TBAY: Fourth Man Avery & Fourth Man Nott

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50287

Eileen wound her way through the crowds in the Royal George until she 
found the corner table where Elkins was sitting with her arm around 
Fourth Man Avery's shaking shoulders, murmering sympathetically into 
his ear.

Not for the first time, Eileen wondered if she were witnessing an 
expression of philos or of eros.

"I heard what happened," she said quietly, slipping herself into a 
seat at the table.  "Are you all right there, Aves?"

Avery nodded weakly.

"He's okay." Elkins looked tired.  "Cindy didn't actually lay a 
finger on him.  But still.  It wasn't very nice of her to go about 
threatening him *now,* of all times.  You *know* how edgy he's been 
lately.  Ever since the storm started up.  How edgy we've all been."  
She shook her head.  "I just don't understand this, Eileen.  Why?  
*Why* does Cindy have it in for my Fourth Man theory?  Why is she 
always going after Avery like this?  Why?"

"It's envy," said Eileen firmly.

"But did you *hear* the ludicrous nonsense she came up with this
time around?  I mean, *Dolohov?*  What the devil does *Dolohov*
have to do with anything?  Is Dolohov one of Snape's old friends?
Does Dolohov have any connection with the Lestranges?  Does Dolohov 
get a strangely emphasized -- yet also peculiarly anonymous -- cameo 
appearance in Book Four?"

"I know, Elkins," sighed Eileen.  "I know."

"Does Dolohov have any tie-in to the main thrust of the story at 
*all?*"

"I know."

"Does Dolohov even have a reason to *exist,* other than to establish 
that Karkaroff wasn't the only Slavic Death Eater?  I mean, that's 
his sole function, as far as I can tell.  That, and to give Karkaroff 
yet another useless name to offer up to Crouch while the author is 
busy establishing just how venal a fellow Karkaroff himself really 
is.  Dolohov is *filler,* for God's sake!  He only escapes the 
GARBAGESCOW by the very skin of his teeth!  And Cindy thinks *that* 
guy's going to turn out to be the Fourth Man?  Really, what would 
be the *point?*"

"Elkins.  I *know.*"  

"Antonin Dolohov," repeated Elkins savagely.  "Hah!  If you ask me, 
Antonin Dolohov probably died *years* ago.  A shattered wreck.  
Gibbering and drooling.  Sprawled on the floor of his prison cell.  
In his own *waste.*"

"Elkins, *please!*" objected Eileen, throwing a concerned glance 
over to Avery, who had gone as pale as death and looked very much 
as if he were contemplating being sick.

"I...oh.  Oh, hell.  I'm sorry, AVes.  I really am.  But honestly!
Dolohov?  How *could* it have been Dolohov?  At Karkaroff's hearing, 
Crouch tells Karkaroff that Dolohov was 'caught shortly after 
yourself,' and he doesn't say a *word* about letting Dolohov go.  
We've already established that Karkaroff had to have been in prison 
for some time before Crouch offered him release in exchange for 
information.  So it just doesn't make sense, Eileen.  How could 
Dolohov have managed to qualify as someone who 'talked his way out of 
Azkaban?'"

"I believe that Cindy may have had a double pardon scenario in mind 
for him."

"A double *pardon* scenario?  And she thinks it implausible that 
Avery might have managed both to evade indictment right after 
Voldemort's fall and to get a pardon years after his later 
conviction?"  She shook her head.  "She finds that so terribly 
implausible, and yet she has no problem at all with a...a what?  A 
Double-Pardoned Dolohov?"

"I know, Elkins.  I tried to explain that to her myself."

"It's absolutely ridiculous!  What's she going to do next? Finger 
*Travers* as the Fourth Man?  And then she...she got it all *wrong,* 
Eileen!  She tried to use the process of elimination to narrow down 
Fourth Man candidates, but she used the wrong starting premise!  She 
eliminated all of the people who are *free,* rather than all of the 
people who are in prison.  And then she seemingly forgot that 
Avery himself was in the graveyard!  It's his one and only 
incontrovertble canonical appearance, and she forgot that he was even 
*there?*"

"I know, I know."

"It just didn't make a lick of sense!  How am I supposed to counter 
objections that don't even make any *sense?*  It's MC'd Neville and 
that blasted Egg all over again!  She *always* does this to me!  She 
does it on purpose!  I just know it!  It's all to upset me!  She 
Humpty-Dumpties her Bangs, she refuses to Concede The Point, she 
engages in the most grotesque logical fallacies imaginable, and 
she...says these, these weird random nonsensical *things*..."

