Voldemort CHOSE to attack Harry

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 108488

> Aggie: (With evil grin - playing devil's advocate!)
> That doesn't prove anything one way or the other!  That's not JKR 
> saying that Harry's 'The One' - just reiterating *Dumbledore's* 
> belief! Knowing how 'cunning' she can be, this could still be a 
trick 
> answer!
> 
> Thought I'd save your fingers DuffyPoo!

Geoff:
"There seems to be a question "What if Neville was the guy in the 
prophecy and it was only the fact that Voldemort attacked Harry first 
which forestalled that?"

DuffyPoo:  
First of all, thanks to Aggie for trying to save me, but it came too late.  I didn't see your response to the original question until after I posted my own  You did say virtually the same thing I did though.. ;-)  
Geoff, that's my theory, in a nutshell.  Or, more appropriately, because both Harry & Neville are still alive, the prophecy can still refer to either of them. The possibility exists that it can be either Harry or Neville. 

Geoff:
"Let's suppose. If Voldemort had attacked Neville first, would Neville 
have survived? Was he with his parents at the time of the attack on 
Harry? Or were they away and he was with Grandma Longbottom? Would 
any of these three have had any way of blocking an Avada Kedavra 
spell? If he had atacked and killed Neville first and gone on to 
Godric's Hollow, then the same scenario might well have played out 
and we would have a similar setup to the current one but minus 
Neville. Whichever way, he might still have finished up on a hiding 
to nothing...
Thoughts?"


DuffyPoo:

My thoughts, which by now everyone is sick of hearing:

The answer to your first three questions is we don't know, or at least, I don't know..  We don't know anything about the situation around Neville at the time.  I am assuming that DD would have informed Frank and Alice about the prophecy, not necessarily the exact wording, and they would, or Gran and Neville at least, would have gone into hiding (with, apparently a better secret-keeper than the Potters had).  I think that Alice Longbottom could have well saved baby Neville in the same way Lily saved HP.  It was only Lily's sacrifice of herself for Harry (that we *know* of, we don't *know* there was a spell involved) that saved Harry.  Would Alice have sacrificed herself for baby Neville?  Quite probably.  Could Neville's Grandmother have produced a similar sacrificial protection if it were only herself standing between LV and baby Neville?  Hard to say, possibly.

My whole theory hinges on this: "If he had attacked and killed Neville first and gone on to Godric's Hollow...."   If LV had attacked Neville first and Neville died, then my 'it could still be Neville' theory is obviously blown out of the water.  If Neville dies in book 6 or 7 my theory is blown out of the water.  But because LV became aware of the Potters' whereabouts first, he went there first.  Neville was still being hidden from him.  LV was thwarted, by Lily's sacrificing herself for Harry, and he was vapourized.  Since both Neville and Harry are alive, the *possibility exists* that the one to fulfill the prophecy can still be either Harry or Neville.

Geoff: "Whichever way, he might still have finished up on a hiding 
to nothing..."

DuffyPoo:

Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying here.


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