I've decided it's time for a Harry Potter opinion, and here it is: Harry was the only one the Prophecy could ever have referred to.
Here's the prophecy as Miss Trelawney spoke it:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives....The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....So let's get into it a moment. Okay, here's what we know:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches -- This is the subject of the prophecy. The thesis statement, if you will. What follow are the characteristics of this person:
+Born to those who have thrice defied him -- So, we know that both Neville and Harry fit this bill. Somehow. Go Frank and Alice! Go James and Lily! Fighting for what's right.
+Born as the seventh month dies -- also Neville and Harry. Dumbledore backs us up on these first two points:
"The odd thing is, Harry," [Dumbledore] said softly, "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."
I actually disagree with Dumbledore on the fundamental conclusion (that Neville could ever have been the one the prophecy referred to), but that's the point of this post. We'll get there.
+the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal -- okay, stop. It is universally acknowledged that the "mark" is Harry's scar. How did he get that scar, anyway? The AK curse (as it is colloquially known in Auror circles, of course) doesn't leave a mark. Is it possible that the mark is the sign of the accidental Horcrux? Debatable, but that's also not the point. The point is: In one way or another, the scar is the sign that Harry's the one that can defeat You-Know-Who. And how did he get that scar?
Because Lily died for him, when she didn't have to. Voldemort gave her ample chances to get out of the way, but when she wouldn't, that's when she died. And that's when her protection over Harry came into force. That's why the curse rebounded. That's how he got the scar.
I don't really understand why Voldemort was willing to spare this Muggleborn girl who had narrowly escaped him three times, just because Snape asked. Maybe he wanted to reward him for overhearing the prophecy. Or maybe he just felt like it was a request he was willing to entertain until it became way too inconvenient. Either way: pretty sure he was only willing to spare her because Snape asked. Because Snape was obsessed with Lily. Hashtag #getoverit.
And I really do not believe that Voldemort would have spared either of the Longbottom parents. It would've been bam-bam-bam, end of the Longbottoms. :(
That's why Harry was the only one the prophecy ever could have referred to; it was only Lily's sacrifice that protected him and caused him to become an accidental Horcrux, which was how he had the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. Neville never could have, because Snape wasn't obsessed with either of his parents (as far as we know).
Here's Harry doing some wishful thinking, totally forgetting that he/his parents would probably be dead if Voldemort were still in power:
Neville's childhood had been blighted by Voldemort just as much as Harry's had, but Neville had no idea how close he had come to having Harry's destiny. The prophecy could have referred to either of them, yet, for his own inscrutable reasons, Voldemort had chosen to believe that Harry was the one meant.
Had Voldemort chosen Neville, it would be Neville sitting opposite Harry bearing the lightning-shaped scar and the weight of the prophecy....Or would it? Would Neville's mother have died to save him, as Lily had died for Harry? Surely she would....But what if she had been unable to stand between her son and Voldemort? Would there then have been no "Chosen One" at all? An empty seat where Neville now sat and a scarless Harry who would have been kissed good-bye by his own mother, not Ron's?
He's so close to working it out, he just doesn't have all the facts (like the small fact that his terrible professor was obsessed with his mom). Also, I have such a hard time conceiving of a "scarless Harry" -- to me, the boy and the scar are inextricably linked...and it couldn't have happened any other way.
P.S.: Even though it really couldn't have happened, I still like this alternate universe where Neville was the Chosen One: boy with a scar (chapters 1 and 2 are Neville-as-Chosen-One what-ifs. Chapter 3 is a bleak "what if both Neville and Harry got murdered" and Chapter 4 doesn't have anything to do with them). (Also it doesn't contain adult content)
P.P.S.: all the images came from google image search. I heard people don't read blog posts without pictures anymore so I peppered some in.
