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

[princesspeaette]

No: HPFGUIDX 77638


> 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>
 

~<(Laurasia)>~ 
>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.


 
Margaret (me):

I still think the prophecy *may* mean Neville.  No, Voldemort did 
not "mark him" in the physical sense, but not all marks are visible.  
Perhaps it means psychologically, in a way Voldemort's responsible 
for who Neville is, just as he is for who Harry is.  

The attack on Harry could be what 'marked' Neville (just go with me 
for a sec on this one).

- Voldemort attacks the infant Harry Potter, causing his own 
destruction.  His downfall is why the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. 
tourtured Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity, thus insuring 
Neville has a constant reminder of why Voldemort MUST be defeated.  
It's after the breakout from Azkaban that Neville starts showing real 
improvement magically.  

- Voldemort seems to discount Neville as the one meant in the 
prophecy, even though Neville is the pureblood wizard (the only type 
worth associating with according to Voldemort) and it's the people 
you least expect that turn out to be the dangerous ones sometimes.  
The fact that Voldemort does NOT see Neville as his equal could cause 
him some problems if he ever comes face to face with Neville in 
combat.  He won't think Neville's worth the trouble of his best 
abilites, and he'll probably let his guard down.  A foolish mistake, 
but one that has many precedents.



The scar could really just be a scar.  Dumbledore said in SS/PS "that 
is what you get when a powerful evil curse touches you."  It could 
just be what we've always been told, it's what happens when someone 
is shielded from an Avada Kedavra curse.  In which case, if Voldemort 
had decided Neville was the dangerous one, he would have attacked the 
Longbottoms, I'm sure Alice would have done the same thing for her 
son that Lily did for hers, and Neville would have a scar. It still 
fulfills the theory I've outlined here, just changes the cast around 
a little.


~Margaret