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

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 77744

<sevenhundredandthirteen at y...> wrote:
> 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. ...
> 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.



This is a very fascinating take on this--I like it very much. What 
you've said about Voldy marking Harry as his equal simply by 
BELIEVING him to be a threat is very insightful.

My only quibble is with this one portion:
**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.**

If it's true that Harry wasn't powerful before this, then how did he 
deflect the AK curse?  Surely not *just* by the power of love from 
his mother's sacrificing herself?  I actually believe Harry WAS the 
more powerful of the two possibilities [he & Neville, that is], and 
that he IS gifted beyond ordinary wizards, and that gift came BEFORE 
Voldy did anything *to* him.

The two wizards Voldy fears--DD and HP.  Perhaps there is something 
about those two--something like pure GOODNESS?  Something 
even "savior-like"?  I realize that crosses over into the "world of 
religion" to say that, but it has occurred to me....  Maybe that goes 
too far, but I don't think it goes too far to suggest that Harry was 
powerful from the get-go, from *before* Voldy's attack.

Susan