Neville and the Prophecy - VERY LONG

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 108059

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him...born as the seventh month dies..." (GoF)  That is all of the prophecy that LV knows and he keeps it to himself.  Doesn't want his DEs to know he's going to be vanquished by some brat kid.

Since DD heard all of the prophecy, he has informed both the Potters and the Longbottoms and they go into hiding, both eventually being protected by a Fidelius Charm when regular protection just isn't working any longer. (Whether Frank and Alice are protected, or just Neville and his Grandmother, doesn't really matter here as long as Neville is hidden.)

At the end of July LV finds out about the birth of both Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.  They both fit the prophecy.  
LV and his DEs are desperately trying to find out where the Potters and Longbottoms are hidden but LV doesn't tell the DEs why.  Along comes Wormtail and spills the Potters' secret.  While planning the attack on the Potters, LV still has his DEs searching for the Longbottoms and Potters in case Wormtail is wrong.  (There is no doubt in my mind he is planning to off both kids, just to be safe. No point getting *the one* and finding out too late it was the other one.)

Since he knows now where the Potters are hidden he goes there first, Lily sacrifices herself, the curse backfires, etc. Harry is considered to be *the one.*  By DD, by the WW, by LV, and by the keeper of the Prophecies who changes the card from under the prophecy from Dark Lord & (?) to Dark Lord  & Harry Potter.  

But....

What if DD is wrong? He believes it and because be believes it, we believe it too.   We believe, because DD believes, that LV has marked HP as *the one* by the curse that rebounded, leaving the scar.  We believe, because DD believes, that LV *chose* HP because they are both half-bloods.  But what if those beliefs are wrong?

If LV went to the Longbottoms first and killed Neville, we would *know* beyond any doubt, that HP is *the one,* but because HP is attacked first, and LV is *vanquished* we only assume HP is the one.  Like everyone else assumes he is the one because the curse rebounded.  

LV believes HP is the one because the curse rebounded and sent him into vapourness.  Circumstantial evidence.  LV himself says: 'His mother left upon him the traces of her sacrifice...this is old magic...I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it,' and 'I miscalculated my friends, I admit it.  My curse was deflected by the woman's foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded on me.' (GoF)   The curse was rebounded by the sacrifice, not by any special 'power the Dark Lord knows not' in Harry. Nothing special about Harry.  Riddle knows that. 'So.  Your mother died to save you.  Yes, that's a powerful counter-charm.  I can see  now - there is nothing special about you after all.....But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me.  That's all I wanted to know." (CoS) The curse didn't rebound off Harry...it rebounded off his mother's sacrifice.  This is the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' - LV himself says he has forgotten it, overlooked it.  This power is within HP, certainly, but it is within DD and most of the kids at Hogwarts as well.  The power of love, compassion, sympathy, empathy, caring, concern, devotion.  LV has forgotten how to be human...HP and Neville, have not.

If Lily hadn't been there to protect Harry that night, if she had stepped aside as LV told her to, HP may have been killed, and then LV would have moved on to Neville.  Did Lily know that by sacrificing herself she would protect her son? Probably.  Did she know the curse would rebound off the protection the way it did - probably not.  But because Lily sacrificed herself for Harry, and the sacrifice saved him and rebounded on to LV, we all believe Harry is *THE ONE.*  

The DE's don't believe baby Potter vanquished their Master - how could a baby do that?!  Bella, Rudy, Stan and Barty, Jr are on a campaign to find the Longbottoms believing that since LV found the Potters he must have found the Longbottoms as well.  A few weeks/months go by and the Longbottoms feel safe enough to lift the Fidelius Charm.  Caught by DEs who demand the Longbottoms tell them what they have done with LV,. the Longbottoms can only say what they believe to be true: LV attacked the Potter family and was somehow destroyed when he tried to kill the baby.  The DEs don't know LV is after the baby Neville, just after the Longbottoms, Gran's got Neville well hidden anyway.  The DEs don't believe what Frank and Alice said and torture them for the truth.  Frank and Alice end up in St. Mungo's, and our four DE friends end up in Azkaban.  

Fast forward to the end of the story.  HP and NL are battling it out against DEs at the end of book 7.  LV turns up to get HP, Neville casts some spell at him and POOF - vanquished.  They all turn to Neville and say "It was YOU, not Harry!"  Neville's never had to live with the stigma attached to being the one so had nothing to live up to.  He was just trying to protect Harry like he was there for him, to the end, in the DoM.  DD's thinking "Holy crap, I had the wrong kid!"

DuffyPoo

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