Let's pick at that prophecy a little more, shall we?

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 77613

Wanda wrote:
> I'm interested in the line, "and the Dark Lord will mark him as his 
> equal..." 
<snip>
In this case, Dumbledore could be wrong, as was 
> the person who relabelled the prophecy in the MoM.  Voldemort might 
> have "marked" the wrong person, and the transfer of powers will not 
> be decisive in defeating him.
> 
> Next point, in what way is Harry Voldemort's "equal"?  He has 
> nowhere near as much power; even though he's outwitted him 4 times, 
> he himself says that it had as much to do with luck and help as 
> anything.  
<snip>

Me:

Okay, so what you have to consider is this- Voldemort has been told 
that a baby has the power to vanquish him. He doesn't have to accept 
it. He could just say that Trelawney is a fraud or that the prophecy 
is not true, or not specific enough to actually predict his own 
demise... BUT he goes out there and believes it. Voldemort believes 
that Harry has the power to defeat him. He is scared of him. He 
considers Harry to be a real threat. This is why he went out and 
tried to kill him- nearly causing his own destruction. This is why 
he's obsessed with laying hands on him in GoF and finding out the 
prophecy in OoP. 

The point I'm trying to make here is that Voldemort has marked Harry 
as equal just by considering him a threat. Voldemort considers Harry 
to be his equal- this is why he went out and tried to kill him. If 
Voldemort didn't consider Harry to be his equal then he wouldn't have 
bothered to try and destroy him. So, the very fact that Voldemort 
believes that Harry is his equal is 'marking as equal.'


Harry mightn't necessarily be Voldemort's equal in power (Harry 
definitely doesn't think he is)- BUT Voldemort thinks that he is. 
This is the whole crux of the prohpecy- it *could* have been either 
Harry or Neville, but at the second when Voldemort chose Harry as 
thought- 'Harry Potter is the one of whom this prophecy speaks. He 
has the power to defeat me. I must defeat him.' he is 'marking him as 
equal.' He is saying that Harry is a threat. And in doing so he 
passes on his own powers to him. So, you see, before Harry was 
attacked he wasn't Voldemort's equal at all. It is Voldemort's attack 
on him that transfers the powers, links Voldemort and Harry together 
via the scar and makes Harry become more powerful than he would have 
been.

Think about the people who Voldemort fears... Dumbledore... and Harry 
Potter. It's a very short list. He's afraid of them because he 
considers them to has more power than he does, or be equal to him in 
power. No matter how much power Harry actually has, the very fact 
that Voldemort thinks he has plenty is an advantage than no-one else 
(bar Dumbledore) in the wizarding world has. 

Also to note- Voldemort has in no way marked Neville as equal. The 
very fact that Voldemort has not bothered Neville at all proves that 
he thinks that Neville poses no threat to him whatsoever. 

The prophecy hangs together on this line 
"and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal..."
Voldemort *can't* have marked the wrong person because it was always 
his choice. The was no right or wrong person until Voldemort chose 
who they would be. He chose between Harry and Neville. And he chose 
Harry. He *marked* Harry by trying to kill him. His choice of Harry 
sealed his fate- by considering Harry to be a threat to him would 
mean accepting that he is the one in the prophecy. By trying to kill 
him he passed on his powers to Harry. By giving these powers to Harry 
he gave Harry the powers to kill him. They do have a connecting scar 
after all. Even if you don't want to believe that the power that 
Voldemort tranferred to Harry (eg Parseltongue) will help Harry 
defeat him, the whole scar thing is harder to explain away.

~<(Laurasia)>~