Neville and the Prophecy - VERY LONG

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 108190

HunterGreen said:

>>He has not been 'marked as equal', he doesn't appear to have any special powers, and he doesn't 
have specific connections to Voldemort the way Harry does (such as 
the scar and the blood). Another thing, would Harry have been able to 
get the prophecy if it wasn't about him? Did the DoM employees put 
the curse on it saying that only "*Harry* and Voldemort" would be 
able to get it, or only "the ones the prophecy refers to"? <<


DuffyPoo now:
"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...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." (OotP)

Born to those who have thrice defied him....DD says both the Potters and the Longbottoms have done so, by saying that both Harry and Neville fit the mold.
Born as the seventh month dies....HP July 31, 1980; NL July 30, 1980

What I am saying is, none of the rest of the prophecy has yet been fulfilled, even though DD, the WW, LV himself, and the Keeper of the Prophecies believes it has been.  What happened after LV went to the Potters is only circumstantial evidence because he never got to the Longbottoms.  If it had happened the other way round, and LV went to the Longbottoms first and killed baby Neville, we wouldn't be having this discussion.  The problem exists, for me, because both kids who could have fulfilled the prophecy are still living.

LV only knows the first part of the prophecy, remember, 'the one with the power to vanquish the DL approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.'  He was going to kill all the kids born at the end of July to parents who had thrice defied him.   That means HP and NL.  He went to the Potters first because, thanks to Wormtail, he knew where they were hiding.  He tried to kill HP, Lily's sacrifice (not any power HP had) saved baby Harry and the curse rebounded onto LV.  LV now, what's left of him, *mistakenly* believes that HP is the one in the prophecy, because LV was unable to kill him.  LV himself, later, said he had forgotten the power of the sacrifice Lily had made.  There was nothing special about HP, there was something very special about Lily's sacrifice (whether or not it was simply her sacrificing herself for Harry or she had cast a counter spell.  It is still Lily that protected HP, not anything about HP himself that saved him).  The *mark* - the scar - is circumstantial...it was caused by the rebounding of the AK off Lily's protective sacrifice.  The AK was just as strong bouncing back.  LV himself says it should have killed him, would have killed him if he hadn't made advances into  immortality.  The sacrifice that prevented LV/Quirrell touching HP is gone since LV used HP's blood in his rebirthing potion.  HP is still protected by the charm DD placed on him/Petunia so that as long as HP can call the Dursley residence 'home' he will be protected by that Lily-Petunia-HP blood thing...the place where HP's mother's blood resides.  (Since, in my theory here, HP is not the one anyway, this really changes nothing except now, if HP leaves Hogwarts or the Dursley residence, LV can kill him because Lily's protection, which saved him before, is now gone.  LV can kill anyone else he wants to, as well.)

Because of what happened between LV and the Potters, DD and the WW *mistakenly* believe there is something special about HP.  DD believes *mistakenly* that HP is the one the prophecy refers to.  The Keeper of the Prophecy changes the card from "Dark Lord & (?)" to "Dark Lord & Harry Potter" because of the circumstantial evidence and the fact that old LV appears to have vanished.  The reason HP can take the prophecy orb down is that the prophecy *now refers to him*.

DD, we know now, has been watching HP like a hawk.  DD let him go after the Philosopher's Stone & face LV, go into the CoS & deal with TR/Basilisk, meet, get to know,  rescue and stay in contact with his Godfather, let HP take part in the Triwizard Tournament although DD had to have known the Goblet was tricked, let the events of OotP happen because.....DD mistakenly believes HP is "THE ONE."  He jumped to the wrong conclusion.  DD let him do all those things because he mistakenly believes HP is the one and HP needed these experiences for the final, yet to come, confrontation with LV.

The simple fact is Neville has never been tested against LV.  He may have powers none of us, including Neville, know anything about.  He *appears* an unlikely candidate for the job, but we know very little about him.  His parents were, obviously, both very talented magically.  They 'thrice defied' LV, like the Potters had.  Neville has been, for five years, using a wand that didn't belong to him.  Neville has, for most of his life been rather, 'kept down' by his Grandmother, I think.  Quite likely told, on a regular basis, that he is quite useless.  Yet, Professor McGonagall knows it is only lack of confidence holding Neville back.  Neville found that confidence through the DA.  Harry remarked that no one was more changed than Neville and that once the DE's escaped Azkaban, Neville became even more confident, 'but in nobody was this improvement more pronounced than in Neville. ... He was improving so fast it was quit unnerving and when Harry taught them the Sheild Charm - a means of deflecting minor jinxes so that they rebounded upon the attacker - only Hermione mastered the charm faster than Neville.' (Don't forget, Hermione originally found this charm, and helped HP learn it, to use in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament.)   Neville did his fair share of spells in the DoM (yes, some of them went astray, but remember, Neville has never been in this kind of situation before - Hermione and Harry both have), until his wand was broken and he was kicked in the face and couldn't speak properly.  He was there, by Harry's side, until the end, until HP ran after Bella.  Neville is also quite adept at Herbology.  Does anyone remember that the cry of the Mandrake is 'fatal to anyone who hears it'?  Neville doesn't need a wand to deal with LV.  All he needs is a pair of earmuffs and a pot plant. ;)

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