It’s a prophecy: information about the future. Maybe it’s simply saying that either one could win, but there’s no possible future where both exist (except for a remnant). Any “why” is a just-so story for human consumption; the raw prophecied fact is simply that fork in the road.
Contradicted by several statements that prophecies are for human consumption, and specifically for people who have the power to fulful or prevent those particular prophecies. See discussion of seers and temporal pressure.
And the messages would come out in riddles, and only someone who heard the prophecy in the seer’s original voice would hear all the meaning that was in the riddle. There was no possible way that Millicent could just give out a prophecy any time she wanted, about school bullies, and then remember it, and if she had it would’ve come out as ‘the skeleton is the key’ and not ‘Susan Bones has to be there’. (Ch.77)
It’s a prophecy: information about the future. Maybe it’s simply saying that either one could win, but there’s no possible future where both exist (except for a remnant). Any “why” is a just-so story for human consumption; the raw prophecied fact is simply that fork in the road.
Contradicted by several statements that prophecies are for human consumption, and specifically for people who have the power to fulful or prevent those particular prophecies. See discussion of seers and temporal pressure.
In HPMOR prophecies are riddles: