How Old Is Harry Potter & How Is His Birthdate Connected To The Prophecy?

Prophecies are a pretty big deal within the “Harry Potter” universe — as we find out in the fifth book and film, “Order of the Phoenix,” the Ministry of Magic has an entire room devoted to storing them deep within its Department of Mysteries. It’s this room that Voldemort uses as a trap, luring Harry there by sending him a false vision of his beloved godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) being tortured there… so Harry and a handful of loyal friends all head there, intending to free Sirius. All of that was a lie, though; Sirius isn’t there, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters simply needed Harry, as one of the two subjects of the prophecy, to remove it from its resting place.

See, after all this time, Voldemort still hasn’t heard anything past the first sentence or so of the prophecy. Snape, who was spying for Voldemort at the time, was caught eavesdropping and ejected from the premises, so only Dumbledore knows the full contents of the prophecy. (Snape also becomes a double agent at this point, but that’s an entirely different article.) Voldemort missed the part about the person he marks becoming his equal, as well as having a power Voldemort does not, giving Harry somewhat of a strategic advantage. (The “power,” by the way, is love; specifically, Lily’s love, because she sacrificed her life to protect Harry from Voldemort.) Not only is this prophecy the inciting incident for the entire story, but it’s also really complicated… especially because it didn’t even have to be about Harry.