Thursday 27 August 2015

harry potter - Why didn't Voldemort have the prophecy broken to listen to it?

I think there is an explanation to your question that is completely within the spirit of canon, although you may find it to be mere semantics.




‘Only the people to whom they refer can lift [prophecies] from the shelves without suffering madness ...’

Albus Dumbledore - Order of the Phoenix - page 731 - Bloomsbury - chapter thirty-seven, The Lost Prophecy




Dumbledore tells Harry that if a person tries to lift a prophecy from the shelves in the Hall of Prophecies, they will suffer madness, and indeed Broderick Bode -- sent by Voldemort to retrieve Harry and Voldemort's prophecy -- ends up in the Spell Damage ward at St. Mungo's, where he is ultimately murdered by a cut of Devil's Snare, sent to him disguised as Flitterbloom:




A very old, stooped wizard with a hearing trumpet had shuffled to the front of the queue now. ‘I’m here to see Broderick Bode!’ he wheezed.

‘Ward forty-nine, but I’m afraid you’re wasting your time,’ said the witch dismissively. ‘He’s completely addled, you know – still thinks he’s a teapot. Next!’

Order of the Phoenix - page 430 - Bloomsbury - chapter twenty-two, St. Mungo's Hospital




That Bode was in the Spell Damage ward, as I interpret Dumbledore's explanation of retrieving prophecies, indicates that Bode actually touched the prophecy and attempted to take it for Voldemort. Subsequently, per canon, he suffered a madness of sorts (He's in the same ward as Gilderoy Lockhart.). There was at least some aspect of deliberation on Bode's part, and a deliberate attempt to steal a prophecy is different than the accidental destruction of one or more prophecies. Any exception to this would, I think, involve the Imperius curse, and here is where I see a potential plot hole. Canon's initial description of Bode suggests he may have been under the influence of the Imperius curse:




‘Morning, Arthur,’ [Bode] said in a sepulchral voice as the lift began to descend. ‘Don’t often see you down here.’

‘Urgent business, Bode,’ said Mr Weasley, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet and throwing anxious looks over at Harry.

‘Ah, yes,’ said Bode, surveying Harry unblinkingly. ‘Of course.’

Harry barely had emotion to spare for Bode, but [Bode's] unfaltering gaze did not make [Harry] feel any more comfortable.

Order of the Phoenix - page 124 - Bloomsbury - chapter seven, The Ministry of Magic




Sturgis Podmore -- and Order member and, I believe, and Unspeakable at the Department of Mysteries, was caught attempting to enter the Hall of Prophecy, arrested, and sentenced to six months in Azkaban for Trespass. This would indicate he never got to the point of touching the prophecy with deliberation or trying to remove it with deliberation. And, as an Order member, it would seem unlikely Sturgis would have voluntarily set out on an errand for Voldemort. He, too, could have been under the Imperius curse.



So, I think canon demonstrates that deliberation could be the factor that distinguishes whether a person will go mad in light of destroyed prophecies or prophecies that are removed from the shelves by someone for whom a prophecy was not made. It is also consistent with Dumbledore's well-known quote from Chamber of Secrets:




‘It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’

Albus Dumbledore - Chamber of Secrets - page 245 - Bloomsbury - chapter eighteen, Dobby's Reward




Anyhow, food for thought!

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