"She's The Cinister One, Elkins.  What can you do?"

"She does it just to *spite* me!" cried Elkins.  "I know it!  She 
does it because she knows how much it frustrates me!"

"Forget it, will you?  Let me buy you a drink."

"And she goes off-canon, and she does *that* just to annoy me as 
well!  She said that Pettigrew was the one who put Crouch Sr. under 
the Imperius Curse, when we all know perfectly well that Voldemort 
was the one who did that.  She's *always* saying things like that, 
Eileen.  She does it just to bait me.  And...and...and...and 
she...she..."  

Elkins took a deep breath, then blurted: 

"And she let *Derannimer* hold her *Big Paddle!*"  

And burst into tears.

"Oh, dear."  Eileen fumbled in her pocket for a handkerchief, but 
Avery offered his first.  She leaned back in her seat and 
sighed.  "So word of that finally got back to you, did it?"

"How could she?" wailed Elkins.  "Just...just *hand* it over to her?  
Just like that?  How?  How?  How COULD she have, Eileen?  How COULD 
she?"

"How could I have *what?*"

Elkins stiffened in her seat.  She looked up at Cindy, then tossed 
her head imperiously.

"I was just *wondering,*" she said coldly, rising slowly to her 
feet. "How you could ever have brought yourself to humiliate yourself 
so *badly* by raising all of those absolutely *pathetic* so-called 
objections to FourthMan!Avery.  Really, Cindy!  *I* would have been 
ashamed to be caught in the *Bay* uttering such errant nonsense."

"Oh you would, would you?" Cindy growled.  "I suppose you can offer 
some defense against my anti-Fourth Man canons?"

"What canons would those be again?" asked Elkins, shifting her 
position slightly.  

Eileen found herself wondering if Elkins had even the slightest bit 
of conscious awareness of the way that she had just moved so as to 
place her own body directly in line between Cindy and the seated 
Fourth Man Avery.

Then it struck her.

Oh! she thought.  Of course!

*Storge.*

"What anti-Fourth Man canons?" Elkins asked again, tense.

"The fact that Voldemort never praised Avery in the graveyard?" said 
Cindy.  "The fact that Avery begged forgiveness and grovelled so 
piteously?"

Elkins stared at her.  "*Those* are your anti-Fourth Man canons?  
Have you been smoking something, Cindy?  Those aren't anti-Fourth 
Man canons.  Those are *Fourth Man* canons!  And one of them is 
also a Redeemable!Avery canon.  You're arguing my position here.  
Didn't Eileen just explain all of this to you?"

"Well, I *tried,*" said Eileen, rolling her eyes.  "*And* to explain 
the difference between the acquittal and the pardon. She's just being 
difficult, if you ask me."

"Well, just how gullible is Crouch Sr. supposed to be, anyway?"
demanded Cindy.  "And why would Crouch Sr. have let Avery off the 
hook the first time around?  He wouldn't have liked that."

"No, he really *wouldn't* have," agreed Elkins and Eileen.

In perfect unison.  

Although in completely different tones of voice.  

They each blinked, then eyed the other warily.

"But," they added, after a moment's pause.  "He wouldn't have had 
a choice." 

Again in unison.  And again in different tones of voice.

There was a long strained silence.

"Go on," muttered Elkins, at length.  "You go."

Eileen nodded at her.  "The first time," she explained, "Crouch was 
forced to release Avery because he had nothing on him!  Just like 
Ludo Bagman and the Lestranges."

"Or," suggested Elkins.  "Perhaps more like Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, 
Nott, and MacNair.  Actually," she said, turning to Eileen.  "That's 
the Fourth Man defense that I prefer, you know."

"It is?"

"Yes.  I think that it works better that way.  The first time around,
he got off on the Imperius defense, just like all of those other DEs 
did and at the same time: right after Voldemort's fall.  He was 
acquitted on the Imperius Defense along with Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, 
Goyle, MacNair, and the Lestranges."

"But the Fourth Man couldn't have been *acquitted,*" said Cindy.
"Because Barty Jr. was caught with people who had 'talked their 
way out of Azkaban.'"

