Why Voldemort Went After Half-Blood Harry Potter And Not Neville Longbottom

Neville Longbottom (left), Voldemort (centre), and Harry Potter (right)

Harry Potter is one of the most detailed stories ever written, that too with almost no plot holes. The story starts with a prophecy which many people think was centric on Harry Potter alone. In the previous post (read here), we discussed how the prophecy didn't actually talk about Harry Potte that both Harry and Neville Longbottom seemed to fit in the prophecy (read the article here). We also know that Harry became the chosen one only because Voldemort chose to attack him instead of Neville. Today, we'll discuss why Voldemort attacked Harry, not Neville.

For explanation, let's first discuss the prophecy itself. The prophecy goes as: 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…

If you read it correctly, it never talked specifically about Harry Potter, rather a kid born at the end of July, whose parents had defied Voldemort thrice. Both Harry and Neville were born at the end of July and to those who had defied Voldemort thrice, parents of both of them had fought Voldemort the same number of times as they were a part of Dumbledore's army. So the prophecy talked about both of them; what matters is who Voldemort had marked as his equal.

Voldemort thought Harry was the chosen one and went after him, attacked him, and killed himself (because of protection Harry's mother put on Harry as she sacrificed herself for him).

Dumbledore offers one theory at the end of Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix: Voldemort based his decision on blood purity, which is one of the only things he would have known about both of the boys, and which he can compare against his own:

“But he might have chosen wrong!” said Harry. “He might have marked the wrong person!”

“He chose the boy he thought most likely to be a danger to him,” said Dumbledore. “And notice this, Harry. He chose, not the pureblood (which, according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing), but the half-blood, like himself. He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you.”

— Order of the Phoenix, chapter 37 (The Lost Prophecy)

Later RK Rowling also confirmed it. So Voldemort identified more with the half-blood boy and therefore went after him, giving the name to this extremely famous story: Harry Potter.

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Warner Bros. is currently working on Harry Potter's prequel series, the Fantastic Beasts which tells the story of Dumbledore and his lover-turned-enemy, Gellert Grindelwald.