The Fateful Night (VERY long)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42289

Phyllis wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "grey_wolf_c" <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
> <snip>
> > The Potters, for reasons unknown, decided to go into hiding. 
> 
> I think we do know the reason why the Potters went into hiding - at 
> the end of PoA, I believe it's Lupin who says (liberal translation - 
> I don't have my book with me) "Not many people knew that Voldemort 
> was after the Potters, but Dumbledore had a number of useful spies 
> who tipped them off."  What we don't know is *why* Voldemort was 
> after them (although I'm a proponent of the Voldemort-wanted-to-kill-
> the-last-heirs-of-Gryffindor theory).  We also don't know who 
> the "useful spies" were, but can we safely guess Snape could have 
> been one of them?

So, the reason is still unknown: they were hiding from Voldemort is not 
good enough reason. *Everyone* was hiding from Voldemort at that time. 
Why do a Fidelius charm, then? Why put your security in the hands of a 
single man? Obviously, we don't have any canon to solve this, so I just 
put in the "unknown". My own personal favourite is that they were doing 
experiments, Lily with ancient magic and James with Harry, to find ways 
of defeating Voldemort, but that is *my theory*, and cannot be included 
in a "facts" section.
 
> <snip>
> > and Voldemort gets on the way, with an indeterminate number of his 
> > forces with him. 
> 
> If we treat the scene in the movie that JKR personally added as 
> canon, it shows Voldemort entering the house solo.

I never treat ANYTHING of the film canon, no matter what the Lexicon 
says in the matter. JKR's film text has passed through too many people 
to resist, and for the sort of nit-picking that happens around here, 
it's got to be totally pure. At any rate, you can still imagine that 
the DE were looming behind him, if you want. Ready to give a hand but 
not close enough to be underfoot.

Phyllis and Richelle both:
> 
> Grey Wolf:
> 
> > Wizards from the MoM arrive to the scene, and find one to three
> > bodies <snip>

I think neither of you have understanded why I did that division of 
"the Fateful Night (VERY long)" post. In the first section "Ths Facts", 
as the very name says, I was just including what canon tells us about 
what was happening there. Most of them comes from Sirius's story in the 
shack, and then a few bits and pieces from Fudge, Hagrid and so on. If 
we allow they're testimonies to be true -and I've got no reason to 
mistrust them in those particular confesions- they paint an incomplete 
picture of what happened that night. You can discuss the slack, or even 
use it as a frame for creating your own personal theory, but -I think- 
what I wrote in section 1 is not open to discussion. It might contain 
wrong facts (i.e. Could there have been a fourth body?), but there 
aren't leaps of faith or interpretation of any kind.

That said, 

p> At the end of PoA, Sirius says that he went to the destroyed house 
p> and found the Potters' *bodies*.  This suggests that both Lily and 
p> James' bodies were there, although it ruins my "protection is in the 
p> Gryffindor bloodline at Godric's Hollow" theory I discussed in an 
p> earlier post today (that I'm still waiting for someone to respond to 
p> on-list, *hint*).
p> 
p> Cheers,
p> Phyllis
>
r> Sorry, I must've missed this.  Who would the third have been?  It is
r> possible to have been three, I suppose, but not just one.  Sirius 
r> says " ... when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies . . .
r> I realized what Peter must've done . . . what I'd done . . ."
r> 
r> Richelle 

Three people "died" that night: James, Lily and Voldemort, all of them 
thorugh AK. AK leaves a body behind, so logic tells us that there 
should have been three bodies. I said "one to three" because the 
explosion *could* have vaporised Lily's and Voldemort's bodies, so only 
James's remained. I'm partial to the "two-bodies" theory, and my 
theories fit with the "three-bodies" theory, but that wasn't the place 
or moment to speak about it. In good logic, there could be from one to 
three, and that's what I said.

If you want, scratch the "one to three" and put there "two or three", 
since Sirius wording seems to indicate a plurality of bodies in the 
scene. I wasn't going that far, and "one to three" is a safe answer 
that in almost all probability contains the correct answer -as far as 
we know right now.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf