The Fateful Night (VERY long)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42246

Presenting a new theory by Grey Wolf... so sit down somewhere 
confortable: it takes me 100 lines you to clear my throat... or had you 
noticed? Lately, there has been an increased output of posts around the 
matter of the fateful night. I'm enjoying the discussion, but problems 
have cropped up and in trying to put forward canon and my opinion, I 
have to do so in so many different posts I'm starting to get lost in 
what I'm answering where. Thus, I've decided to put forward a post on 
what (I think) we know about that night, where is the slack for our 
theories, and how I interpret that slack.


1. The Facts
------------

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the fateful night is a good piece 
of discusion because we have so little info on it that almost anything 
fits. Since there is so little that, in fact, the celluloid-thing-that- 
must-not-be-named almost gives more info on it that the books, let's 
just put it in writing as a starting point.

The Potters, for reasons unknown, decided to go into hiding. For that 
reason, they decided to use a secret-keeper spell, and informed the 
authorities. At first, they had decided that Sirius would be their 
secret keeper, and told everyone so. Sirius was also planning to go 
into hiding, so it would be a good choice. However, at the last 
possible moment, Sirius convinced James and Lily of making a Secret 
Keeper secret change (which stands to reason, since Sirius could 
attract attention without endangering the Potters), and suggested 
Wormtail, out of the suspicion that Lupin was the spy. The spell was 
cast, and Peter became the secret keeper.

Let's fast-forward a week to the fateful night: Overjoyed, Peter runs 
to Voldemort to tell him where the Potters are, and Voldemort gets on 
the way, with an indeterminate number of his forces with him. Voldemort 
arrives and, with the secret keeper spell broken for him thanks to 
Peter, he is able to see James, Lily and Harry. James dies by 
Voldemort's AK while Lily makes a run for it. Someone shouts to Lily 
that she must run away. Voldemort finds Lily and tells her to get out 
of the way, so she might be spared. V tries to AK Harry, but Lily gets 
in the way and dies, but Harry is protected by the love shield thanks 
to his mother's sacrifice (or some other, unspecified, way). Voldemort 
AKes Harry, but it rebounds and hits Voldemort. Voldemort turns into a 
vapour and flees to Albania. The Potter house falls around in ruins.

At the same time, Sirius decides to check on Peter and make sure that 
he is still on Dumbledore's side. He arrives to Peter's den to find it 
empty. With a horrible sense of foreboding, he speeds to the Potters's 
house in Godric Hollow to find it destroyed, and Hagrid already there 
with Harry. He lends Hagrid his motorbike so he can take Harry some 
place safe, and starts looking for Peter. Hagrid leaves with Harry on 
the bike, and is missing for the next 24 hours, until he makes an 
appearance at Privet Drive with Harry.

Wizards from the MoM arrive to the scene, and find one to three bodies 
(James almost surely, and possibly Lily's. We don't know what happens 
to Voldemort's body, but AKs normally leave the body behind). They 
inmediately go looking for Sirius, as the suspected traitor since he 
was the secret keeper. At the same time, Sirius has found Peter, but 
this one out-thinks him and scapes, faking his own death. Sirius, is 
found by 20 Special Operations Wizards, headed by Fudge, who find him 
in a hysterical crisis in the middle of a hole in the ground, besides 
Peter's apparent bloody remains.


2. The Slack
------------

Until JKR gives more details of what happened the fateful night, there 
are a few places that can be interpreted differently, any of which 
could fit. I'm putting the ones I can think of, although there are 
probably a few more, in no particular order:

a) Number of DEs with Voldemort. The Longbottom torture seems to 
indicate that DEs looked for strenght of small groups, but Voldemort 
tends to be proud and over-confident of his abilities. Thus, any number 
of DEs could have been with him that night, from none to all the flock, 
pasing by just Peter, or Voldemort's closests DEs (which might or might 
not include Snape at that point).

b) The cause of the explosion. AK alone does not cause explosions, so 
it seems like the deaths of Lily and James were not the direct cause. 
It remains to be seen whether an AK hitting a love shield, or a 
rebounded AK hitting an immortal dark wizard, or some third magic we 
have not heard of yet was the cause.

c) The movement of key players: How did Hagrid arrive to the scene so 
early, how did Sirius find Peter, etc.

