Neville Longbottom and the Prophecy

[evangelina839]

No: HPFGUIDX 68687

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Doriane" <delwynmarch at y...>
wrote:
> And in my opinion, it was a complete matter of fate. LV went after 
> Harry because he *could* ! We know the Potters were protected by
the 
> Fidelius Charm, and it seems logical to assume that the Longbottoms 
> were too. Which would explain why the attack didn't happen earlier 
> (had I been LV, I would have killed all the pregnant witches I
could 
> lay my wand on - a la Herod in the Bible, who killed all the boys 
> under the age of 2 in an attempt to kill Jesus). And then suddenly, 
> bam, DD and the Potters made one, just one, mistake : they chose 
> Peter Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper (huh ! Just occured to me that he 
> was probably the last one in a line of Secret-Keepers. But that's 
> another matter). So LV had access to one of the boys, and he went
for 
> him. No choice, no predestination, just a bad decision on the part
of 
> one couple of parents. If the Longbottoms had made such a bad 
> decision before the Potters had had a chance to, then I guess
Neville 
> would have been the prophecy boy.
> 
> Del

That could be a possibility, but I think Dumbledore was right in his
explanation: 
Voldemort made his choice based on how he identified with Harry. Both
of them half-
bloods... I guess Voldemort knew his weaknesses, or what to call it,
in by his own 
blood being exactly what he himself despised; and maybe he used his
own self-
hatred as his main source of strength, and hence somehow felt even
better than any 
pureblood, despite the fact that he was, by his own beliefs, "less
worth" than them. If 
Neville was pureblood (don't remember if there's been a canon
mentioning of this?) 
then Voldemort, in some strange double-standard way, felt superior
than him and 
saw his equal in the other boy. Well, in short: Voldemort saw himself
as the most 
powerful wizard in the world (apart from Dumbledore perhaps) and was
certain that 
only someone sharing all his characteristics would be able to beat
him. Truly 
complicated this....
evangelina