role of sacrifice all by himself?
No. Anyone could’ve offed him. Harry didn’t need to sacrifice himself in order to destroy the horcrux; he just needed to die.
Dumbledore, after realizing in Goblet of Fire that the blood protection would be carried on by Voldemort, saw the opportunity to set it up so that Harry might live (if Voldemort himself killed him).
Honestly, Dumbledore still had no idea how exactly the end battle was supposed go, and that Harry would get the chance to turn himself in. But I suspect (or I at least hope. I don’t think very highly of him) that, if the battle had gone differently, he would’ve explained to Harry how he needed to be killed by Voldemort directly.
But Harry’s sacrifice had nothing to do with him being the only who could kill himself. It was just a shot to keep him alive. Anyone could’ve killed him in order to destroy the horcrux. Dumbledore just made one of the (few) kind moves in his life (in some screwed up sort of way).
* * *
Now that we’ve proved Harry wasn’t the only who could’ve done what was needed to defeat Voldemort, let’s look back at the prophecy’s specific words.
What was the “power the Dark Lord knows not”?
It wasn’t Harry’s scar. Sometimes, it gave him the ability to see what Voldemort was doing. But how exactly did that help him?
Harry learned Arthur Weasley had been attacked—and while we stan the man, it wasn’t like his survival helped Harry to defeat Voldemort.
Harry also used his scar in Deathly Hallows to learn that Voldemort had discovered his and his friends’ horcrux hunt. Then Harry saw the man going to Hogwarts.
That sounds relevant, right?
Yeah! Except there’s nothing about setting the end battle at Hogwarts that enables Harry to be the only who can kill Voldemort. It’s just the obvious setting for the end battle, since we spent six other books there.
And even if Harry hadn’t been able to see Voldemort’s realization, he and his friends would’ve ended up at Hogwarts anyway—since he eventually remembered the diadem was in the Room of Requirement.
What about “neither can live while the other survives”?
This is never addressed again. Voldemort is revived, and the two coexist. In fact, because of the way Voldemort brought himself back to life, he physically can’t kill Harry now (except maybe by hitting him with a truck? Or shooting him? Never mind, don’t question that. I HIGHLY doubt Rowling thought of that).
We already went over how Harry didn’t have to be the only to kill Voldemort. So that leaves this line completely unexplained.
In fact, it could’ve been left out altogether to no effect on the narrative. Voldemort never even heard it. Harry and Dumbledore were the only ones who knew about it, and it didn’t help either of them in any way. It was just there to Sound CoolTM.
And while it’s totally okay to include some Cool elements just because they’re Cool, a writer typically endeavors to make them relevant in one way or another.
Rowling dropped that line in there like Dumbledore dropping infant Harry off at the Dursley’s, and left to never check back on it again.
* * *
The biggest sin, in my opinion, is that any of these issues could’ve easily been remedied.
Maybe Harry’s scar could’ve given him the ability to sense the other horcruxes. He could still stumble across the diary by accident; and maybe Dumbledore could still deduce what he does about the ring.
But to get to the others, Harry realizes his scar can tip him off when he’s near another horcrux. Maybe he’s even able to Apparate close to them. Even if he’s still clueless as to what he’s near, he can get him and his friends closer to what they need.
There’s a moment in Order of the Phoenix when Umbridge touches Harry’s hand, and he feels a weird flare of pain. This goes woefully unexplained; but it could’ve easily been his scar reacting to the LOCKET OF SLYTHERIN that Umbridge was probably wearing at the time.
In this scenario, Harry has to be involved with the horcrux hunt, since no one else could find them. And Voldemort accidentally gave Harry the ability to do so (“marked as his equal”/possibly also the “power the Dark Lord knows not”).
It’s important to note that Harry doesn’t have to be the only person to both find the horcruxes, and kill Voldemort—he just needs to be at least one indispensable piece of the puzzle.
“Neither can live while the other survives” could’ve been something where one is draining energy from the other. Maybe, by using Harry’s blood, Voldemort could now draw energy from the boy—but it could go both ways. Maybe Harry could also draw energy from Voldemort through the connection.
I honestly think that line should’ve been axed. It sounds cool, but it doesn’t do anything to advance the narrative.
“Power the Dark Lord knows not” should’ve been love.
I know what some of you might be saying—wasn’t that implied??
There are some cute lines throughout the series about how Love is FunTM. But love doesn’t do anything for Harry. Love doesn’t help him find the horcruxes, nor does it make him the master of the elder wand.
When Narcissa lies about Harry surviving the killing curse, she’s doing it out of her love for Draco. But it’s not like Harry couldn’t have just thrown a smoke bomb and ran. It’s not like Rowling could’ve structured the scene so that Narcissa checks on his heartbeat when he’s in that strange Train Station of Limbo, and therefore assumes, Romeo-and-Juliet style, that he’s dead.
I would’ve executed the “power” line as follows:
Lily’s love for her son saves Harry the first time Voldemort tries to kill him. It incapacitates Voldemort, and causes Harry to incidentally become a horcrux.
I don’t doubt Neville’s parents would’ve died for him as well, triggering the same scenario. So the “power” portion would’ve technically been fulfilled long before we even got to the events of the series.
* * *
Let’s be real, I have lot of issues with Harry Potter. But the fact that the prophecy—the main force driving the plot—is basically just ignored the entire time is quite the misstep.
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