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

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 129080

Dungrollin:
>>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?<<

Rebecca:
I'm hoping that its still possible that it was just chance, that he 
didn't choose at all. The theory that makes the most sense is that 
Harry was the only one that Voldemort was able to find, not the one 
that he thought was most likely to be the prophecized one. I always 
thought that made a lot more sense than him 'chosing' which child to 
go after (as though he wouldn't kill both of them, just to be sure). 
But she's sticking with the 'choosing' thing with Voldemort, which 
makes it probable that it was more than just Dumbledore's opinion. 

Perhaps the situation was that he found out where both Harry and 
Neville were (and that Dumbledore found this out later), and had to 
choose which one to go for first. Even in that situation, though, I 
don't see him necessarily going for the one he thought most likely to 
be correct, just the one most likely to be easier to kill, or more 
likely to disappear (as in, his parents finding out their location is 
compromised and picking a new hideout). It makes sense to choose 
Harry then, because although we don't know anything about how Neville 
was hidden, it was only a matter of time before Sirius figured out 
the truth about Peter (unless Peter didn't leave his hiding place 
until Voldemort was on his way to kill the Potters). I don't see why 
he would make a choice to only kill one of the children, and that's 
the only time choosing the one 'most like himself' seems to make 
sense. 


-Rebecca / HunterGreen.