[HPforGrownups] Re: Sneaking suspicion about Neville's parents...

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 72003

logic alley Said:
>>> Dumbledore tells Harry they were tortured *after* Harry defeated
Voldemort, by the Lestranges who were trying to get them to tell
them where Voldemort had gone.

That is a very strange explanation when you think about it.   So,
there are two possibilities:
1) Dumbledore isn't telling the truth

2) It is true -- but that raises a lot of questions - like, why
would they think the Longbottoms or anyone for that matter knew?
The way we get the story "Voldemort is gone" - he's just ... gone.
Then people assume for 10 years that he's dead.   So why are the
Deatheaters running around trying to torture people to find out
where he is?

And why the Longbottoms?   Is it because of the prophesy?

Where did Voldemort go after the encounter with Harry and how did he
get there?

I agree it is more believable that the Longbottoms would resist
torture to the point of insanity to protect Neville than to not
reveal something that they never knew.   But was it their choice?
If the Lestranges just didn't stop torturing them.<<<

Lady Macbeth:
I think what's notable in this case is that it was Voldemort's most loyal
supporters, the "extremists" if you will, who went on trial for torturing
the Longbottoms - The Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr.  That having been
said, it may not have been all that odd that they were the ones tortured -
they were both prominent Aurors *and* in the Order of the Phoenix.

We now know due to the prophecy that Harry and Neville both fit the prophecy
description.  That suggests that both Lily and James Potter and Frank and
Alice Longbottom had thrice opposed Voldemort.  At the time, it was apparent
that the Order of the Phoenix both were Voldemort's biggest opposition AND
knew the most about him.

So - it comes to the night that Voldemort disappeared.  The Death Eaters's
list of suspects for information would be:

Mad Eye Moody - Auror, Living
Albus Dumbledore - Hogwarts Headmaster, Living
Dedalus Diggle - Living
Marlene McKinnon - Deceased
Frank and Alice Longbottom - Aurors, Living
Emmeline Vance - Living
Remus Lupin - Werewolf, Living
Benjy Fenwick - Deceased
Edgar Bones - Deceased
Sturgis Podmore - Living
Caradoc Dearborn - Vanished, Presumed Dead
Rubeus Hagrid - Hogwarts Groundskeeper, Living
Elphias Doge - Living
Gideon Prewett - Deceased
Fabian Prewett - Deceased
Aberforth Dumbledore - Living
Dorcas Meadowes - Deceased
Sirius Black - Living
Lily and James Potter - Deceased
Peter Pettigrew - Spy Living in Hiding

Cutting out the deceased narrows the list down to Moody, Albus and Aberforth
Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Emmeline Vance,
Remus Lupin, Sturgis Podmore, Rubeus Hagrid, Elphias Doge, Sirius Black and
Peter Pettigrew.

Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore can reasonably be crossed from the list of
targets - most Death Eaters probably wouldn't have attempted a shot at
Dumbledore or his kin at that time.  Sirius Black was on his way to Azkaban,
Peter Pettigrew had gone underground.

Moody, Diggle, the Longbottoms, Vance, Lupin, Podmore and Doge were
potential targets.  We know for certain that Voldemort's followers knew that
Moody and the Longbottoms were Aurors, as Aurors work for the Ministry of
Magic.

If we take it that they narrowed their targets down to Moody and the
Longbottoms as being the ones who would most likely know what happened to
Voldemort, then it's possible that both Moody and the Longbottoms were set
up for attack.  However, we know that Moody is cautious to the point of
paranoia because of the number of attacks on his life, and that the
Longbottoms had the preoccupation of a baby to worry about.  The Longbottoms
were the easier target at the time.

It may or may not explain EVERYTHING, but in this scenario the Longbottoms
might have just been the unfortunate victims of a process of elimination
conducted by radicals.

-Lady Macbeth



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