"If Barty Jr. had been acquitted," Elkins countered.  "Wouldn't you 
call that having 'talked his way out of Azkaban?'  He pleads with his 
father not to send him *back* to the dementors, remember? Even though 
he's not yet been found guilty.  People awaiting trial get held in 
Azkaban, it seems.  It's not just the wizarding prison. It's also the 
wizarding jail.  So acquittal on the Imperius Defense definitely 
counts as 'talking ones way out of Azkaban.'"

"I thought that he probably got out of his first spot of trouble 
with the law due to lack of evidence," said Eileen.  "Like Ludo 
Bagman.  And that it was his later pardon that was based on the 
Imperius Defense."

"Well, I guess it could be," admitted Elkins.  "But I really think 
that it makes much more sense the other way around.  The way that 
Fudge lumps Avery in with all of those older DEs makes me feel 
that he -- along with the Lestranges -- pulled the Imperius Defense 
right along with all of the others: immediately following after 
Voldemort's fall.  I'm not really sure how effective that defense
might have been later on, honestly.  I have an idea that it was
a lot easier to beg off on Imperius in the immediate aftermath
of Voldemort's fall, when everyone was feeling all celebratory
and forgiving.  And of course, *that* would have been the incident 
that Fudge would have wanted to remind his listeners of -- the 13-
year-past acquittal, rather than the more recent pardon -- because 
that one that happened on *Crouch's* watch, not on his own."

"You still haven't explained to me why you think that Crouch 
permitted those mass acquittals," Eileen reminded her.  "If 
he'd supposedly usurped so much of the Minister's power?"

"Yeah, I know.  I'm in the middle of that one.  Give me another 
day or two on it, okay?  I'm having a busy week.  But getting 
back to the subject at hand, my feeling here is that the Fourth Man 
really didn't *need* the Imperius Defense to get off the hook for the 
Longbottom Incident.  By the time of the canon, it seems to have 
become the common wisdom that Barty Jr. might really have been 
innocent.  Sirius thinks so, and it isn't a notion he came by in 
Azkaban.  He tells Harry: 'This is mostly stuff I've found out since 
I got out.'  Sirius has been picking up his information from current 
opinion, I'm guessing.  And maybe also from reading old newspapers.  
So why *is* it, do you think, that the current day 'Common Wisdom' 
holds so strongly to the idea that Barty Jr. really might have 
been innocent after all?  The wizarding world doesn't generally 
seem inclined to question its own judicial system very much, does 
it?  Fudge has poor Hagrid dragged off for some sort of vague 
protective custody in CoS, and nobody seems even to think to question 
it.  Yet they're all questioning Barty's guilt.  Why?  Why, Cindy?"

"Well..."

"The current 'Common Wisdom' holds that Barty Jr. was likely 
innocent," Elkins told her firmly.  "Because at least one of Barty 
Jr's co-defendents *was* later determined to be innocent. Exonerated 
of all charges.  Pardoned.  Released from prison.  Fourth Man.  
Fourth Man Avery."  

Cindy shook her head.  "No, see, that's a real problem," she 
said. "It doesn't add up. This has always bothered me about Avery as 
Fourth Man. I mean, if he talked his way out of Azkaban once claiming 
he was under the Imperius Curse and then attacked the Longbottoms, 
how on earth can he claim he acted under Imperius a second time?"

"He *didn't!*" Elkins repeated, with more than a touch of 
exasperation.  "He didn't claim Imperius a second time!  He didn't 
*need* to!  There was no real evidence against the Pensieve Four, 
remember?  That's why both Sirius and Dumbledore thought it possible 
that Barty Jr. have been innocent.  The trial of the Pensieve Four 
was a kangaroo court.  There *was* no evidence to speak of against 
those defendents.  Fourth Man wasn't exonerated for the torture of 
the Longbottoms because he was believed to have been acting under the 
Imperius Curse.  He was exonerated because he was believed not to 
have acted at all.  He was exonerated on the grounds of having been 
completely innocent of the charges against him.  There had probably 
never been any real evidence against him in the first place, other 
than his relationship with the Lestranges."

"So you're saying that Avery wormed his way out of trouble not just 
once but *twice* in the space of a few months?" demanded Cindy.

