On the night of October 31, 1981, Lord Voldemort came knocking at the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow to murder his prophesied nemesis, a 15-month-old infant, Harry. Unbeknownst to Voldemort, his fated choice that night essentially cemented his own downfall. Had he made a different decision, Harry Potter may not have been the 'Chosen One' to bring him down.
Of course, in that case, the series would not be called "Harry Potter" in the first place, but that's a different discussion.
What is 'The Chosen One' trope and is Harry Potter an example of it?
For the uninitiated, 'The Chosen One' is a narrative trope where one character, usually the protagonist, turns out to be the inevitable hero of the story fueled by destiny or lineage. The Chosen One mostly ends up saving the world. Sometimes, it goes slightly askew, like in the case of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels or Paul Atreides in Dune.
Harry Potter is already 'The Chosen One' personified when we get to know him in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The shabby and spectacled 11-year-old boy who is told he's a wizard and gets dragged around through Diagon Alley by Hagrid shows all the symptoms of becoming the world-saving chevalier by the end of the story. He's a clueless, orphaned outsider carrying a distinguishing mark predicted to kill the Dark Lord. He's even literally referred to as "The Chosen One."
And it would have been perfectly fine if that's how the story went. But author J.K. Rowling added a twist to the tale that turned the cliched trope into a critical element of the narrative.
Sybill Trelawney's prophecy
At the root of the events that unfold in the Harry Potter series is Sybill Trelawney's first prophecy, made during her interview with Albus Dumbledore at Hog's Head Inn for the post of Divination teacher at Hogwarts in 1980:
""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....""Sybill Trelawney's prophecy
Severus Snape overhears the first part of the prophecy while eavesdropping on Dumbledore before getting kicked out by Aberforth. Snape, who was working as a Death Eater back then, reported the prophecy to Voldemort.
At a single glance, it seems like a straightforward prophecy about Harry, who was born to two Order of the Phoenix alums who fought Voldemort in the First Wizarding War, on July 31. But Harry was not the only one who fit the description.
The Twist
Neville Longbottom, born on July 30 to Frank and Alice Longbottom, two aurors who also defied Voldemort the same number of times as James and Lily had, also fulfilled the criteria in Trelawney's prophecy. However, Voldemort decided to go with Harry. Fans believe it is because Harry was half-blood like him and the Dark Lord saw himself in him.
Voldemort trots on to Godric's Hollow and murders James. He offers Lily a chance to step aside and give Harry up. Lily refuses and sacrifices herself for her son, an act that bestows Harry with a charm that protects him in the years to come.
The charm causes Voldemort's killing curse to backfire on him, costing him his corporeal body. Voldemort is wiped off the face of the earth, kept alive by his Horcruxes (and plot armor) while baby Harry survived with just a lightning scar on his head.
By choosing Harry, Voldemort marked him "as his equal," as per the part of the prophecy that he did not know about. He essentially handed over the power to destroy him to a baby. Had he simply not acted on the foretelling, he could've continued to be invincible.
"By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job!" Dumbledore tells Harry about the prophecy. "It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders..."
So technically, Harry becomes the Chosen One not because of his parents or a birthright or divine intervention, but because the antagonist himself handpicked him to be so. Trelawny's prophecy created a closed loop in the timeline, where it only comes true if Voldemort knows and acts upon it, which he does.
How the Harry Potter movies do injustice to the original story
The Harry Potter books came up with a clever twist on the hackneyed trope, in which the hero is "chosen" not by fate or power but by the very evil that needed thwarting. It canonically left enough space to consider another person's potential to become 'The Chosen One,' thereby showing it as the imposed burden it is and not the glory it is made out to be.
But the movies did not bother with all that. At no point did they explain Neville's part in the prophecy, and he remained Harry's awkward friend who took Ginny Weasley to the Yule Ball till he pulled Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat and killed Nagini in the final movie.
Harry and Neville shared more than just their date of birth. Both were children of war whose parents sacrificed themselves fighting for the greater good. Like Harry, Neville also grew up without parents.
Frank and Alice were driven to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters shortly after Voldemort's downfall. While they weren't dead like James and Lily, in some ways, they were left in even worse condition. The pair spent the rest of their lives paralyzed and nearly brain-dead at St. Mungo's Hospital. The movies left out the Longbottoms' horrific fate, as well as Neville's scene with his parents in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.
There is a chance yet for this angle to be explored better in the new, more book-focused Harry Potter TV series HBO is making.
How things would have turned out if Voldemort went for Neville
A Reddit theory suggests that while Trelawney's prophecy could have been about either Harry or Neville, things would've gone very differently had Voldemort chosen Neville over Harry.
The fan theory posits that the reason Lily's sacrifice resulted in a protection charm on Harry was because of Snape's request to Voldemort to spare her life. The Dark Lord was never in the habit of hearing anyone's pleas, but he did offer Lily a chance to step aside. It is because Lily refused to live while her son died and gave her life for him that the protection charm worked as well as it did on Harry.
Now, this is not to say that Neville's parents would not have protected him had Voldemort gone to their house instead. But Voldemort would not have given Frank or Alice a chance to live like he did not with Lily. As a result, Neville may have died immediately too, which would lead to a very different sort of story. In the Wizarding World, it would have meant Voldemort becoming an almost invincible, unbeatable entity.
Do you think the Harry Potter movies should have explained the prophecy better? Let us know in the comments!
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