JKR's FAQ answer about Neville

[carolynwhite2]

--- In HPFGU-Catalogue at yahoogroups.com, Ginger <quigonginger at y...> 
wrote:

>  I would also have been disappointed in the whole "chosen from 
before birth" thing.  Harry has been protrayed as a normal kid.  For 
him to have had some great destiny and hidden powers (aside from 
being a wizard to begin with) where only he could defeat LV would be 
unsatifactory in my book.  Kind of "oh, here's a wizard no one can 
defeat, so we'll have someone extra special born with some sort of 
power no one else has in order to defeat him."  That would be the 
yawner.  
>  
> At least this way, LV had a sporting chance.  Had he not tried to 
kill a baby, neither would have been marked, and he would have been 
free to persue evil at will.  But he blew it himself.  Ha Ha.  
> 		


Well, this isn't what she is saying exactly, is it? She says that 
[Dumbledore thinks that] Neville would not have had the right 
qualities to defeat Voldemort, although Neville would have been 
protected from the AK in the same way as Harry, had his parents died 
for him as Lily did.

It seems Dumbledore at least has been sure for a very long time that 
Harry is the one to defeat Voldemort and no one else will do. What is 
not clear is whether this is because of something innate about him, 
or whether he becomes weapon!Harry only if Voldemort is induced to 
attack him.

Things become pleasantly murkier if you consider the possibility, 
which many of us believe, that DD made damn sure Voldie went for 
Harry first by manipulating the tensions between MWPP to create a 
situation where the SK betrayal occurred, leading ultimately to the 
dodgy re-birth potion. 

What price V's 'choice' then? Leaving aside the obvious point that he 
really shouldn't go round killing babies, it now appears that if he 
had gone and tried to kill Neville first, he might still have been 
vapourised, but not in the process created the child that was to be 
his nemesis.

So, we end up back at the dull answer, that Harry's the destined one, 
either because of his yet-to-be-explained genealogy, or powers that 
have always been destined to be dumped on him, or a combination of 
both. 

Not what I'd call original plotting I'm afraid.

Carolyn