Madame Lestrange is Loose! (no TBAY or Dementors)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 39153

Cindy wrote:

>>>>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.<<<<


I agree, we must account for this. But I have a simpler solution 
which does not call for evil Fudge or evil Bagman or duplicitous 
Dementors. Mrs. Lestrange's cell is *not* empty. Who is in it? 
And how did she get there, and why doesn't anyone notice? Is 
there a conveniently missing witch? 

Of course there is, the erstwhile Mrs. Arabella Figg. The 
sequence of events is quite simple. Quirrell returns to England 
following his sabbatical, accompanied by noxious fume 
Voldemort. It is Quirrell, the brilliant DADA specialist, who has 
learned from Dumbledore about the defenses around Privet 
Drive and informs Voldemort  about the protections surrounding 
young Harry. Quirrell  abducts Mrs. Figg, transfigures her into an 
inanimate object, enters Azkaban undetected,(easy for Quirrell, 
who broke into Gringott's and made his way past all the 
obstacles in SS/PS),rescues Mrs. Lestrange, transfigures *her* 
into an inanimate object,  and leaves poor, imperio'd Arabella, 
now restored to human form, in her place. The Dementors do 
not notice the substitution, because they are blind. And by the 
time one of those infrequent Azkaban inspections takes place, 
well, one skeletal, deranged female with waist-length matted 
hair looks very much like another, particularly for courtly 
gentlemen like Arthur and Cornelius, who aren't inclined to look 
too closely.

Arabella, whom I like to think is Sirius' potential love interest, is 
protected from the worst effects of the Dementors by the 
Imperius curse. She is aware of only that lovely, floaty sensation.  
Ah, but she is in great danger, because when Azkaban is broken 
open, Voldemort will not need her any longer. I hope Sirius 
figures out what is going on in time to save her.

But surely, surely, you say, Mrs. Figg can't be in Azkaban. She 
has to be somewhere nearby so that Mrs. Lestrange has a 
handy supply of hair to keep the polyjuice vat bubbling. But since 
Mrs. Figg herself was polyjuiced,  (hence the cabbage smell), 
this isn't an obstacle at all. Mrs. Lestrange keeps up the 
disguise quite easily using whatever source the original Arabella 
had. 

I have no canon to support this part, but I speculate that there is 
an elderly Muggle lady in Majorca who is receiving quite a 
handsome stipend in return for snipping off a few hairs every 
month and mailing them to an address in Little Whinging.  


Pippin