I don’t see how there could possibly be a real solution. No matter what Harry offers Voldemort—for example even if he offers to make an Unbreakable Vow to devote himself to serving Voldemort’s purposes—Voldemort will still worry that the prophecy will mean that Harry will end up destroying the world. So he will simply kill him anyway, like an AI Gatekeeper who doesn’t listen but simply says “AI DESTROYED” immediately.
Voldemort knows that SOMEONE is prophesied to destroy the stars and be the end of the world. Harry is presently the best candidate by a large margin.
By annihilating him, Voldemort loses all information about who’s supposed to do this, and loses any assurance that whatever causes the fulfillment of the prophesy is something good.
I want to upvote this more than once. If you haven’t posted to fanfiction.net, then post this (with ‘Harry says:’ in front of it, I guess) before it’s too late. People have come up with some good arguments as to why LV ought to let HPJEV live, but this one is the best.
You make a good point—in this instance, Voldemort is very much difficult to bargain with. However, I don’t agree that that makes the problem impossible. For one thing, there may be solutions which don’t require Voldemort’s cooperation—e.g. silent transfiguration while stalling for time. For another, Harry can still get Voldemort’s cooperation by convincing Voldemort that his current action is not in Voldemort’s interests—for example, that killing Harry will actually bring about the end of the world that Voldemort fears.
I don’t see how there could possibly be a real solution. No matter what Harry offers Voldemort—for example even if he offers to make an Unbreakable Vow to devote himself to serving Voldemort’s purposes—Voldemort will still worry that the prophecy will mean that Harry will end up destroying the world. So he will simply kill him anyway, like an AI Gatekeeper who doesn’t listen but simply says “AI DESTROYED” immediately.
Voldemort knows that SOMEONE is prophesied to destroy the stars and be the end of the world. Harry is presently the best candidate by a large margin.
By annihilating him, Voldemort loses all information about who’s supposed to do this, and loses any assurance that whatever causes the fulfillment of the prophesy is something good.
I want to upvote this more than once. If you haven’t posted to fanfiction.net, then post this (with ‘Harry says:’ in front of it, I guess) before it’s too late. People have come up with some good arguments as to why LV ought to let HPJEV live, but this one is the best.
You make a good point—in this instance, Voldemort is very much difficult to bargain with. However, I don’t agree that that makes the problem impossible. For one thing, there may be solutions which don’t require Voldemort’s cooperation—e.g. silent transfiguration while stalling for time. For another, Harry can still get Voldemort’s cooperation by convincing Voldemort that his current action is not in Voldemort’s interests—for example, that killing Harry will actually bring about the end of the world that Voldemort fears.