TBAY: Madame Lestrange is Loose! (With Dementors & Bertha)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 39116

Cindy hunches over her Memory Charm Symposium notes, frantically 
scribbling out a "MATCHINGARMCHAIR Double Jobberknoll With Ever-So-
Evil-Moody Hurt-Comfort" Variant.  Stoned!Harry peers over her 
shoulder, blocking her light.  "Get your own theory and stop 
*copying* me!" she barks.  

Suddenly, Cindy sees a strange man apparate into Theory Bay next to 
Pippin.  Cindy can just make out his features:  high forehead, deep 
dark eyes, a prominent mustache, waxed into points, of which he 
seems inordinately vain.  It's . . . 

But it *can't* be . . . 

But it *is*!  

It's *Snidely Whiplash*!

Alarmed, Cindy bolts from her beach chair, her Double Jobberknoll 
notes blowing into the Bay, to be forever lost.  Snidely has been 
known to tie beautiful young women to railroad tracks, and although 
there is no rail yard in Theory Bay, one could appear at any 
moment.  Pippin needs help, and there is no time to spare.  Cindy 
grabs GoF and, using it as a flotation device, launches herself into 
the chilly surf.

***************

As I understand Pippin's theory, Mrs. Lestrange is the woman in the 
Pensieve scene.  Certainly a reasonable assumption.  And Mrs. Figg 
is part of the protection surrounding Harry.  Another reasonable 
assumption.  

I think I'm on board (but poised to jump ship at any moment), 
although there is the obstacle that Mrs. Lestrange gets out of 
prison and no one notices or cares.  Mrs. Lestrange is *infamous*, 
isn't she?  There was tremendous pressure for her arrest, and the 
Pensieve Four were jeered by the mob.  If she escaped from Azkaban, 
the event would receive almost as much attention as Sirius' escape.  

So if Mrs. Lestrange escaped, it was and still is a Big Secret.

Surely – surely – Mrs. Lestrange isn't going to turn out to be a 
skinny cat animagus who maintained her sanity and then slipped 
through the bars of her cell and swam to the mainland.  JKR wouldn't 
*dare* try to get another Bang out of that scenario.  So, if Mrs. 
Lestrange managed to get out of Azkaban somehow, how exactly did she 
pull it off?

There's only one clue that I can find.  When the dementors take away 
the Pensieve Four after Crouch Sr. sentences them to life in 
Azkaban, Crouch Jr. certainly shows the effects of the 
dementors:  "Harry could see their cold, draining power starting to 
affect him."   But what of Mrs. Lestrange?  Is she gasping for air 
as the strength is drained from her?  Nope.  She gives an 
impassioned *speech*.  She isn't affected by the dementors at all, 
is she?   How strange!

We know the dementors are really on Voldemort's side (well, 
Dumbledore thinks so, anyway).  So my guess is that if Mrs. 
Lestrange escaped from Azkaban, she did it differently from Sirius' 
method.  Maybe, just maybe, she had the help of the dementors, who 
then kept quiet about her absence.

Now, why didn't Fudge notice Mrs. Lestrange's absence during his 
inspections of Azkaban?  After all, Fudge checked up on Sirius 
during Fudge's Azkaban inspections, right?  Why didn't Fudge sound 
the alarm and launch a search when Evil Mrs. Lestrange suddenly 
turned up missing?

Fudge is Ever So Evil his own self, that's why!  He knew Mrs. 
Lestrange had been dispatched to overpower Mrs. Figg.  He set the 
whole thing up, telling her exactly what to do to breach the 
protection zone around Harry.  And he conspired with the dementors 
to keep the whole thing quiet.

Pippin's theory touches on a second mystery:  how *does* Voldemort 
know about the protections surrounding Harry?

When Voldemort speaks in the graveyard and mentions the protections 
surrounding Harry, I think it is a fair assumption that he hasn't 
checked this out for himself.  During the years Harry lived on 
Privet Drive, Voldemort was but a foul fume, struggling to survive 
in Albania.  Even when Voldemort had reached slimy baby status, 
there isn't a hint that he ever went near Privet Drive.  Even Harry 
is unaware of these protections, which suggests that they were 
treated as an Important Secret.

There's also no suggestion that Voldemort was in contact with any DE 
who would have any idea about the protection surrounding Harry.  If 
Voldemort gathered information about this, where did he get it?  I 
think he likely got it from the one of just a few people:

Wormtail – Unlikely.  How would Peter living as Scabbers have 
figured out the protections surrounding Harry when Ron doesn't even 
know?  Maybe Peter heard something from Mr. Weasley, but there's no 
reason Mr. Weasley would know anything about this matter in light of 
his position at MoM.

Crouch Jr. – Maybe.  But the only way Crouch Jr. finds out is by 
overhearing conversations at home while killing time under his 
invisibility cloak.  And Crouch Sr. is in the Department of 
International Magical Cooperation – hardly a MoM division that would 
be likely to know about the protections surrounding Harry.  

Crouch Sr. - Unlikely.  Maybe Wormtail or Voldemort ordered Imperius!
Crouch Sr. to ask around at MoM.  But I doubt that Voldemort would 
have been willing to have Crouch Sr. risk drawing attention to 
himself by asking about the protections surrounding Harry.

Bertha – Getting Red Hot.  But how would Bertha know anything about 
the protections on Privet Drive?  Well . . . that depends on where 
you come out on Ludo Bagman, doesn't it?  If Bagman is an Ever So 
Evil DE, he might well have been motivated to learn about the 
protections surrounding Harry, and being an idiot, he might have 
blabbed to nosy Bertha Jorkins, who gets tortured by Voldemort and 
would have definitely blurted out the protections surrounding Harry.

In a way, the idea that Bertha Jorkins was the source of Voldemort's 
information about Harry's protection is consistent with the way 
Voldemort tells the story in GoF.  Voldemort says Bertha "became a 
veritable mine of information."  Voldemort says that Bertha told him 
about the Triwizard Tournament and about Crouch Jr.  

And then Voldemort adds that Bertha "told me many things . . . "

Oooh, what was Voldemort driving at there?  He's mighty specific 
about all of the other information he gets from Bertha, and then he 
adds this catch-all "told me many things."

I'm keeping my eye on that Ludo Bagman.  Yes, indeed.

Cindy 

********************

For an explanation of the acronyms and theories in this post, visit
Hypothetic Alley at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Admin20Files/hypoth
eticalley.htm 

and Inish Alley at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?
method=reportRows&tbl=13