d) The working of the secret keeper spell. I assume that the spell 
gives a sort of invisibility to the recipients, and only the secret 
keeper can allow someone to see them. At any rate, the place could be 
found by non-secret keepers: Sirius knows where the Potters are living, 
and he is not part of the spell, and so does Hagrid and, I'd imagine, 
Dumbledore, who gave directions to Hagrid.

e) Number of bodies found in the Scene: Did the explosion vaporize the 
three bodies? Just Voldemort's (who was closest)? How did Harry survive 
it?

f) Information on the events. How did the MoM officials know what had 
transpired? How did Dumbledore? How much does the general public know 
about it?

g) Possible third parties. Since the house is findable, any number of 
people who knew where the Potters lived could have been there that 
night, but what they were doing besides an apparently empty house could 
be difficult to explain.

h) The workings of the Love-shield. Is it a normal spell? an ancient 
spell? Harry's own innate but very powerful magical protection? Was it 
created by Lily's sacrifice? By her love alone? etc.


3. My own theory
----------------

This post could not be complete without putting forward what *I* think, 
so here it comes. It answers, in a fashion, all the questions in 
section 2, but it's obviously my own theory, my *opinion* and is open 
to debate.

The way I see it, Voldemort had to have Peter with him to break the 
Secret Keeper spell, and a few more of his DEs for back-up (including 
Snape). My pet theory, MAGIC DISHWASHER, says that Voldemort *has* read 
the "100 things I would do if I was an evil overlord"[1], and in this 
case, rule #80. <I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time 
with progressively stronger ones as the hero gets closer and closer to 
my fortress.>, so he takes the mission upon himself, but takes back-up 
just in case. James sees the full group coming/apparating and shouts 
Lily to run. Peter point's out the position of James, and the DEs watch 
while Voldemort finishes him off.

Voldemort then goes into the house, with the intention of paying Peter 
for being a traitor: giving him Lily. However, he's a profesional evil 
overlord, and thus knows rule #78. <I will not tell my Legions of 
Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to 
take him alive if it is reasonably practical."> and thus, when after 
several warnings Lily fails to get out of the way, she is summarily 
AKed (rules #4. <Shooting is not too good for my enemies.> and #6. <I 
will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.>).

However, Voldemort forgets the ancient love-shield spell based on a 
sacrifice for love that Lily had been studying, and when he tries to AK 
Harry, the AK rebounds on the love shield and hits him squarely. When 
the AK spell which, in my opinion, disassociates the soul from the 
body, hits the almost soul-less Voldemort, after having been rebounded 
in a love shield, all hell breaks loose. His body detonates with 
extreme force, blowing off the room's ceiling and dropping bits and 
pieces of house all over Godric's Hollow. So far, in fact, that almost 
none of it falls on Harry (and what little it does fall on him is 
easily stopped by the love shield and the innate magic protection all 
wizards have).[2]

The DEs, shocked at what they've seen, decide to flee the place before 
some MoM official comes by. This includes Snape and Peter. Most of the 
DEs think of the Imperius defence, either as a group or individually.

Dumbledore feels James's and Lily's death, and inmediately sends Hagrid 
with orders to get Harry and take him some place safe, and to meet with 
him at midnight of the next day at Privet's drive. Hagrid takes floo 
powder to a near place and arrives there minutes before Sirius, but 
with time enough to find Harry, more or less intact, except for the 
scar. Sirius arrives later, since he used the motobike, slower than 
Floo powder and asks for Harry. Hagrid will not give it to him, but 
accepts the bike. With no child to protect, Sirius goes looking for 
Peter. He knows him well, so he's able to find him in less than a day, 
by looking in the usual hiding places a rat like Peter would choose.

Some of the DEs go to the MoM with a story: they had been taken 
Imperioed to the Potter's house, and tell part of the story. Hagrid's 
version also gets around. The MoM, in an uncharacteristic show of 
eficiency, find Sirius just after a second explosion in 24 hours shakes 
Britain, and send him without trial to Azkaban.

Finally, Hagrid, who has been in hiding most of the day but that has 
been able to get in contact through the fireplaces with a few of his 
friends, including McGonagall and maybe a few others, thus iniciating 
the stories about the "boy who lived", arrives to Privet Drive, 
iniciating the story.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf

[1] The Evil Overlord List is Copyright 1996-1997 by Peter Anspach
[2] Another possible explanation is that an AK hitting a love shield 
causes the explosion, but I prefer the one I've included.