The Prophecy: Either, Neither, & Other

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 73060

I have said before, and I still say that the heart of the prophecy,
the key to understanding it is contained in this one line-

"...either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live
while the other survives..."

Well, I think I may have cracked it.

First, we have the part about living, "...neither can live while the
other survives...", but they are living. They are all living in the
same extended period of time.

BUT... what if it doesn't refer to a SPAN of time, but a POINT in
time? What if it means that they won't survive a specific single event?

Now I ask, exactly who are 'they'? They are Harry, Neville and Voldemort.

What if that 'single event' that I mentioned is the final showdown
between Harry and Voldemort, only Neville is there too.

Let me rewrite it the way I interpret it and then explain.

'...either Harry or Neville must die at the hand of Voldemort for
neither Harry nor/or Neville can live while Voldemort survives...'

What this means is that Harry and Neville are a power block; i.e. -
block of power. If each of them has a magical power factor of 3 then
together their combined magical power factor is 10; the whole is
greater than the sum of it's parts. Therefore, if either of them are
dead, the world lacks the combined force necessary to kill Voldemort.

As long as Harry and Neville are alive, Voldemort's life is at risk.
If either one of them dies, the is nothing left capable of killing 
Voldemort.

Now, let's take it one step farther. When it comes to the final
showdown, either Harry and Neville's combined force will kill
Voldemort, or Voldemort will become eternal by killing Harry and/or
Neville.

One step beyond that, we have already seen that Voldemort can't kill
Harry. That's because Neville wasn't there. If Voldemort on his own
tries to kill either one separately, fate refuses to allow it.
Voldemort can't kill Harry unless Neville is there and equally engaged
in the fight, and conversely, he can't kill Neville unless Harry is
actively involved. The only combination that has the power to end it
once and for all, is if all three of them engage at once. 

I also speculate that, in the context of this power triangle, either
Harry or Neville could side with Voldemort and insure their own safety
as well as Voldemort's eternal life. That would be a stupid thing to
do, because there would be no way you could trust Voldemort not to
kill the survivor on a whim someday. It's stupid to allign yourself
with a hopelessly irrational, self-proclaimed 'god'. When Voldemort
calls himself 'Lord' Voldemort, I don't think he intends to imply
'noble aristocratic' Voldemort, I honestly think he sees himself has
'lord god who has concurred death and is eternal' Voldemort. Not
someone you want to get mixed up with.

An alternate twist might be if the end result has to be either both
Harry and Neville dead, or Voldemort dead. 

This does have one small problem, and that is the prophecy says "The
ONE with the power to vanquish...", not the ONES or the two. For now
the only way I have around that, is to say that prophecies are alway
vague, even relatively specific prophecy are still stated in
generalizations. Also, note is says, '...the one...' twice; could be
talking about two separate 'ones'.

Others have argued against Neville having a hand in the actual
vanquishing of Voldemort by saying that the book is 'HARRY POTTER and
the ...' not 'Neville Longbottom and the ...'. Well, Neville being the
key to ending the whole thing is what is know as a 'plot twist'.
Regardless of who does the actual vanquishing, the story has still
been about Harry Potter's life. It's just Harry Potter's life and
adventures with an unforseen plot twist at the end.

Ok, it's not perfect, but it makes more sense than anything I've
thought of or read so far.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn