OotP Re-Read: And Another Thing

[slowfox]

cynthia_black wondered about who was allowed to touch the prophecy - it's labelled as (?)Harry Potter, when, as Dumbledore reveals later, it could just as easily have been (?)Neville Longbottom.

But, as we established earlier on in the re-read, Trelawney made the prophecy before either of the boys had been born. So...

...when was the prophecy stored in the glass globe? When was it labelled? If it was labelled after it had been saved, then who was able to touch it to label it? And alright, this is just one prophecy, but it's clear that there are thousands upon thousands of these stored in the Ministry, so the logistics of administration are looking suspiciously non-trivial.

Comments

[schnurble]

I suppose, they don't have to touch the prophecy to label it - they could leviate a pen to write on it or something like that. Or when they seal it with some magic to the touch of anyone besides the person this prophecy is about, the name automatically appears as a sideffect...
I suppose, all administrative tasks could be done this way, by using magic without touching it.

I was always under the impression that you only have to really touch it to hear the prophecy, and that's why no one else can actually touch it besides the person on the label.
Which leads me to wonder if no one is able touch it as long as there's no name on it, or anyone?

more questions

[aome]

Perhaps the "no one else can touch it" spell is put on the sphere after it has been shelved. Before then, while they're sphere-ing it and labeling it, it doesn't matter? And I agree that the label could be easily changed with magic, no touching required.

And, incidentally, WHY is there such a restriction? Why are prophecies considered private and proprietary to those about whom the prophecy was made? (Uh, did that make any grammatical sense? :P) I mean, since it seems as though Seers are not always aware of when and where they make a prophecy, it could just as easily occur in a room full of people.

How, exactly, are you supposed to hear the prophecy aside from breaking the ball? That seems rather silly, as then you can only hear it once. I can only assume there's a spell involved, to make it talk - but how do you know what that spell is?

[slowfox]

In Ch 37 Dumbledore explains that Harry's name was added to the prophecy after Voldemort's attack on Harry that Halloween night way back when...

It does seem a really convoluted means of storing prophecies, though. And why is there such a stricture placed on them?

Most odd.

Re: more questions

[slowfox]

And, incidentally, WHY is there such a restriction? Why are prophecies considered private and proprietary to those about whom the prophecy was made?

It's a really odd policy, isn't it? Especially when you consider that until Voldemort attacked Harry, people weren't even sure whether it was Harry or Neville to whom the prophecy applied. And what if the prophecy's mislabelled? What if they'd misspelt Harry's name? Something, here, does not compute ;-P

[schnurble]

Odd, yep, that describes it very well :o)
But if it wasn't so convoluted, the whole story of book 5 would be moot, I suppose ;o)