Beautifully put Zonko. You made me reach for the prophecy again too.

Ok so "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." and then goes on to describe Harry. This implies, of course, that Harry is the ONE and the Only one who can defeat V therefore D merely tries to help out BUT does this justify D not giving it a try?? If he feels fatherly love towards Harry wouldn't you say "drats! to that mate You're going down"?

Maybe I would be sated if you explained where you got this 'the prophecy must be allowed to come true or there will be nasty consequences' thing

Gotta say, these failings of Dumbledore (who I deeply love by the way but am just trying to figure out) are pushing me towards the Gandulf/ Dumbledore analogy rather than the Alec Guiness(someone please tell me that character's name!)/ Dumbledore theory. Let's just hope Harry/Dumbledore doesn't end up being anything like a Arthur/Merlin ending.