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Sybill’s prophecy could have applied to two wizard boys, both born at the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in the Order of the Phoenix, both sets of parents having narrowly escaped Voldemort three times. One, of course, was you. The other was Neville Longbottom.
Aug 10, 2005 · They defied Voldemort three times. We do not know if they were with each other, meaning that Voldemort was defied 3 times, or if they were separate, meaning he was defied 6 times, or a combination of both.
- Overview
- History
- Impact
- Behind the scenes
- Appearances
- Notes and references
"Point me!"
This article is about the prophecy about Lord Voldemort and the one with the power to vanquish him. You may be looking for a prophecy in general or the device used to record prophecies.
"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...."
— Sybill Trelawney's prophecy made to Albus Dumbledore
Creation
Albus Dumbledore: "The thing that smashed was merely the record of the prophecy kept by the Department of Mysteries. But the prophecy was made to somebody, and that person has the means of recalling it perfectly." Harry Potter: "Who heard it?" Albus Dumbledore: "I did. On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog's Head Inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher...." — Albus Dumbledore recalling the night the prophecy was made The prophecy in question made to Albus Dumbledore by Sybill Trelawney had foretold the coming of a boy who would have the power to vanquish Lord Voldemort. The prophecy was made while Trelawney was having an interview with Dumbledore for the post of Divination teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dumbledore, who was disappointed at the performance she gave during the interview, was about to leave when she went into a trance and made the prophecy. During the prophecy, Trelawney specified the requirements for the boy who was capable of (but not necessarily would be) defeating the Dark Lord. They were the following: it was a boy, he is born in the closing days of July of 1980 (the year that the prophecy was made), his parents had defied Voldemort three times and lived to tell about it, he would have a power that Voldemort was unable or unwilling to comprehend, and if more than one person was born that met the requirements, Voldemort himself would choose to whom it would ultimately refer. Severus Snape, who at the time was working for Voldemort, was caught eavesdropping on Trelawney and Dumbledore by the owner of the Hog's Head and was subsequently thrown out of the pub. Snape then returned to Voldemort to tell him what he had heard.
Voldemort's reaction
"Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew the prophecy had been made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost, that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired. And so, since his return to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you." — Discussion of Voldemort and the prophecy As Snape was apprehended by Aberforth Dumbledore before the full prophecy could be made, only part of the prophecy was reported to Voldemort. Voldemort learned that there were two boys that met the requirements of the prophecy: Aside from Harry Potter, the other was Neville Longbottom, who was born on 30 July, 1980, to a pair of Aurors who, like James and Lily Potter, had directly defied Voldemort on three separate occasions. However, Voldemort chose Harry as his target, who was, like himself, a half-blood, rather than the pure-blooded boy named Neville. Voldemort chose Harry as he believed Harry was the most danger to him and he saw himself in Harry before even seeing him. He marked him with a lightning-bolt scar and did not kill him, but gave Harry powers, and a future, which would enable Harry to escape Voldemort four times, something neither Harry's parents nor Neville's parents ever achieved. Shocked by Voldemort's decision, Snape hastened to Dumbledore and explained that Voldemort had come to the conclusion that the Potters' child was his would-be vanquisher and had vowed to murder him. Snape also confessed his longtime love for Harry's mother, Lily Evans. He offered Dumbledore his loyalty in exchange for her protection. Snape while revealing his love for Lily expressed no concern for her husband and infant son, as he has hated James since their time at Hogwarts. He even pleaded with Voldemort to spare Lily and the Dark Lord agreed, not knowing or understanding Snape's motives. Snape was now loyal to Dumbledore, and he became a double agent who feigned loyalty to Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War.
Destruction of the Prophecy Record
Harry Potter: "So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?" Lucius Malfoy: "Why? Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him." Harry Potter: "And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?" Lucius Malfoy: "About both of you, Potter, about both of you ... Haven’t you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?" — Lucius Malfoy explaining the importance of the prophecy to Harry Potter Voldemort greatly desired to hear the full prophecy, believing it would give him the information to avoid his fate and destroy Harry, but the only people who could retrieve the prophecy record from the Hall of Prophecy in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries were either Harry or Voldemort himself (as they were the people about whom the prophecy was written). Voldemort was hardly going to walk straight into the Ministry of Magic when they were so conveniently pretending he hadn't returned. He used Legilimency to show Harry the door to the Hall of Prophecy in his dreams, expecting the Boy Who Lived to seek it out, but that failed, as Harry was kept in the dark regarding the prophecy. He entrusted the task of retrieving the prophecy to Lucius Malfoy, who separately used the Imperius Curse on Sturgis Podmore and Broderick Bode but failed; Sturgis was caught and sent to Azkaban, while Bode triggered the prophecy's magical safeguards, sending him to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, forcing the Death Eaters to send him a Devil's Snare to silence him. Opportunity came knocking when Sirius Black banished his family house-elf, Kreacher, from his house, at which Kreacher went straight to the Malfoys. Though bound by the Fidelius Charm which prevented him from revealing information on the Order of the Phoenix, Kreacher told the Malfoys of how close Sirius was to Harry. With this information, the Dark Lord planted a vision in Harry's mind of Voldemort torturing Sirius Black, counting on Harry to go and save his godfather. Sure enough, Harry, joined by Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood, journeyed to the Ministry of Magic in order to save Sirius, but when they got there they discovered Sirius was nowhere to be found. Ron, however, found the Prophecy with Harry's name on it on row 97. It read: S.P.T were the initials of Sybill Patricia Trelawney, and A.P.W.B.D were the initials of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. A question mark (?) was placed on the prophecy because at that time, the identity of the boy who would defy Lord Voldemort was still not entirely certain, as either Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom was a possibility. However, when Voldemort meet his first downfall in 1981, which Harry brought upon after the Dark Lord's attack on the infant, the record of the prophecy was changed. It was changed by the employees of the Department of Mysteries so that Harry's name was shown. However, the Death Eaters lay in wait until he had done so and then gave chase through the Department of Mysteries, attempting to take the Prophecy from him. It was eventually smashed in a skirmish during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries taking place in the Death Chamber when it fell from Neville's pocket and Neville accidentally kicked and smashed it. The destruction of the prophecy infuriated Lord Voldemort, as it symbolised Harry triumphing over him once again.
