Nearly The One - Was:Re: Prophecy wording - why not Neville?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 128363

Great Elder One's post has sparked an idea for me, because even though
it's true that Neville is not quite related to Voldemort in the same
way Harry is, there are still certain similarities.

> GEO: It was 
> Voldemort's attack on Harry that left the boy with the mark and some 
> of Voldemort's own powers including parseltongue, but it also left 
> Harry's life very similar to that of the young Tom Riddle Jr: 
> orphaned, being raised by muggles who they obviously were not 
> particularly fond of, being "saved" through the Hogwarts letters, 
> having their shared wand cores and getting the opportunity to be 
> sorted into slytherin house, which Harry thankfully avoided. Neville 
> shares none of these similarities with Voldemort aside from the lack 
> of a mark. 

Annemehr:
I feel comfortably sure that Harry is The One. But, need Neville be
either The One or Not The One?  Might it make a difference that
Neville is Nearly The One?

Neville did actually grow up nearly an orphan.  He was not raised by
Muggles, but he did have a more difficult upbringing by his
"formidable grandmother" than he presumably would have had with his
parents (remember that Harry recognised Alice in Moody's photograph by
her "round, friendly face").  Even more, Neville's family thought he
was "all Muggle" until the day he was dropped out of the window and
bounced.  Though Hogwarts was known to Neville, it still must have
been a great relief to him when his letter arrived - a rescue from his
gran's disappointment if he hadn't been magical enough.

Neville was born almost at the end of the seventh month, to parents
who did defy the Dark Lord three times.

Many of us will remember the heyday of the MemoryCharmed!Neville
theories -- that his memory was so bad, not naturally, but because
he'd either received too strong a memory charm as a toddler, or had a
memory charm broken.  These theories have lost some of their
visibility of late, but still it's easy to wonder if something had
happened to him to affect his mind -- which would bear the shadow of a
similarity to the fact that Harry's mind is affected by his scar. 
Whether it's a memory charm, or something else (even if it's "only" a
repressed memory), there's the possibility that Neville was marked in
some way by the Death Eaters.  Being marked by Death Eaters is like
being almost marked by Voldemort, no?

Almost the right birth, almost the right parents, almost a Muggle,
almost an orphan, maybe almost marked -- Neville really is an echo of
Harry.  Will his role be an echo of Harry's role, as the secondary
hero, and above all the others?  Does the fact that Neville partly
fits the prophecy (if such is indeed the fact) have a true, magical
significance?

I'd like that.  I wondered "but what about Neville?" the first time I
read every book after PS/SS.

Annemehr