very basic confusion

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 163741

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Akash aki <akash2006k at ...> wrote:
>
> aki wrote :
> > I was thinking and got confused how it all got started, that
> > Potters realised that Tom Riddle is behind their son. Prophecy
> > was something 'he will mark other to his equal' but why he
> > chosen Potters' son.
> > Also how DD and others so convinced that it is going to be HP
> > whom Tom is going to mark and which led to all this FC, SK etc,
> > and how Tom decided about Potters's son.
> 
> Geoff:
> >I think there is a fairly clear explanation of some of your
> >questions in the books themselves. If you read the last few
> >pages of "The Lost Prophecy" - chapter 37 of OOTP - which is
> >about pages 740-744 UK edition, Dumbledore tries to show Harry
> >how Voldemort's thoughts had been moving. It's just after he
> >explained why he had not told Harry everything and then there
> >is the exchange:
> > <snip>
> 
> 
>   aki wrote again...
>   Thanks Geoff, but how was he so sure that it is going to be
> Harry, prophecy doesn't say clearly about the person, as far as
> I know. Did DD also made safety arrangements for other kids? And
> how Volde came to know that prophecy was about some child who is
> not yet born? Most expected guess one can made, which relates
> (unknown) prophecy and downfall of Volde that it can be none
> other than DD.
>   Can you please clear my doubts?
>   Thanks.

Geoff:
Some of my thoughs may already have been echoed by those who 
have had time to reply before me. I would like to point you to canon 
first:

'"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry said very quietly, for Dumbledore, 
still staring at the Pensieve, seemed completely lost in though. "It... 
did that mean... what did that mean?"
"It meant," said Dumbledore, "that the person who has the only 
chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the 
end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to 
parents who had already defied Voldemort three times."
Harry felt as though something was closing in on him. His breathing 
seemed difficult again.
"It means - me?"
Dumbledore surveyed him for a moment through his glasses.
"The odd thing, Harry, " he said softly, "is that it may not have meant 
you at all. Sybill's prophecy could have applied to two wizard boys. 
both born at the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in 
the Order of the Phoenix, both sets of parents having narrowly 
escaped Voldemort three times. One, of course, was you. The other 
was Neville Longbottom."
"But then... but then, why was it my name on the prophecy and not 
Neville's?"
"The official record was re-labelled after Voldemort's attack on you 
as a child," said Dumbledore. "It seemed plain to the keeper of the 
Hall of Prophecy that Voldemort could only have tried to kill you 
because he knew you to be the one to whom Sybill was referring."
"Then - it might not be me?" said Harry.
'I am afraid," said Dumbledore slowly, looking as though every word 
cost him a great effort, 'that there is no doubt that it is you."
"But you said - Neville was born at the end of July, too - and his mum 
and dad -"
"You are forgetting the next part of the prophecy, the final identifying 
feature of the boy who could vanquish Voldemort... Voldemort himself 
would mark him as his equal. And so he did, Harry. He chose you, not 
Neville. He gave you that scar that has proved both blessing and curse."
"But he might have chosen wrong!" said Harry. "He might have marked 
the wrong person!"
"He chose the boy he though most likely to be a danger to him" said 
Dumbledore......

..."Why did he do it then?" said Harry, who felt numb and cold. "Why 
did he try and kill me as a baby? He should have waited to see whether 
Neville or I looked more dangerous when we were older and tried to 
kill whoever it was then..."
"That might, indeed, have been the more practical course," said 
Dumbledore, "except that Voldemort's information about the prophecy 
was incomplete..."'
(OOTP "The Lost Prophecy" pp.741-743 UK edition)

As has been pointed out in this thread, Voldemort effetively created a 
self-fulfilling prophecy. The interesting point which emerges was, did 
Voldemort specifically go after Harry first or was it his intention to 
attack and kill both the babies?

We do not know this because the attack on Harry produced a totally
unanticipated result which stopped Voldemort dead in his tracks. What 
would have happened if he had attacked the Longbottom family first? 
Would Alice have had the same love for Neville as Lily had for Harry 
which would have enabled her to stand in the way and be killed to 
save Neville and would he now have the scar? Or would Neville have been 
killed and Voldemort's focus shifted to the Potters which might have 
produced the same end results but with the addtional loss of the 
Longbottom family?

We shall never know. but as Dumbledore points out, by attacking Harry, 
Voldemort was disembodied and put out of commission for thirteen or 
fourteen years; the backfire of the spell created the scar on Harry's 
forehead. Hence Voldemort inadvertently marked Harry and thus 
confirmed the prophecy on him whether that was his intention or not.

Add to this what has been said by other members that, by this time in 
the story, Voldemort has attempted to kill Harry five times - at Godric's 
Hollow, working through Quirrell, as Tom Riddle, following his 
re-bodying and at the Ministry of Magic and it certainly looks as if he 
accepts that Harry is the embodiment of the prophecy and thus remains
the main target in his desire to overcome and control the Wizarding world.