Introducing a new Memory Charm

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 42629

"lucky_kari"'s post states;

>>"Time after time, listies have pointed out that the DEs were probably 
wrong. Frank had absolutely no knowledge of where Voldemort was. How could 
he? He didn't divulge the information because he didn't know it. It's 
perfectly rational, but I don't buy it.<<

In my own privite theory, the whole Longbottom incident was in fact a scheme 
to discredit Barty Crouch Sr. who was getting dangerously close to becoming 
the next Minister of Magic and displacing their tool Fudge (assuming that 
Fudge was MoM at that point. If not there is little difference, since 
eliminating the competition that Crouch represented enabled them to insert 
their man where they wanted him. Er, it IS obvious to everyone whose pocket 
Fudge is in, isn't it?). 

Barty Jr. and the Lestranges knew perfectly well that Longbottom, let alone 
his wife, had no critical information as to the whereabouts of Lord V. Any 
auror would have had as much, so any auror would have done insofar as 
extraction of information goes (and, yes, they DID probably get at least some 
information -- and passed it on before they were captured). The purpose of 
the whole exercise was to create an atrocity which would have the whole 
wizarding world (which was slipping into complacency after Voldy's defeat) up 
in arms and set a stage in which Barty Jr. (who, if nothing else, was a 
supurb actor) could enact the unjustly accused (possibly) innocent victim, 
placing his father in a no-win situation since whatever direction Crouch Sr. 
took it, he was going to look bad. Crouch and the Lestranges were very sure 
of the ultimate outcome since they had Crouch Sr.'s track record to work 
from. I doubt that Sirius Black was the only suspect he ever sentenced 
without trial. The publicity attached to the Longbottom case, and the fact 
that the attack was carried out in what was believed to be peacetime assured 
that Crouch Sr. at least wasn't going to be able to get away with that this 
time. The Longbottoms were targeted because of their popularity and for no 
other reason. Neville has a good deal more mysteries to him than appears, 
yes, but outdated information on the whereabouts of Lord Voldemort is not one 
of them.

The liklihood that the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. deliberately put themselves 
into Azkaban is supported by Mrs Lestrange's statement at their sentencing. 
Barty Jr. may not have realized when he agreed to it that he was engaged on 
what would turn out to be a suicide mission, and that realization, the 
influences of the Dememtors, and the decade under Inperius as his father's 
prisioner were quite enough to turn his mind altogether. It is small wonder 
that he loathes any of his former fellows who hadn't the nerve to go to 
Azkaban for their Lord.

>>However, years later what was it that Bertha Jorkins overheard Crouch Jr. 
saying to Winky that convinced Voldemort Crouch was still his loyal servant?<<

I tend toward the notion that it was just the fact that Crouch Jr was alive 
and in his father's custody that Voldemort latched onto. Pettigrew had filled 
him in on everything that had been going down in the British WW since the 
night at Godric's Hollow. He had been spying on the Weasleys for the entire 
period, and heard everthing that was floating around in public domain as well 
as whatever spin that the Ministry had put on it. Pettigrew's information was 
invaluable. So, Voldy knew that the Lestranges and young Crouch had 
deliberately gone to Azkaban to safeguard Voldemort's organization and to get 
whatever information the aurors of the time did have as to his whereabouts 
and this spoke loudly in favor of his continued loyalty, since it had 
remained uncompromised by having made any kind of peace with the Ministry.

Of course I could just be cutting my throat with Occam's razor.
-JOdel