TL;DR: If Neville Longbottom was the Boy-Who-Lived he would have the same personality, and thus not only Hermione and Ron as close friends.

I'm actually a bit tired of this. Or much.

The concept of Neville being the Boy-Who-Lived could be exiting to explore for a fan. How would Harry's personality change from being shy because he is the BWL, to be almost a nobody?[1] Would he have taken in by the Dursley's from the beginning? It's the kind of questions we fans try to answer, that's the whole point with fanfics.

But the problem I have seen from (foremost FF.net-only authors) is that when they do BWL!Neville, they supplicate canon!Harry's personality on Neville. The thing is that Neville would have a very different upbringing from canon.

1. His family wouldn't try to force him to do accidental magic. They would "know" that he was a wizard.
2. He is raised in the wizarding world. He would probably have friends (maybe not so many).

The first point would result in that Neville would be much more self-confident. He wouldn't be so bad in potions, he would probably exell at it. I think that he would still be good at herbology because he would still grow-up lonely because safety reasons.

But he would at the same time not be an arrogant twat, because I think that his grandmother wouldn't let him become one. He would grow up to a "pure Gryffindor hero".

The second point would result in him having more friends than Hermione and Ron. He maybe wouldn't be friends with eighter of them. At least the "Golden Trio" (what a awful name BTW) wouldn't exist.

A good fanfic that does BWL!Neville in a good way is "Ravenous", by [FONT=&quot]Edelrost[/FONT] (don't think that it's the author's DLP username). Even if you almost only see things in Harry's perspective, you get the felling that Neville has more self-esteem, but at the same time isn't an arrogant asshole. He isn't isolated with Granger and Weasly, he have different and more friends.

Then it's the bad ones. The ones there he has Harry's same hot temper, think in the same ways and is only close with Hermione and Ron. "Just Another Orphan", by ValwithV is a good example of this kind of fanfic. Neville's reaction after the third task is identical with Harry's in canon. He's irrational, have the same dueling style and mentality as Harry. There's no character development for Neville.

I know that DLP member's isn't that type of authors that write fics with Neville in this way. But I need to rant a bit. And to get a higher post count so that I can begin to read in the WbA section....

[1] Neville was a nobody when he come to Hogwarts in canon. Being a orphan from the war seems not to result you to be well-know.

EDIT: I did notice that this thread probably should be moved to the "FanFic Discussion" category.
(Thread moved from general discussion - Drome)

 

Most of the BWL!Neville fics I've read have Neville as an arrogant twat, a bit of a mix of Ron and Malfoy. Not sure I've read fics where he's just a copy of Harry... I don't really read fics like that, though.

If Neville was the BWL, his parents would likely be dead, so his gran would likely raise him, just like in canon. Being raised in a wizarding home, but not doing any accidental magic or whatever to show he's magical - wouldn't the family worry even more than usual that he's lost his magic because he survived the Killing Curse? And he's supposed to be the savior of the world too - wouldn't they actually push him to try to show his magic even more?

I guess his personality could change, with people telling him that he's the BWL, but it's not like that title gives his extra magical powers or potential or anything. I bet he'd be pushed even harder than he was in canon, and his gran would be as or even more strict.

Whatever ends up happening, I have problems seeing Neville being a "pure Gryffindor hero".

Friends? Maybe. I still see Augusta controlling Neville's life and not letting him out much. When Neville goes out, he would be gawked - if he's confident from being the BWL, good for him. But my guess is that he's timid from being thought a squib and his strict upbringing.

Well, there are just my thoughts about that hypothetical scenario. I doubt Neville would change too much.

 

You can also say that he wouldn't have been the BWL because Voldemort wouldn't offer his mother to live. It doesn't matter, though, because in these fics Neville is a plot device, a stand-in - he's there to replace canon Harry's actions in case the author wants to keep the canonical storyline, or get Voldemort's attention while Harry does his own thing. His character is there to further the story in whatever way you like, regardless of canon differences. At least that's what I intended in Ravenous.

 

Well, I agree with the statement in the thread title, because Harry and Neville are two different people with different circumstances.

Beyond that, I don't have a firm theory on what BWL!Neville would be like, except that I disagree with OP on the point that Neville would have some basic template in that case, like a mirror version of canon that was never written. You could do whatever you wanted, because BWL!Neville isn't canon. I've seen him be a total dick, essentially the Gryffindor Malfoy, and a white knight. Neither extreme appeals to me. I like keeping character motives somewhere in the middle, because it makes for more nuanced characterizations.