"A few months?"  Elkins stared at her.  "Where on earth are you 
getting 'a few months' from?  For all I know, he could have been 
in prison for five *years* before he was pardoned.  It *certainly*
wasn't a matter of a 'few months,' because that wouldn't fit in
with what we know of the timeline.  It had to have been well over 
a year between these two events at the very least.  Crouch Jr. was 
in prison for a year before he supposedly died, and Crouch Sr. didn't 
get shunted out of office until some time after that.  We don't 
really need to embark on yet another 'Fall of Voldemort Timeline' 
thread, do we?  Or do we?  Actually," Elkins added thoughtfully.  
"I'd be game for that.  Maybe tomorrow..."

She shook her head quickly.

"Anyway," she continued.  "Fourth Man only 'wormed his way out of 
trouble' *once* by using the Imperius defense.  He was then arrested 
for the assault on the Longbottoms, convicted, and sent to prison on 
the basis of pretty much nothing at all.  Some years later, after 
Crouch Sr. had fallen from power and been replaced, and after the 
mood of the public had turned, and after people had started to 
realize at last just how shoddy Crouch Sr's judicial methods had 
been..."

"Hold on," objected Eileen.

"...that's when the Longbottom case was reexamined, and he was 
pardoned.  Probably by Fudge, but possibly by whomever succeeded 
Crouch as the head of the DMLE.  He wasn't pardoned on the basis of 
the Imperius defense.  He was pardoned on the basis of being 
innocent."

"Which he actually wasn't," said Eileen.  "'Shoddy judicial methods,' 
my foot!"

"Yeah, well, Sirius Black really *was* innocent," Elkins snapped back 
at her.  "Shoddy judicial methods is what I said, and shoddy judicial 
methods is what I meant.  So the Pensieve Four were really guilty.  
Big deal.  Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

"If you two are finished bickering over that tiresome Crouch fellow," 
interrupted Cindy irritably.  "Perhaps you can tell me this.  Why 
didn't the Lestranges get out?" 

"Because," Elkins sighed.  "They *confessed.*  More fools they."

"Why would the Lestranges have confessed, but not Avery?"

"Oh, who knows?  Maybe the Lestranges were a lot more cynical and 
fatalistic.  They figured that they were doomed to life imprisonment 
no matter what they said or did, so they might as well be Good 
Terrorists and claim responsibility for the attack, while Fourth Man 
was less resigned and held out in hopes of an acquittal.  Or maybe 
Eileen's theory holds, and the Aurors used a UC to force a confession 
out of the Lestranges, but never bothered to do the same with Avery 
because they no longer needed to: the Lestranges had already 
implicated him as part of their confession, and that was all they 
felt they needed.  Or maybe the Lestranges were loony fanatics and 
the Fourth Man wasn't.  Who can say?  It's all speculation, really.  
There could be any number of reasons why some of the defendents in 
that case might have confessed, while others continued to insist upon 
their innocence.  Just look at young Barty, for example.  He never 
confessed."  

Eileen muttered something under her breath about spoiled brats and 
favoritism.

"Well, okay," said Cindy.  "What do you make of *this,* though?  The 
Fourth Man theory cannot be true, because Avery was not a Cruciatus 
specialist!"

There was a very long silence.

"Come again?" asked Elkins, at length.

"Avery was not a Cruciatus specialist. You see, the DEs were all 
divided into specialties, and..."

"They *are?*  Says who?"

"Well, Mulciber was an Imperius specialist, wasn't he? That implies 
that they specialized.  And so far in the canon, we always only hear 
about DEs using one *particular* Unforgivable Curse.  Dolohov and 
Karkaroff were torturers, so they must have been Cruciatus guys.  
Wormtail used the AK on Cedric Diggory.  He blew up those Muggles.  
Oh, yeah, Wormtail is a *Killing Machine* –- an Avada Kedavra 
specialist if I ever saw...what?  What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing," snickered Elkins.  "Nothing.  I'm just...no.  No, sorry.  
Sorry.  Here."  She forced herself back under control.  "Here, 
Cindy.  A canon for you."

Cindy blinked.  "A canon?  Are you serious?  For my 'the DEs all 
specialized'theory?  The one you find so very risible?"

"Yeah, sure.  Why not?  Here it is: Krum was Karkaroff's student,
and we know that Krum knew how to use the Cruciatus.  He used it 
on Cedric in the maze, during the Third Task, while under the 
influence of Barty Jr's Imperius Curse.  I don't think that the 
Imperius Curse can enable people to cast difficult and powerful 
spells that they haven't already learned, do you?  So there you go.  
More evidence for Karkaroff as a Cruciatus Specialist."

