Harry Potter and the Prophecy

          Having just finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the second time (I read it for the first time in my life this summer) I am curious as to whether or not the existence of a prophecy is essential to the protagonist in fantasy literature. My first instinct is to say emphatically yes. The prophecy is what gives the hero his or her purpose throughout the adventure and eventually leads to him or her becoming queer. To back up this line of thought in the context our our class, I would cite the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Hobbit, and Phantastes. However, after reading Harry's and Dumbledore's last conversation in the final chapter of the book, as well as reviewing the initial telling of the Potter's death, I am not so sure. 

          In the aforementioned conversation between Harry and Dumbledore, Harry asks a question: "...Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?" Although Harry has already made it through the first of many adventures and is well on his way to becoming queer (at least from a muggle perspective) Harry has yet to hear of the prophecy that has shaped his life and utterly changed his future. All he knows is that Voldemort has killed his parents and now wants him dead. It is also made clear in Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived that no one quite knows why Voldemort wanted to get rid of Harry.  J. K. Rowling does this in the conversation that McGonagall and Dumbledore have just before Hagrid arrives at number four Privet Drive with the infant Harry. The conversation goes as follows: 

          "That's not all. They're saying the tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."

          Dumbledore nodded glumly, 

          "It's - it's true? faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding...of all the things to stop him...but how in the name of heaven did Harry Potter survive?"

          "We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Now, we can question whether or not Dumbledore is telling the whole truth and if you read far enough in the series you will discover the answers to these questions, however that leads us to ask the question: Should we read  each book as separate faerie stories or are they intertwined and inseparable? I, of course, don't know the answer. I also don't know if the prophecy is essential or if we have made it essential. Any thoughts?