JKR's FAQ poll -- Neville's potential as prophecy boy

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 129075

> Snow:
> 
> Loved the quick take on JKR's long awaited answer to the Neville 
> aspect of the prophecy. My own immediate response was Harry was 
BORN with The Power to vanquish the Dark Lord. Voldemort chose 
poorly who he reckoned was the biggest threat when he chose Harry 
and actually gave Harry an advantage. Voldemort chose Harry because 
he saw the likeness of "himself and all he felt" in Harry; muggle 
parentage, grew up with muggles. If Voldemort were to have chosen 
Neville, would Harry not have had The Power to vanquish the Dark 
Lord? I would say no because Harry was born with that specific power.
> 

Dungrollin:
See, this is where we have to be careful, I think.  What exactly was 
this reflection of himself that Voldemort saw in Harry before they'd 
even met? I don't think it can have been the half-blood issue, Lily 
and James were a muggle-born witch and a pure-blood wizard, Tom's 
mother was a (presumably) pure-blooded witch, and his father was a 
muggle - I don't get the connection except that both could be 
legitimately called 'half-bloods', though for different reasons.  
It's a bit of a tenuous link, isn't it?  Why not choose Neville 
because his mother was a pure-blood just like Voldy's mother? 

Secondly, Harry only grew up as an orphan with Muggles because of 
the attack at GH - I'm afraid it doesn't work as a reason for Voldy 
to have attacked them because it hadn't happened yet. The other 
similarities between Harry and Voldy are mentioned by Diary!Tom in 
CoS, parseltongue (according to DD another result of the attack on 
GH), and that they "even look somewhat alike," which must be either 
a coincidence (JKR insists that James was Harry's father, Voldy is 
no relation, and Harry takes after James) or a result of the GH 
attack and transfer of powers (in which case again, it can't be used 
as a motive for Voldy to choose Harry over Neville

Sooo... I suppose there is *something* about Harry that made Voldy 
choose him. Otherwise it wasn't a choice on Voldy's part, it was 
just bad luck (which would be unsatisfying for me). It has to be 
something about the history of the parents, surely? How else could 
Voldy differentiate between two 15 month-old boys he had never met?

Dungrollin
Hoping it's something nice and bangy about the defiant parents 
rather than something genealogical.