Debate: Are Prophecies Avoidable?

[Lex Green]

Across the Harry Potter series, there a few prophecies we see play out, most obviously, the prophecy made by Sybil Trelawney about Lord Voldemort, which essentially leads to the entire series of events.

However, Lord Voldemort was only able to act on the prophecy, and attempt to stop it coming true, because he knew that it existed (although he missed parts of it, which ultimately led to his downfall).

Harry also found out about the prophecy, and was therefore able to use that to his advantage, and make sure it played out correctly.

But, do you think this prophecy, and any others in general, would still eventually come true, regardless of whether or not someone had acted on them? If no one had ever heard a prophecy be made, would the events it spoke of still always happen? Or are some prophecies dependent on others knowing of their existence?

[Anne-Marie Gagne]

Oh this is such a good question. I want to say that yes, a fully fledged out prophecy would be unavoidable but no one would actually know there was a prophecy given (except those in the Department of Mysteries would know a new prophecy was made, just not who about since we know that Harry's name was added after Voldemort went after the Potters). I believe that prophecies just aren't time sensitive and who exactly it is about can and will change. The prophecy that started the whole series may have been about Voldemort but was definitely about Voldemort when he made it about him. The prophecy could have been any other kid but was made to be about Harry when Voldemort went after him. The prophecy was given but then was made to be about them, not made about them from the start.

Prophecies are basically self-fulling and would have been fulfilled whether it was then or 100 years in the future with a different dark lord and a different boy savior.

Predictions on the other hand, I believe are entirely avoidable if one takes care to pay attention to when one is being made.

[Selene Amaury]

I have a somewhat nuanced perspective on this. Personally, I think that a prophecy's effectiveness depends on rather or not it is communicated to the people it is intended to affect. That is because in my view, the future isn't a linear path with just one predetermined outcome; rather it's filled with countless possibilities. When someone interprets a prophecy, they are essentially unveiling one of these potential futures.
However, the moment this possible future is revealed to the person in question, it exerts a profound influence on their psyche. It starts to shape their reality, guiding their actions either in the pursuit of its fulfilment or in an attempt to evade it. Paradoxically, even the desire to avoid a prophecy can inadvertently lead one to fulfil it, thanks to the intricate workings of our minds as when we consciously try not to think about something, our brains tend to fixate on it.
So, to answer your question, I would say that it is indeed possible to avert a prophecy as long as you remain blissfully unaware of it. However, once you are privy to its contents, escaping its impact becomes impossible.

[Hiya Debnath]

Prophecies are certainly avoidable but that would be very difficult. As a believer of prophecies and Divination, the future is a result of a complex tapestry of events in which even the slightest wave of a hand of oneself or someone else (let's say in the form of a signal) can change the whole sequence of cascading events like dominoes. To avoid the future, one would have to carefully weave through that tapestry, fixing every little thing that all the characters in the picture do to contribute to the future. While it is certainly possible depending on whether the events are controllable (such as being one's own actions) or not, it may be extremely complex.
That being said, changing a prophecy saying that one would fail an exam would be relatively easier if one studied hard but one cannot pre-guess certain events such as being hit by a truck when trying to go to the exam. What can be done is doing one's best and being very, very careful. In the end, no one can say what would happen and it is very difficult to say whether or not one would be able to successfully avoid a prophecy, because of the complexity of events that lead to a certain outcome, but despite this difficulty, we can safely argue on the side of prophecies being avoidable, albeit that succeeding in avoiding prophecies is very difficult and extremely complex.

[River Fenwick]

I do believe prophecies can be changed to be inaccurate. There are far too many variables to account for in order for a specific scenario to play out. Due to this, prophecies could be changed by the slightest bump in the road without anyone even intentionally acting on them. If people were to know about the prophecy and live their lives to fulfill or avoid it, things would end up far different than what could have been predicted due to the meddling, even if it's intended in an attempt to ensure it happens. Knowledge of it would immediately break the prophecy because it would likely be at the back of someone's mind and cause them to change what they would have done subconsciously without the intent of changing or enforcing it.

[Dibyarup James Potter]

In my opinion, prophecies depend on a lot of factors, and one of them is knowledge of the prophecy itself. For example, certain prophecies might depend on the subject of the prophecy learning about it and henceforth setting in motion a series of events to prevent it from happening, which in turn lead to the prophecy being fulfilled. This is therefore quite like a paradox, because, if the prophecy never existed, then the subject would never learn about it and then never try to prevent it from happening, thus not setting it in motion at all.

In other words, I believe, that a legitimate prophecy, once made, will eventually come true, and whether or not someone would act on it would also be a predetermined event which would be a part of the prophecy. Therefore, prophecies give people an illusion of free will, because acting on the prophecy would be a part of the prophecy and if the person or persons are not of the nature to act on it, and the prophecy was made, then their not acting on it would also be a part of the prophecy.

Thus making prophecies effectively unavoidable, but perhaps their fulfilment can be postponed or made to be less damaging, with a lot of effort and very careful planning.

This brings us to ponder, whether free will is just an illusion, and when we are at a crossroads, our “choice” of taking the left or the right path is predetermined, and we are simply executing that predetermined action or event.