[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR's FAQ poll -- Neville's potential as prophecy boy (spoilers for FAQ)

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 129014

SSSusan:
>> Yet JKR is telling us quite straightforwardly that Neville could
>> have been The One had Voldy marked him instead, as the curse would
>> have rebounded from him, too, if Alice or Frank had sacrificed
>> him/herself for him.

Nora:
> This seems to kill the Lily was special/Lily did something special
> and specific Charms wise to defend Harry idea.

Probably, but not necessarily.  That is, Lily is almost certainly not 
"special" in and of herself, but she still may have *done* something 
special.  Think about it, if someone (Lily, Dumbledore, etc.) came up 
with an if-all-else-fails Charm that one of the parents could use to 
save a threatened infant (even if it did require self-sacrifice), don't 
you think it would  be shared with both families?  So any of the 
parents could have saved their child, but Lily was the one who ended up 
doing it.

A slight variation on this idea is that both infants had the Charm 
placed on them well *before* the night of the attack, and all that was 
left to do was activate it (with the sacrifice).

I don't know, it sort of seems like a long shot, but it's still 
possible.

SSSusan:
>> But OTOH JKR also acknowledges that Dumbledore "believes that
>> Voldemort did indeed choose the boy most likely to topple him, for
>> Harry's survival has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his
>> scar."

Nora:
> This is also reinforcement for the idea that JKR thinks of her
> characters in terms of *character*; that is to say, internal
> abilities and dispositions that take form when combined with
> intentions.  Harry is not Neville, he does not think like him, does
> not want the same things, etc.  This is a part of what makes Harry
> Harry, and these character traits/virtues are likely to play a large
> role in the denoument of his story.
>
> Yes indeedy, there is Something About Harry.

I suspect that SSSusan believes that the Something is a special 
power/amount of power that Harry has.  You, on the other hand, seem to 
think the Something is more just a function of Harry's character, inner 
strength, etc.  Personally, I like both ideas, and I'm interested in 
knowing what other listies might think.

Laura
http://www.livejournal.com/users/laurahuntley