"Oh."  Cindy blinked again.  "Thank you."

"You're very welcome.  Never let it be said that Elkins is ungenerous 
with her canons.  So you were saying?"

"I was saying that the DEs specialized.  The Slavs go in for torture, 
and Wormtail's a killing machine, and Barty Crouch Jr..."

"Could manage all three of them," said Elkins firmly.

"Only on *spiders.*  Not on people.  Anyone can curse a lousy 
*spider,* Elkins!  But the only curse that we actually see him use on 
*people* is the Imperius."

Elkins stared at her.

"You're arguing that Barty Crouch Jr. was an Imperius specialist," 
she said flatly.

"Yup."

"If that's true, then that has got to be the most pathetic thing 
about him that I've heard yet.  Cindy, Barty Crouch Jr. had all 
the Imperius resistance of a *gnat.*  Neville *Longbottom* could 
probably have kept him under Imperius!"

"So?  That just means that he was an *inept* Imperius Specialist.  
It doesn't mean that he wasn't one.  When do we ever hear about him 
using any other Unforgivable?"

"Err....the Longbottoms?"   

"Besides, Cindy," objected Eileen.  "Crouch Jr. KILLED his father!"

"Ah."  Cindy smiled.  "But we don't know how exactly Crouch Jr. 
killed his father, do we?  He only tells us that he 'killed [his] 
father."

"You think he hit him over the head with a blunt object a few 
times?" asked Eileen in disbelief.

"It's possible." 

"No," said Elkins suddenly.  "It's not.  It's not possible."

"No?  Why not?"

"Because...because he just wouldn't have *done* it that way. Not like 
that.  He just wouldn't have!"

"What?"  Cindy looked at her in disgust.  "Whyever not?"

"Because that would have been *crude,* Cindy.  Brutish."

"Oh.  I *see.*"  Cindy snorted.  "That would have been a *crude* 
way for him to murder his poor exhausted remorseful unarmed 
weakened-by-fighting-the-Imperius-Curse father who had saved him
from prison and preserved his life at all costs.  I see.  It all 
makes *sense* now!  Because Barty Jr. would never do something 
so *impolite.*"

"Yeah," agreed Eileen.  "Barty Jr. only did things like torturing 
his father for Voldemort's amusement to prove his loyalty to the 
age's most evil Dark wizard, which of course is not in the least 
bit brutish or crass."

"He would never have done it that way," insisted Elkins, looking
as if she were about to cry.  "Not like...not like that.  Not
with so little finesse.  That would be like...it would be like 
telling an outright lie, when instead you could twist around the 
truth!  It wasn't the way he did things.  It would have been
aesthetically displeasing to him."

"Aesthetically *displeasing* to him?"

"Barty Crouch Jr. did *NOT* murder his father by braining him with 
a blunt implement!" yelled Elkins.

"Yeah, right."  Cindy snorted.  "Eileen?"

"No, she's right," said Eileen stolidly.  "Because Barty Crouch Sr.
did not *die* by being bludgeoned in the head with a blunt 
implement." 

"You're daft," said Cindy.  "Both of you.  But okay, so maybe it 
wasn't a blunt implement.  But--"

"Cindy," Elkins interrupted her.  "Even if we are willing to accept
this, uh, 'The DEs all specialized in a particular UC' theory of
yours as a given..."

"Are you?"

"No, of course not.  But even if I *were,* then explain something to 
me here, will you?  How do you know that Avery was *not* a Cruciatus 
specialist?"

Silence.

"Well, come on," said Elkins.  "You said that it was a big canon.
A grand objection to Fourth Man.  'Avery is not a Cruciatus 
specialist.'  So?  Why do you say that?  Where's the canon?"

"The canon," said Cindy.  "Is that if Avery had really been a 
Cruciatus specialist, then he wouldn't have *screamed* so loudly in 
the graveyard, when Voldemort hit him with that--"

"Uh-huh.  And Barty Jr. was an Imperius specialist, right?" 

More silence.

"That's rather what I thought," said Elkins coldly.  She turned
back to Eileen.  "I don't know how he died, Eileen, but I just 
*know* that it wasn't by being bludgeoned over the head with a 
blunt object.  I'm sure of it.  It would be all wrong.  It's...
it's the way that a *thug* would do it.  It's something that..."
She spared a sidelong glare at Cindy.  "It's something that only 
the sort of person who carries around *Big Paddles* would do."

