OoP: The First Prophesy Free Will v Predestination

[Ali]

I've posted this on the main list, but I'm failing hopelessly to 
keep up there, so I've posted here as well.

All quotes refer to UK editions.

When I first read the Prohesy, I was disappointed. It was just as so 
many of us had theorised, I'm sure that someone had even drawn 
Neville into it. Yet, the more I've thought about it, the more I've 
felt there is to think about.

Throughout the series, JKR has juxtaposed the seeming opposites of 
choices against destiny. Dumbledore appears to be the mouthpiece:

In Cos he tells Harry: "It is our choices, Harry that show us what 
we truly are, far more than our abilities p245.

Thus, Harry and Tom Riddle with strong similarities – backgrounds, 
physical and even mental attributes, can choose such different 
courses in life.

This concept of free choice is seemingly reversed in OoP when 
Dumbledore finally shows Harry Trelawney prophesising:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches
and 
either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while 
the other survives" p.741 OoP.

Harry does not appear to have choice in his destiny: kill or be 
killed or as Harry thinks, "that his life must include, or end in, 
murder"

I think though that we should remember another of Dumbledore's pep 
talks as IMO, this is perhaps key to our understanding:

"The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so 
diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business 
indeed" p. 311 PoA.

Kill or be killed is perhaps the natural interpretation, but it is 
also possible that Voldemort could "die" by being offered Harry's 
hand in friendship/love as he is only a re-fashioning of Tom Riddle. 
Voldemort could be vanquished, leaving Tom Riddle alive.

I also wonder about the phrase "At the hand of". How literally, must 
that be taken? Could Harry sacrifice himself for his friends, 
leaving Voldemort to falsely conclude that he is invincible, and 
therefore vulnerable to attack? My favourite vanquisher, would then 
be Neville.

Harry has shown himself capable of self-sacrifice a number of times, 
yet he deserves peace and happiness. Some of the themes that run 
through the Potterverse, are the importance of love, self-sacrifice 
and the concept of death as just another stepping stone. Harry 
appears unafraid of death, and I can't help remembering that JKR's 
favourite last line in a novel is:

"It is a far far better thing that I do now than I have ever done, 
it is a far far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known" 
(My memory of the last sentence in Tale of Two Cities).

However much Harry has shown sacrifice, he has never known rest. I 
personally want to see him live happily ever after, but JKR has 
described herself as ruthless, so "rest" might be the best Harry can 
hope for.

I have tried to dissect the phrase "marked as an equal by the Dark 
Lord". Voldemort personally scarred Harry and transferred powers to 
him. And yet, we are offered Neville as an intriguing, if rejected 
alternative. We do not know why Neville's parents were tortured. 
Their testimonies that the torturing was to discover Voldemort's 
whereabouts were "unreliable", so that it is possible that the Death 
Eaters were trying to get Neville, still following Voldemort's old 
commands.

Harry's mark his scar, is visible, but marks need not be visible. 
Harry bears the mark of his mother's love (p.216 PS), but it is 
invisible to the eye. Neville could bear invisible as yet, un-
revealed marks, that would show a different destiny.

Neville, like Riddle would grow up as a de facto orphan. Riddle 
still had a living parent until he committed murder. The fact that 
his father did not recognise him, doesn't alter this state, and 
makes him similar to Neville, whose parents could not recognise him. 
Riddle could never accept his parentage, Neville has lived 
overshadowed by his.

Perhaps, it is difficult to contemplate Neville as a possible 
alternative to Harry as a vanquisher of the Dark Lord. But Red 
Herring or genuine clue, JKR means us to consider him.  I also 
firmly believe that Harry will have more control over his destiny 
than he currently realises.

Ali