The Big Bangers and Neville

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 35902

Cindy wrote:

> OK.  So under my timeline, Neville is born sometime in 1980.  Let's 
> pick the middle of 1980.  That makes him a proper toddler when the 
> Potters are killed because he is 16 months old or so.  

<Elkins the childless strains her (almost as bad as Neville's)
memory to remember what her young nieces and nephews were like
at that age.>

Weeeellll...

> So if the torture happens ::Cindy pauses to think of a torture date 
> that will give the greatest possible Bang:: on Christmas day 1981, 
> Neville is 18 months old, and still a toddler. 

Ooooh.  You almost got me there, with that Christmas Day thing.  I 
imagined a decorated tree crashing to the ground, gaily wrapped 
parcels trodden underfoot...it was all good.  Very Bangy, and my
featherboas liked it as well.

But then you offered me this:

> Can you give me June 1982 as the latest date for the torture?  Can 
> we have the Lestranges caught quickly, so that it is more likely 
> that Neville's evidence caused their capture?  Can Neville be just 
> turning two when the torture happens?  Can we have Mrs. Lestrange 
> burst through the door as Neville is blowing out his birthday 
> candles or something?  

Okay.  Tell you what I'm gonna do, since you're being so accomodating 
here.  We'll push Neville's birthday back to the very late winter of 
1980, the Event can occur in 1982, and it can be Neville's second 
birthday.  Okay?  That way, I don't have to swallow down any more of 
that Everything-Happens-In-1981 that annoys me so much, you can still 
have things happening reasonably quickly, the Lestranges can have 
been reasonably swift-to-take-action, Neville can be unquestionably a 
toddler (I like to think that he was just entering that horrid "NO!" 
stage at the time), and we can still have gaily-wrapped parcels 
trodden underfoot.  

Also, that way we can declare Neville to be a Pisces.  This is 
actually strongly suggested by canon as JKR, in spite of her apparent 
distaste for divination, nonetheless seems to enjoy giving her 
characters apt sun signs (Hermione the Virgo, Harry the Leo, Ron the 
Taurus, and so forth).

Also, this would explain why we never hear a word about Neville's 
birthday in canon.  He's never told anyone when it is, see, 'cause 
Neville just hates his birthday.  It brings back bad memories.

> Now that Kimberly and her Faith, *they're* definitely squeamish.  
> Something needs to be done about them, don't ya think?

Faith lacks Edge.  She definitely lacks Edge.  But I'm afraid that 
she *does* have the author on her side, so she probably outranks us.  
<sigh>

> I'm not too sure about ToadKeeper.  Don't tell Judy or anything, 
> but she stung me pretty good with her assault on ToadKeeper.  

'Stung' you?  She sank Toadkeeper straight to a watery grave, 
actually, but ssssshhh.  We'll keep that our little secret, shall we?

> I'm just putting on a brave face at this point.  I'd *love* for you 
> to come up with something for this Neville/Trevor issue so that I 
> could scuttle ToadKeeper, 'cause it is seriously taking on water.  

Mmmmmm.  Well, I was working up a Neville backstory, but now I realize
that it has no Trevor  Oh, no!

Note to self: revamp backstory to include Trevor.  Preferably with 
Big Banginess.

I'll, uh...I'll be getting back to you on that.


> Hmmm.  If Reverse-Memory-Charm Neville is repeatedly re-living his 
> parents' torture, doesn't it, uh, help, if he actually saw it?

Two options here:

1) He could see little bits and pieces of what was going on through a 
crack in the closet door, just like the kids on all of those made for 
TV movies.

2) He couldn't see a thing.  It was pitch black.  All he could do was
*hear* what was going on -- which might be a whole lot worse, really.

> How about if the torture happens right there in front of Neville
> (with toddler Neville wearing his pointy birthday hat and all), but 
> someone tells Mrs. Lestrange to spare Neville?  

You still haven't sold me on the entire group of DEs being willing to 
spare Neville.  I do like my DEs grey, it is true, but I also like 
them vile.  If they had known the kid was there, then they would have 
brutalized him.

How about option (3): Neville was sitting right there at the table, 
birthday cake in front of him and wearing his pointy hat and all, but 
hidden under the Invisibility Cloak that Frank had hastily thrown 
over the kid when the DEs first burst through the door?  Moody had an
Invisibility Cloak, so Frank might have had one as well?  Seems like 
something that an Auror might have had lying around the house. 

I don't like option (3) though.  It's hard to reconcile with my Life 
Debt To Barty Crouch theory.

Also, if we stick to Crouch Lying To The Others About Neville In the 
Closet, then we can add to our supposition that young Crouch, fearing 
that the kid might start snivelling or screaming or otherwise giving
the game away, *also* smacked him with a full Body-Bind, to keep him 
quiet.  

In this way we could account for Neville's expression of utter and 
complete horror when Hermione does the exact same thing to him in 
SS/PS, as well as for his appearance -- "white with shock" -- when he 
wins the House Cup for Gryffindor and gets praise and hugs from all 
of his classmates at the end of the novel.  Harry's dead wrong about 
what's happening with Neville there.  He's not shocked and pleased to
be receiving all that unaccustomed praise.  He's shocked and
*appalled* that he is actually being stroked for having been 
victimized in this particular way -- yet *again!*

> As an aside, I am having some trouble closing the loop on Reverse-
> Memory-Charm Neville, and now that Elkins is back on board, maybe 
> she can help.  Why *is* Neville's memory so bad, exactly?  Was his 
> memory actually damaged by the charm?  That's possible, I guess. 

Hmmm.  Well, how's this?  The Reverse Memory thing wasn't actually a 
charm at all.  It was a *potion.*  A new and experimental potion, in 
fact, which had just recently been invented by that young hotshot of 
Dumbledore's -- Severus Snape.

The Memory Retrieval Potion was still in the testing stage when 
Crouch authorized its use on young Neville.  It hadn't actually been 
cleared for use on human subjects yet.  But did Crouch care?  Are you 
kidding?  He wanted this case wrapped up, and fast.

The reason that the Memory Retrieval Potion has never been mentioned 
in canon, of course, is that as it turned out, it had some...
unfortunate side-effects.  The initial tests on the lab rabbits and 
such had all gone fine, but apparently when used on human subjects 
you start running into problems.  Problems like permanent memory 
damage.  Problems like suppression of natural magical talent.  Big 
Problems. 

Because of these problems, the substance was in the end never cleared 
by the Ministry for use at all, and everyone would really much rather 
it just be forgotten about altogether.

And that's the real reason why Snape's so cranky about Neville's 
incompetence in his potions class, you see.  That's *guilt,* is what 
that is.  Guilt, and anger that he was made to look like such an
incompetent by that blithering moron Crouch, who simply *would* not 
listen to him when he had tried to explain that his tests had not yet 
been completed, and that he could not therefore make any promises at 
all that his new potion would not, in fact, turn the boy's brain to 
mush.

It's also why Dumbledore's asking him to brew up that Wolfsbane 
Potion for Lupin was such a very big deal to Snape, and why he became 
so very irritable when Lupin seemed to be hesitating before gulping 
it down.  And why it was really quite kind of Dumbledore to insist on
using Snape's "strongest" veritaserum on Crouch at the end of GoF.  
That was a gesture of trust, that was.  And I'm sure that Severus
appreciated it.


-- Elkins