Without going back to The Good Book, it was perfectly clear to Harry at the end “tear apart the stars” prophecy could just refer to Harry harvesting the stars for resources.
ok, I’ll peak.
Unseen by anyone, the Defense Professor’s lips curved up in a thin
smile. Despite its little ups and downs, on the whole this had been a
surprisingly good day— “He is here. The one who will tear apart the very stars in heaven.
He is here. He is the end of the world.”
Does that mean that Quirrell knew the exact prophecy? And Dumbledore knew it too.
Were Quirrell and Dumbledore basing his worries about Harry destroying the stars on the prophecy?
Shouldn’t they just have asked? “Hey, what could it mean if someone is supposed to “tear apart the very stars in heaven”?
But Dumbledore then tells it to him in his letter anyway. And Quirrell discusses his apprehension that Harry will destroy the sun, but doesn’t mention the prophecy at the time. It seemed like there was a lot of heartburn over something Harry could have cleared up in a minute.
The text admittedly doesn’t give us any reason to think V considered the star-lifting interpretation. It also gives us no reason to think he would care. If the prophecy has two possible interpretations (each of which may be genuinely possible, depending on V’s actions) and he has no real interest in a star-lifting civilization but great fear of his own death, then he should rationally try to prevent the latter.
The real question is why he thought he could prevent the prophecy from happening in any form. And I’m willing to accept that as in-story knowledge from Salazar and other sources, plus ignorance or incomplete knowledge of Dumbledore’s role. (The latter seems interesting in that he knew D had knowledge of the future—maybe he failed to consider that D might be trying to protect everyone except the two of them? Or maybe this was just arrogance.)
Without going back to The Good Book, it was perfectly clear to Harry at the end “tear apart the stars” prophecy could just refer to Harry harvesting the stars for resources.
ok, I’ll peak.
Does that mean that Quirrell knew the exact prophecy? And Dumbledore knew it too.
Were Quirrell and Dumbledore basing his worries about Harry destroying the stars on the prophecy?
Shouldn’t they just have asked? “Hey, what could it mean if someone is supposed to “tear apart the very stars in heaven”?
But Dumbledore then tells it to him in his letter anyway. And Quirrell discusses his apprehension that Harry will destroy the sun, but doesn’t mention the prophecy at the time. It seemed like there was a lot of heartburn over something Harry could have cleared up in a minute.
The text admittedly doesn’t give us any reason to think V considered the star-lifting interpretation. It also gives us no reason to think he would care. If the prophecy has two possible interpretations (each of which may be genuinely possible, depending on V’s actions) and he has no real interest in a star-lifting civilization but great fear of his own death, then he should rationally try to prevent the latter.
The real question is why he thought he could prevent the prophecy from happening in any form. And I’m willing to accept that as in-story knowledge from Salazar and other sources, plus ignorance or incomplete knowledge of Dumbledore’s role. (The latter seems interesting in that he knew D had knowledge of the future—maybe he failed to consider that D might be trying to protect everyone except the two of them? Or maybe this was just arrogance.)