TBAY: ToadKeeper Meets Reverse Memory Charm Neville (WAS

Thu May 9 20:55:14 UTC 2002

No: HPFGUIDX 38614

Jtdogberry wrote:

> *Sigh* I'm really worried about Neville, I'm really fond of him!!

Well, there's good reason to be worried for Neville.  I know I 
am.  ;-)

Jtdogberry:

> In POA, before he takes on the boggart...
> Lupin says ... "Neville, I belive you live with your grandmother?"
> "Er yes" said Neville nervously "But I don't want the boggart to 
turn 
> into her either"
> Is Neville really that scared of his gran or is it just that he 
> doesn't want to hurt even something that looks like a member of 
his 
> own family? 

What's this?  It looks like . . . but it can't be . . . but *it 
is*!  It's a brand new canon for ToadKeeper I!

<tries to ignore murmer of disapproval and vile heckling from the 
crowd>

Hold on a minute, Jtdogberry. . . .

 . . . All right, people.  Listen up.  I know you're all mightily 
sick of ToadKeeper.  I am at peace with that, I really am.  I'm not 
even bitter about it anymore.  But Jtdogberry has worked very hard 
and dug up a brand new canon in the flowerbed, and I am bound and 
determined to mount it on ToadKeeper I before Tabouli shows up and 
sneaks off with it.  

If you really can't stand it, get to work on the ToadKeeper 
Challenge and come up with a new, canon-based Trevor theory.  
ToadKeeper III is sitting by the dock, just waiting for some brave 
soul to take it for a spin.  Go on, get busy.

. . . . Right, then.  Where was I?

Oh, yes.  The new canon.

ToadKeeper I is a theory that explains Trevor's importance and makes 
sense of why Neville is chasing a useless toad all over Hogwarts.  
The idea is that the Longbottoms deposited their souls in Trevor 
when Mrs. Lestrange started letting loose with all those Cruciatus 
Curses.  Neville is the ToadKeeper and is trying to work a spell to 
restore his parents.  That's the general idea.

Well, when ToadKeeper I was first launched, there was a (now 
thoroughly debunked) objection that there is no way that Trevor 
contains the souls of the Longbottoms.  If that were true, the 
objection went, Gran would be hysterical when Neville loses Trevor 
instead of being merely exasperated.  The answer there is that Gran 
is not the Witch Harry makes her out to be.  She does plenty of kind 
things in canon, after all.

And that's where Jtdogberry's sparkling new canon comes in.  Neville 
doesn't want the boggart to turn into Gran because Neville *adores* 
his Gran.  He doesn't want to work a spell to banish even her 
boggart image.  In fact, poor, lonely orphaned Neville loves his 
Gran so deeply that he would rather face boggart Snape than boggart 
Gran.  Neville and Gran are *close*, so it makes sense that Gran 
would support Neville in his efforts to revive his parents rather 
than rip him for letting Trevor stray. 

Excuse me . . .  Just . . . Just give me just a minute. . . .  Look 
away . . .  There's nothing to see here. . . .

<blows nose, dabs eyes>

OK, that's better.

Jtdogberry has another question:

> Also in TGOF, after the opening feast, when they vare talking 
>about the tournement
> " I'd expect  my gran'd want to try, though, she's is always going 
>on about how I should be upholding the family honour. I'll just 
>have to -  oops" as he gets his foot stuck in the stairs. But what 
>was he going 
> to say? 

Oh, ToadKeeper I knows *exactly* what Neville was going to say 
there:  "She's always going on about how I should be upholding the 
family honour.  I'll just have to find a way to  . . . work that 
dastardly ToadKeeper spell and restore my parents so that I'll 
actually *have* a family to honour."  

Or words to that effect. ;-)

Jtdogberry (about the melted cauldrons):

>Neville is quiet powerful 
> because surely the caldrons have some sort of charm on the to stop 
> them melting in a ways to cause an acciedent especially in school 
> where anythong could happen. Even in the muggle world, it'll take 
> some doing to melt pewter that casualy.

