Harry Potter's Plot Holes Are Fixed With Another Beloved Character As The Chosen One

Welcome to "Fanon Fixing Canon," a weekly column where we investigate infamous plot holes or terrible storyline decisions. Through a combo of detective work and meticulous fan theorizing, we fix these problems so they no longer exist — and canon is immaculate once again.

Today, we'll look at the "Harry Potter" series, where Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is routinely presented as the prophesied Chosen One, destined to face the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) until only one is left standing. And yet... everyone and their mom allows him to constantly waddle into dangerous situations nigh-entirely unsupervised. 

Why doesn't it occur to anyone to keep an all-important kid like Harry in constant check until it's time to unleash the prophecy? Apart from the fact that literal forces of evil are after Harry all the time, why even risk him being eaten by giant spiders or getting beaten up by the Whomping Willow while flying around in his redheaded friend's grossly irresponsible flying car? 

Fortunately, there's one very good explanation for all of this: Harry was never the Chosen One. The true Chosen One is Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis). Not only does Neville make far more sense as the Chosen One than Harry, but it would also explain why everyone at Hogwarts is happy to let Harry endanger his life on a regular basis. Let's dive in and see why this works.

The prophecy about the Chosen One started as a common job interview. In 1980, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) was interviewing Sybill Trelawney (Emma Thompson) for the Hogwarts Divination teacher seat when she unexpectedly entered a trance state and uttered the prophecy. Instead of taking this as a particularly novel applicant strategy, Dumbledore — and an eavesdropping Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), who leaked the prophecy to Voldemort — took this at face value and started keeping an eye out for the kid in question. 

The prophecy details several specific aspects of the Chosen One. First, the prophecy's pronouns clearly define the Chosen One as a boy. He has to be born in the last days of July 1980, and to parents who have "thrice defied" the Dark Lord. He has to be marked by the Dark Lord as an equal, and needs to have powers that Voldemort isn't aware of. The fate of the boy who fits this criteria is irrevocably tied to the Dark Lord; one must kill the other, because they simply can't coexist. 

The story specifically notes that several of the prophecy's details fit both Harry and Neville, who share a birthday. While people (including Voldemort) unanimously treat Harry as the true Chosen One, a little bit of digging will reveal that nothing actually disqualifies Neville from this equation.

It's not a huge surprise that Voldemort would automatically assume that James (Adrian John Rawlins) and Lily Potter's (Geraldine Somerville) kid is the Chosen One. Apart from the prophecy's fitting bits, both of the parents are already pretty high on the Dark Lord's list of people to smite, thanks to their allegiance with the Order of the Phoenix. On the other hand, Dumbledore might well have noticed another kid who fits the bill — the unassuming Neville Longbottom. 

After everyone learns that baby Harry survived Voldemort's attack, it would make all the sense in the world for Dumbledore and his allies to just ... well, keep up the charade. Let everyone believe that Harry is the Chosen One and allow the hype to build around him. Meanwhile, Neville can fly under the radar and become the Gryffindor equivalent of wallpaper, growing up and slowly learning without anyone noticing. 

Yes, it might seem like grim and reckless endangerment to just throw Harry (and his friends) under the bus in pretty much every "Harry Potter" movie. But remember, Voldemort has literally thought that the kid was the Chosen One since the beginning of Harry's life. There's nothing anyone can do about that. All Dumbledore and company can do is to make the most of a bad situation and use Harry as a patsy to keep Neville safe.

Part of the untold truth of Neville Longbottom is that his powers are slept on. Yes, he's kind of inept at first, but nowhere in the prophecy does it say that the Chosen One needs to be powerful from the get-go. Besides, his potential for magical heroics was always there. As a newborn, Neville was already magically adjusting his blankets to fit his mood, and flashes of bravery leak through his timid demeanor throughout the story. As early as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," he's unafraid to stand up to Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) when he thinks they're up to no good. 

Though he receives far less focus than Harry, Neville is on his steadily advancing hero's journey throughout the series. He goes from an insecure kid who can barely string a sentence together — let alone spell — to a brave soul who's both willing to and capable of sacrificing everything in order to save and protect others. 

The culmination point of this arc is when Neville summons the legendary Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and beheads Nagini, thus stripping Voldemort of his last remaining horcrux. It's this act that allows Harry to Expelliarmus the Dark Lord and his death curses to much-deserved oblivion. This, effectively, means that Neville was as crucial in defeating Voldemort as Harry. Sure, Harry might have more raw magical ability than Neville — but without the latter, the former would have had no chance defeating Voldemort.

It's entirely canon that parts of the prophecy fit Neville. In the books, the characters discuss it quite openly, even though the consensus seems to be that Harry is the true Chosen One and Neville is mere happenstance. Apart from gender and date of birth, both Harry and Neville have parents who have defied Voldemort — Neville's parents, after all, also used to be Order of the Phoenix members. However, the final two conditions of the prophecy also apply to Neville, when you think about it.

Neville was a whopping 16 months old when Voldemort's Death Eaters — led by the Dark Lord's key minion Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), no less — tortured his mother and father until they went insane. They would never recognize Neville again, which means Voldemort's forces both reduced the young man's parents to empty husks and inadvertently got him to grow up in the less than supportive household of Augusta Longbottom. If that doesn't count as leaving a "mark," what does? As for secret powers Neville has in his possession, well, the Dark Lord wasn't really aware of him until he gave his rousing speech, as seen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." And he certainly didn't see that sword trick coming, did he? 

All in all, Neville being the true Chosen One and staying on the comparative sidelines while Harry is the rock star who draws all the heat makes complete sense narratively. Though the "Harry Potter" HBO TV series is unlikely to fully acknowledge this any more than the movies or source material do, we can only hope that it features a few new Neville-themed Chosen One hints.