"Or something that someone who smashes other *people's* Big Paddles 
would do?" gritted Cindy.

"Oh, did that nice young Derannimer *not* smash your Big Paddle, 
Cindy?" snarled Elkins.  "Did she treat it *gently?*  Did she 
*coddle* it?"

"*Ahem.*"

They both whirled around to stare at the woman standing rather
shyly to one side.

"Allow me to introduce myself" the woman said, pulling a rubber 
duckie from her bag. "I am Ginger, new to these shores, but wanting 
to float my tiny theory." She gestured towards the Duckie. "I call 
him TNT, for Third Nott Theory."

"Nott?" asked Elkins, with interest.  "You have a *Nott* theory?" 

"Yes.  He has been a pet of mine for some time, and in my lurking 
moments, I have found your Fourth Man hovercraft to be floating in 
similar waters. Indeed, I almost abandoned him and requested 
permission to climb aboard."

"You're always welcome," said Elkins numbly.  "But...what's your 
alternative?  You think that Nott could be the Fourth Man?
Elkins turned to Cindy.  "Now you see, Cindy?" she said.  "*This* is 
an alternative Fourth Man theory that at least has a bit of 
*promise.*  At least Nott has a child at Hogwarts.  He has *some* tie-
in to the plot.  Dolohov, indeed!"  She turned back to Ginger and 
smiled.  "I've often thought myself that Nott has some promise as an 
alternative Fourth Man candidate," she said.  "In fact--"

"Oh, no."  Ginger shook her head.  "Not *that* Nott.  His *son.*
Hence 'Third Nott Theory.'  You see?"

"Err..."

"Look," said Ginger reasonably.  "Nott in the graveyard was described 
as 'stooped.' That usually implies elderly, so he would not likely be
the Nott in Harry's grade's father." 

"So, you're proposing that the Nott in the graveyard is actually the 
Nott kid's...what?  Grandfather?  Grandfather Nott?  And his son was 
the Fourth Man?"

Ginger nodded.  "The Nott in the graveyard, when his master passed 
him, he said 'My Lord, I prostrate myself before you...' which made 
me think he talks like a lawyer..." 

"Oh, absolutely!"  Agreed Elkins cheerfully.  "I *quite* agree.  
Don't you, Cindy?  Go on, Ginger."

"And so TNT was formed," Ginger announced. "One of the four in the 
Longbottom trial is describes as 'a thickset man who stared blankly 
up at Crouch'. Suppose this fourth man was the son of the one in the 
graveyard. His father may have told him to stare blankly, realizing 
that the trial of the four together was a loss, and hoping to free 
him later with his flowery words, either begging Imperious, or shock 
at being accused of such a crime. Crouch Sr. was moved aside into his 
current department, and the father approached Crouch's successor and 
won his case. This man would have sat in Azkaban waiting for his 
release, been of a weak constitution, and died an unremarkable death, 
thus being neither eulogized as 'dead in the service', mentioned with 
the Lestranges, or expected to show up."

Elkins nodded slowly.  "You know," she said.  "I really like this
one?  I like it a lot.  You've managed to produce a 'dead Fourth Man' 
scenario that still satisfactorily explains why the Fourth Man 
doesn't get praised in the graveyard.  He doesn't get praised because 
he *is* disgraced...but he's also dead.  That's very nice indeed, and 
it also explains why elder Nott is so squirrely in the graveyard.  
I've always loved Nott and Voldemort's little exchange in the 
graveyard scene, you know.  It's my favorite bit of black humour in 
the entire series.  It cracks me up each and every time, it does."

"It does?"  Eileen frowned.  "Why?"

"You know, I have no idea?  It strikes me as hysterically funny, yet
I've never quite been able to articulate the reasons why." 

"But how can a dead Fourth Man Bang?" asked Cindy.

"What if the fact that Nott is in Harry's grade is not the 
significant part?" demanded Ginger.  "What if what is significant is 
that this Nott is in *Neville's* grade?"

There was a short silence.

"Go on," said Elkins.   

"Neville was sorted shortly before Nott, and being greeted by his 
new house, would not have paid any attention until Parvati was 
sorted, joining him at the Griffindor table. We have oft wondered 
why Gryffs and Ravens have no classes together. We have also wondered 
why Nott has been silent." 

