How did the Lestranges get caught? (WAS: Neville Has A Memory Charm? Not! )

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 31840

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "oz_widgeon" <Littlered32773 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Susanne Schmid <pigwidgeon37 at y...> 
wrote:
> > Cindy wrote:
> > 3.  How did the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. get caught? 
> > My guess is that, even after V's defeat, the DE network still 
> > worked pretty well, more undercover than before, but it worked. 
> > So the remaining DEs (and among them Malfoy) knew that the 
> > Lestranges and Marty Jr. were going to the Longbottom's house. 
> > Devilishly cunning as he is, Malfoy tipped off the MoM, just in 
> > time to get the 3 DEs, but too late to save the Longbottoms. 
> > Why? 
> > 
> > 1) To prove he was a redeemed DE
> > 2) To prevent that Barty "Law-and-Order" Crouch Sr. became 
> > minister  
> > 3) If he tipped off Fudge himself and not somebody from the Law 
> > Enforcement, he was sure of Fudge's gratitude (see 2))
 
> Now that is deliciously evil and just good enough to be true.  My 
> theory (see previous post) is that someone else told as well, 
> though I thought maybe they had seen and slipped away to tell the 
> MoM, and didn't appear at the trial for their own safety, but gave 
> a written account instead.  I think I'll subscribe to your Malfoy 
> theory instead of the "someone saw" but I'll still hold 
> my "written statement for their own safety" theory, as that would 
> work for Malfoy as well, keeping the other DE's from knowing it 
> was him, AND ingratiating himself to the MoM, while looking as 
> though he had truly turned to their side, since he 'feared for his 
> life.'  

While I really want to believe in this theory, because it would mean 
that for once in his life Lucius Malfoy did the right thing, even 
for the wrong reason, I see more than a few problems.

While Lucius needs to convince the authorities he is not a loyal DE 
(my guess is he claimed he was under Imperius) he wouldn't 
necessarily want to squash Barty Crouch's climb to power; if the son 
of the Minister of Magic is a Death Eater, that son would be in a 
position to influence (or place under Imperius, as he later did) the 
most senior wizard in Great Britain.  Lucius seems too crafty to 
sabotage an excellent opportunity like this.

While Lucius has clearly ingratiated himself with Fudge in some way 
(I'm thinking this pre-dated the contributions to St. Mungo's to 
which Fudge refers at the Quidditch World Cup) this is probably not 
how it was done (although it does also clearly benefit Lucius to 
have such an ineffectual wizard in place as the Minister of Magic).

If anyone on the "inside" ratted on the Lestranges and Barty, Jr., 
it was probably Snape.  This would add dimension to the tense 
exchanges they share in GoF when Barty, Jr. is disguised as Moody, 
and when he speaks malevolently of Snape as "an old friend."  We 
find out later, of course, that the antagonism was between a Death 
Eater and a reformed Death Eater, not between a person still being 
suspected of being a Death Eater and an Auror.  This misdirection 
about the relationship between Crouch/Moody and Snape is one of the 
cleverest bits JKR has ever written, IMO, and I love rereading their 
interchanges in GoF for hidden meanings...

--Barb

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