12 Harry Potter Theories Better Than What We Got

10. Neville Was The Real Chosen One

Though the movies chose to avoid the unspoken conflict between Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom - in terms of them both fitting the prophecy - the idea of there being two possible Chosen Ones is an intriguing idea that should never have been dropped.

Even further, the theory that Neville was indeed the real Chosen One would have been a better outcome too. The evidence is all there in the text, because as Dumbledore says the 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."

The theory improves the revelation that Harry was simply the Chosen One because it adds even more poignancy to the fact that Voldemort chose him as his equal and his destroyer and the message that is firmly planted in the stories that your destiny can be what you make it.

Neville was a poor wizard, unable to conjure even the slightest hint of a spell until he was 8 and yet once it came, he took to it with incredible flair. Don't let his forgetfulness confuse you, Neville's ability to cast a Patronus, his Herbological skills and everything that sets him apart as a key member of Dumbledore's Army suggest that there's far more to him than the have-a-go-hero that kills Nagini.

It also adds an even more tragic note to Harry's story - imagine the horror of knowing that the trauma that defined your entire existence to the point of physical deformity was based on a mistake! - and suits the underdog to Chosen One archetype even more.