"So you're proposing that young Nott's narrative function might
be for his or her existence to come as a nasty shock for Neville,
then?" asked Elkins.  "That makes sense.  After all, surely *Neville* 
knows the names of all of his parents' torturers.  Even if we don't 
know for sure who that Fourth Man was, Neville probably does.  And he 
*is* an inattentive sort, isn't he?  You think that perhaps he's not 
yet realized that he's at school with the child of one of his 
parents' victimizers?  That maybe he'll learn this in Book Five?"

Ginger nodded.

"You know, this actually works!" Elkins exclaimed.  She beamed at 
Ginger.  "Ginger," she said.  "Ginger, do you know what you've *done* 
here?  You've actually succeeded in getting around the big problem 
with all of the other alternative Fourth Man theories! See, the 
problem with most non-Avery Fourth Man theories is that they hardly 
ever have anything to do with *Neville.*  And that makes them all 
pretty implausible, because if the Fourth Man is ever going to be 
reintroduced in the canon, then he'll *have* to relate to Neville in 
some way.  There would be no point, otherwise.  It's one of the 
reasons that I think that Avery fits the bill so well, in fact -- 
because Avery is an old school friend of Snape's, and Snape and 
Neville's plotlines are so obviously intertwined.  Snape and Neville 
have unfinished narrative business with each other, just like Neville 
and his parents' torturers have unfinished business with each other, 
and just like Snape and his surviving school chums have unfinished 
business with each other.  I firmly believe that those plot threads 
*will* be tied together in future canon.  The Lestranges will almost 
certainly be involved in that.  The Fourth Man might be, and if so, 
then it's very tempting to assume that he's going to be Avery, 
precisely because Avery *does* share the Lestranges' relationship to 
Snape.  Most of the other Fourth Man candidates people have suggested 
don't have that advantage.

"But yours does, doesn't it?  You've just tied it together by 
suggesting a relationship between Neville and the yet unknown 
youngest Nott, rather than tying it in with Snape."

"I am still speculating on the youngest Nott," Ginger admitted.  
"Innocent bystander keeping a low profile? (Silent Nott, Holy 
Nott) Perhaps a girl with whom Neville may come into contact 
in a pre-OWL study course?" 

"But what about Ginny/Neville?" objected Eileen suddenly.

"I don't like Ginny/Neville," Elkins said flatly.  "I like Ginny,
and I like Neville.  But together?  Oh, that just makes my teeth 
hurt, that does.  But you know, Ginger, I've often wondered about 
young Nott as well?  You see, I really am desperately hoping that 
somewhere in this series we're going to see a child of a Death Eater 
who *isn't* just yet another chip off the old block.  Young Nott 
could fit that bill quite nicely.  And it would be even better if 
young Nott's father turned out to have been one of the Longbottoms' 
torturers, wouldn't it?  Because, I mean, it just doesn't *get* any 
more villainous and evil and wicked than that, does it?"

"From your mouth to God's ears," murmured Eileen.

"Oh, Yellow Flag!" objected Cindy.  "We haven't even seen this Nott 
kid in the canon yet.  We don't even know if young Nott is a girl or 
a boy!"

"We hadn't heard of Cho or Cedric either, until PoA," Elkins
pointed out.  "Yet they both wound up rather important, right? And 
besides, NiceKidRavenclaw!Nott-New-Friend-Of-Neville does have Bang 
potential, Cindy.  You have to admit it.  You know," she 
concluded.  "This is the first non-Avery Fourth Man theory that has 
ever worked for me?  I still think that Avery has a better claim to 
the position, personally.  I'm not prepared to abandon the 
hovercraft.  But I do concede that Dead Fourth Man Third Nott has a 
lot going for him."

"I have wanted to float my duckie since my arrival," Ginger 
said.  "But I wanted to know if it is seaworthy, and I ask you, if 
you please, to point out any holes in its rubber."

Cindy snickered.

"Well, I don't see any," said Elkins.  "It looks water-tight to me.  
But I'm sure that someone will think of something.  They always do, 
you know," she sighed.  "Even when their objections make no sense.  
They still always do."


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

Elkins

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

Hypothetic Alley:

http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/faq/hypotheticalley.html

Inish Alley:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?
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