 

There's some interesting takes on Neville as the Boy Who Lived here. Enembee, IIRC, had Neville as the BWL in By the Divining Light and Conlaodh's Song, where he essentially had his canon personality, while Harry was a Dumbledore-esque prodigy, which was pretty interesting. Beyond that...most fanfic writers are going to fall back on just having Neville as the swaggering hero, or an arrogant douchebag. Really though, he can be anything you want. BWL!Neville is essentially a completely new character, so go nuts.

 

I've always felt that the premise of BWL!Neville is wrong. Despite what Dumbledore says in Book 5, if Voldemort had gone after Neville, he would have no reason to offer to spare Alice, and thus the whole family would have died normally. The only difference made by such a diversion would be Neville not existing in canon (and possibly some tertiary ripples surrounding Bellatrix and Crouch Jnr), not the two switching positions.

Anyway. There are lots of directions you can take Neville's character in, and though him just becoming canon!Harry is very uninteresting, it is a plausible one.

 

I've always been of the opinion BWL! Neville would have died in The Chamber of Secrets as well.

Personality wise, maybe he would have been more confident and received a proper wand from his first year in place of using his fathers.

 

On Harry's side of this, I can't help but think that Harry would be a better student. Chapter 6 of the Philosopher's Stone describes Harry studying all of his schoolbooks before he left for the Platform.

If he wasn't off chasing/being chased (by) Voldemort every damn year, being the BWL in general, and being ostracized by his classmates, he would actually care to learn more about magic.

 

I believe the only reason Neville might have Harry's personality is due to the author being unable to write him in any other way.
After-all it is only such authors who cannot write convincingly that create such stories in the first place

 

I get the feeling that BWL!Neville might actually gain fairly crippling anxiety issues.

His grandmother already put immense pressure on him in canon to develop his magic - I certainly can't see her easing up on him if he's supposed to be special, more like the opposite. He has a reputation to live up to, now and everyone is looking to see if the boots fit.

Imagine if poor ol' Neville felt like he had to live up to being the saviour of the wizarding freaking world. All while struggling with learning magic, his grandmother managing to impress upon him that his best just isn't good enough, that he isn't smart enough or brave enough and if leviosa is a struggle, how is he going to take down the most feared Dark Lord of all time?

Poor sod.

 

Suicide!Neville?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'm a horrible person, I know.

 

Yes, that's the way the better fics is using BWL!Neville: to develop Harry's character in a more "normal" environment. Keep up the good work!

I seen a chunk of reviewers saying good things about those fics. Should take some evening someday to read them.

We never get to know how Neville survives the killing curse, but obviously he survives it or it wouldn't be a BWL!Neville story.

I recommend you to read Atram Noctem's Ravenous, if you haven't already.

For the majority of those fics: yes it's true. But it exist good fanfictions with that premise.

You guys have come with some great points, and agree with you. Neville maybe isn't going to the confident hero. Maybe he will be insecure in his skill and abilities. But I still feel that he would have a different personality development than canon!Harry.

Living a life under the strict watch of Augusta Longbottom would probably make every kid insecure. :/

We all got our guilty pleasures...

 

Well, exactly, that's why BWL!Neville needs some massive explaining. Why would Neville live?

 

Normally the author makes Harry Potter an elevens old orphan, prodigy, uncorrupted Dark Wizard, All-knower of Dumbledor plots and fierce enemy of the Arrogant Neville Longbottom AKA Draco Malfoy 2.0.

The exclusion of Harry Potter from all things concerning the Boy-Who-Lived. Where Harry starts being "just Harry" and in the end he decides to confront Voldemort by his decision alone based on vengeance(motivation could be an interesting plot device) his one of my favorite tropes . What I am trying to say is: We don´t have an interesting collection of stories wich Harry is just a Hogwarts Student.

 

Being BWL and attacked by Voldemort every year should have stimulate him to look for the books on defensive magic and quit Qudditch (because you can't defeat Voldemort by catching the Snitch). Canon Harry does complete opposite. Choosing Divination as an elective and not changing it even after seeing it's the useless subject says everything we need to know about Harry's study habits.

 

Aerial combat, observations skills and reflexes aren't important?

Especially after his teacher predicted Wormtails escape to his face.

 

I've seen a few fics where BWL Neville is basically a shy-but-confident Neville, without Harry's anger issues. Like, somehow the challenges of the early books gave him confidence, but he's still soft-spoken and keeps mainly to himself.

Basically wizard Jesus, is what I'm saying, able to defeat Voldemort without ever raising his voice in anger.

 

This.

A good example of an intensely different Neville is Kwan Li's portrayal of Neville.

(Major angst warning)