"By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job! It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders, and yet, Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort’s followers!"
— Albus Dumbledore regarding the impact of the prophecy
After Harry heard the full prophecy in Dumbledore's Office, he had to live with the knowledge that he would have to kill Voldemort in the end. Rumours also were let slip to the Daily Prophet about what the battle in the Ministry was centred on, leading to Harry being called "The Chosen One" in the newspapers. Indeed, Harry was the "The Chosen One" because Voldemort chose to believe that the prophecy was talking about Harry, the half-blood like himself and thus his equal. Harry survived the Killing Curse because his mother sacrificed her life for him and gave him a protection from Voldemort until he comes of age (at 17).
The so-called Chosen One either had to destroy Voldemort, or be destroyed by Voldemort. Along with Dumbledore, Harry unravelled the secret of Voldemort's Horcruxes, objects in which pieces of Voldemort's soul were hidden so as to make him immortal, which were the keys to defeating him once and for all. Harry knew that the prophecy meant he was the only one who could stop Voldemort. Only he had the ability to vanquish the Dark Lord and that it was up to him to finish the Horcrux hunt after Albus Dumbledore died and end Voldemort's reign of terror.
Dumbledore explained to Harry that by attempting to kill Harry, Voldemort himself singled out the only person who would be able to defeat him, and thus it was a grave error on his part to act as Trelawney said. Not all prophecies are fulfilled, and so it was because of Voldemort that the prophecy of someone being able to vanquish the Dark Lord came true. Furthermore, Voldemort handed Harry the necessary weapons for the job. Voldemort also discovered, after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, that it caused him excruciating agony to try to possess Harry because Harry is full of love. Voldemort didn't understand this, as in his haste to mutilate his soul to create Horcruxes he never paused to think about the power of an untarnished, whole, and loving soul.
Harry realised what Dumbledore said to him about the prophecy is that it his destiny was the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Harry knew that some would think there wasn't much difference between the two ways, but Harry knew with a rush of pride that both he and Dumbledore knew that it made all the difference in the world.
•Incidentally, the prophecy makes no mention of the Dark Lord's vanquisher being born in July in the fifth film. However, in Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Dumbledore says that the prophecy refers to a boy born at the end of July, despite that part not being part of the record seen in the fifth film.
•In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore indirectly mentions this prophecy, as he said that the prophecy about Peter Pettigrew returning to his master was the second prophecy Trelawney had made.
•The Dark Lord's vanquisher was to be born in July, which is the seventh month, as it is said that seven is the most magical and powerful number.
•The Prophecy is mentioned and referred by Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy when they time travelled to 30th October, 1981, to prevent Delphini from preventing the prophecy from occurring during the attack of the Potters. It is stated by both boys as the "The Big One", in respect to other prophecies.
•In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore tells Harry in a broom shed at The Burrow:
However, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we learn from Dumbledore:
•Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Indirectly mentioned only)
•Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (First appearance) (Appears in flashback(s))
•Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
•Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
•Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
•Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game) (Mentioned only)
1.The biggest lies Harry Potter characters told on Pottermore, 18th January 2018
2.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37 (The Lost Prophecy) - The day is the morning of 19 June 1996, and Dumbledore says the prophecy occurred sixteen years earlier on a cold, wet night, likely making it late winter or early spring.
3.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37 (The Lost Prophecy)
4.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 (The Prince's Tale)
5.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 1 (The Boy Who Lived)
6.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 10 (The Marauder's Map) -"“And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed —”"
Whether the contents of the prophecy were somehow leaked or someone just made a lucky guess, after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries there were rumours abound that it named Harry as the "Chosen One": the one destined to defeat Voldemort .
Nov 4, 2023 · This means that Voldemort’s equal was born at the end of July and would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times. This boy would be known as ‘The Chosen One’ and would...
- Film & Television Writer
JKR defined it as "anytime you arrested one of his henchmen, anytime you escaped him, anytime you thwarted him, that's what he's looking for." I think the arrested one is a bit tricky. To me, it would only count as defiance of Voldemort if the DE in question was fairly important.
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The prophecy in Harry Potter was a prediction made by Sybill Trelawney, a Divination professor at Hogwarts, that said that the one who could defeat Voldemort would be born at the end of July to parents who had defied Voldemort three times (which was about Harry Potter and his family).
