J.K. Rowling revealed in a 2007 interview that the prophecy in Harry Potter could have applied to Neville Longbottom. Voldemort chose Harry, which made Harry the Boy Who Lived and made Neville the boy who was not chosen. This is the most important fact about Neville's character: he was passed over by destiny, raised by a grandmother who compared him unfavorably to his tortured parents, and treated by his peers as the clumsy, forgetful one who did not belong. And he became a hero anyway, not because a prophecy selected him but because he chose it himself.

Neville's parents, Alice and Frank Longbottom, were tortured into permanent insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange. They live in St. Mungo's Hospital, unable to recognize their son. Neville visits them. His mother gives him candy wrappers, which he keeps. Dr. Brene Brown of the University of Houston, whose research on vulnerability and courage has demonstrated that the willingness to be present with pain rather than flee from it is the foundation of genuine bravery, could not have designed a better illustration. Neville does not avoid his parents' condition. He sits with it. He keeps the wrappers.

The Boy Who Stood Up to His Friends

Neville's first act of courage in the series is standing up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Philosopher's Stone, trying to prevent them from leaving the common room and losing more house points. Dumbledore awards him points for this, and the moment is played for warmth, but it is also the structural thesis of Neville's entire arc. Courage is not fighting dark wizards. Courage is standing in front of your friends and saying no when you believe they are wrong, knowing they are braver and more talented than you.

Rowling builds Neville's confidence incrementally across seven books. He improves at Herbology. He joins Dumbledore's Army. He fights at the Department of Mysteries. Each step is small, unglamorous, and entirely his own.

The Sword and the Snake

Neville kills Nagini, Voldemort's final Horcrux, with the Sword of Gryffindor. This act, which is essential to Voldemort's defeat, is performed not by the chosen one but by the unchosen one. Rowling's point is precise: Harry's heroism is partly a product of circumstance. Neville's heroism is entirely a product of character. He was given no prophecy, no special protection, no mentors grooming him for greatness. He grew into it through the accumulation of small, frightened, determined choices.