Hmmm.  Possibly a side-effect of the training Neville is receiving 
at St. Mungos to revive his parents under the ToadKeeper I theory?  
After all, ToadKeeper says Neville is learning to work some 
*serious* magic at St. Mungos, very different from the wimpy potions 
Snape is teaching.

Jtdogberry again:

>Is it something to do with 
> the fact that he is trying to forget what he saw because he had 
> witnessed or is it a side effect of of memory charm? If it is the 
> latter, then the who and why questions arise again. 

Ooooooh!  A chance to revive Reverse Memory Charm Neville *and* 
reconcile it with ToadKeeper I!  

JTdogberry, this is a dream come true!  It is truly unprecedented!  
Pull up a M.A.T.C.H.I.N.G.A.R.M.C.H.A.I.R (Marooned at the Court 
Hearing, Ill-fated Neville Got a Reverse Memory Charm, Hatching 
Amnesia-Invoking Results) and put your feet up.  I'll scout around 
for some of those mini-quiche things and some mimosas.

OK.  Where to start?  Yes, I think there's *way* more than meets the 
eye when it comes to Memory Charms.

You see, I count myself among the few people (not nearly enough to 
justify their many acronyms, though) who flatly refuse to entertain 
the idea that Neville has a Traditional Memory Charm like the one 
put on Bertha Jorkins and the Roberts.  The Memory Charm idea is 
that Neville witnesses his parents' torture, so he was given a 
Memory Charm to spare him the pain of these memories.  Someday, 
Neville will fight through this Memory Charm and will become a 
SuperWizard, the story goes.  Or the spell will be lifted, perhaps, 
claim the Memory Charm advocates.

Pah! shriek the Reverse Memory Charm crowd!  We believe that there 
is *no way* Neville has a Traditional Memory Charm.  When pressed, 
we turn to the timeline of the Longbottoms' torture.  Neville was 
born in 1980; Voldemort fell in October 1981.  The Longbottoms were 
tortured afterward, when everyone felt safe.  If we assume Neville 
was born Jan. 1, 1980 and the torture occured in Feb. 1982, then 
Neville can be no older than 26 months old -- far too young to have 
memories of the torture.  If you pick a later date for Neville's 
birthday, he gets even younger and even less able to remember.  

So, we jeer, why would anyone put a Memory Charm on Toddler Neville 
to help him forget something he is much too young to remember 
anyway, particularly if it will damage his memory and impair his 
magical ability?

Ah, but what about a *Reverse* Memory Charm?  See, Mrs. Lestrange's 
gang was caught and convicted based on *something.*  It certainly 
wasn't based on testimony of the insane Longbottoms.  MoM was under 
intense pressure to catch the culprits, so Crouch Sr. might have 
ordered a Reverse Memory Charm on Neville to *enhance* his memory of 
the events to identify the Lestranges and their gang.  

The result, the theory goes, is that Neville constantly re-lives the 
torture of his parents because of his enhanced memory. This causes 
him to freak out in the presence of dementors and in the presence of 
Moody, who, according to the theory, might have been the one to put 
the Reverse Memory Charm on Neville. (For a more complete Reverse 
Memory Charm Neville backstory, check out Message 35,720 and 
thereabouts).  It also causes him to be forgetful, as in this scene 
with Snape:

"Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?  
Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was 
needed?  Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would 
suffice?"

Actually, no, Neville didn't catch those instructions, what with all 
of the magically magnified *shrieking* he was hearing instead.  

And where does ToadKeeper I come in?  ToadKeeper I is the *cure* for 
Reverse Memory Charm Neville.  Once Neville works the ToadKeeper I 
spell successfully, he will have his parents back.  They will give 
him 14 years worth of love.  Their tortured screams will be replaced 
by their words of praise for Neville for bringing honour to the 
family.  It will be beautiful, just beautiful . . . 

<shoulders heave with sobs of relief>

Yes, it all fits, and it is pretty darn Bang-worthy, too.

Cindy (who noticed that ToadKeeper I lacks an acronym, and who is 
trying not to take it personally)
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