(no subject)

Something I've been thinking about, off and on, since I read DH, and I wanted to put down in words.

The prophecy had to have been about Harry--it wouldn't have worked with Neville. Not because of anything inherent in Harry or in Neville, but because of Lily and Alice. It took me a bit to really understand why Lily's sacrifice was enough to protect Harry, because surely she wasn't the only mother willing to die for her child, or just one person willing to die to protect another. The difference was that Voldemort gave her a choice, and that she chose to die for Harry rather than live and watch her son be killed is what gave her sacrifice power. But Voldemort only gave her that choice because Snape asked him to spare her. Somehow I doubt that Alice had any inner-circle Death Eaters so in love with her that they'd beg their merciless Dark Lord to spare her life.

So if Voldemort had chosen to go after the Longbottoms first, I bet he would have just killed Frank and Alice on his way to Neville as a matter of course, and then Neville would have died. Then he probably would have just proceeded on to Harry, and thanks to Lily, Harry would have still been the Boy-Who-Lived.

Ever since OotP came out, there's been a bunch of Neville-as-Boy-Who-Lived AU written, and I guess I find it interesting that it's even more AU than originally thought. Neville fit the paramaters of the prophecy, but it wouldn't really have worked for him, not unless Voldemort would have been willing to spare either Frank or Alice, which I don't think likely.

I think I need to find some more HP icons. Hmmm...