It was Neville all along

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171413

Eddie wrote:
>
> My son proposed this theory: the prophecy was about Neville all
along.  In the end it is Neville who finally finishes off Voldemort,
not Harry.  Perhaps Harry provides the distraction, or destroys the
horcruxes, but it is Neville who does the ultimate deed.  Remember
that Neville has the last wand Ollivander sold (maybe).  Now Neville
is becoming his own man.  New wand, new confidence, and just as much
reason to want to destroy Voldemort as Harry.
> 
> Comments?

Carol responds:
The only statement I agree with here is that Neville is becoming his
own man (to the extent that a seventeen-year-old can be a man,
regardless of the age of majority in the WW). As others have pointed
out, Voldemort "chose" Harry and passed some of his own powers on to
him. Harry is the protagonist and the Prophecy Boy, and Voldemort
will, one way or another, fall by his hand whether Harry himself lives
or dies. (Lives, I hope.)

Nevertheless, Neville is an important supporting character whose story
in some ways parallels Harry's. (In technical terms, he's a foil to
Harry, simultaneously mirroring him and contrasting with him, much as
Diary!Tom reflects and contrasts with Harry in CoS.) Neville, like
Harry, has grown up without his parents thanks (indirectly, in
Neville's case) to Voldemort. He, too, has been raised by strict
relatives, or a strict relative (the contrast being that he was
thought to be unmagical or insufficiently magical, whereas Harry was
hated and feared for being magical). He, too, was sorted into
Gryffindor and, IIRC, worried that he might not belong there. Both,
however, have shown themselves to be true Gryffindors since SS/PS, and
Neville is slowly overcoming his own lack of confidence and making his
strict grandmother proud of him. He showed great courage in the MoM,
and probably having his own wand rather than his father's will help
him, as will Harry's DADA lessons (and even, maybe, his success in
Snae's DADA class--I'll bet that his boggart is no longer Snape).

While Harry's Nemesis (despite what I assume will be a temporary
obsession with revenge against Snape), Neville's has been shown since
at least GoF to be Bellatrix Lestrange, as he begins to realize when
Fake!Moody Crucios the spider in front of him and probably fully
realizes when Bella Crucios him (and taunts him about his relatives(
in OoP. Surely, his role will be to confront Bellatrix and defeat her
in some way.

Neville is one of my favorite characters (which may seem odd, given
that Snape is another of my favorites and the one I find most
fascinating), and I don't want his innocence and innate goodness to be
ruined forever by killing someone, even an enemy like Bellatrix, even
in war. I would love to see him bring her to her knees, wandless, and
stand over with the power to Crucio her and resist the temptation to
return evil for evil. Whether he will actually forgive her (as Harry
will almost certainly forgive Snape), I don't know, but I can't see
him succumbing to the temptation to use Dark curses against the Dark
witch who, with her cronies, did such irreparable harm to his life.
Neville, I predict, will demonstrate the power of goodness and show
mercy to an undeserving enemy. Nevertheless, Bellatrix will end up
either dead by someone else's hand or in Azkaban (which will be made
secure despite the absence of Dementors). and Neville, I predict along
with many others, will eventually become the Herbology teacher at
Hogwarts.

Carol, who doesn't want any of the young characters to kill or perform
Unforgiveable Curses, particularly not HRH or Neville