The Longbottoms (was: Re: OoP Book covers)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 54207

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jenny_ravenclaw" 
<meboriqua at a...> wrote:
<snip>
> We know that Neville's parents are in St. Mungo's now and that when 
> Neville goes to visit them, they don't recognize him.  What if 
there's 
> more to it than that?  If many of us believe that Fudge would have 
> Harry deemed insane, maybe he (or a previous Minister of Magic) sent 
> the Longbottoms away as well.  Maybe they know something that 
someone 
> with a lot of power in the WW doesn't want to be known.  We've seen 
> characters in the Potterverse under all sorts of spells; perhaps the 
> Longbottoms are not really insane but under the Imperius.
> 

Annemehr:
Oh, good -- let's play with this!
Earlier I had proposed a theory that involves Lucius Malfoy.
A recap:
      The Longbottoms were sent to St. Mungo's after being tortured 
      because they truly needed it.  However, although they could have 
      eventually recovered, Lucius Malfoy is bribing someone there to 
      keep them alive but incapacitated (for reasons unknown).  The 
      large contribution to St. Mungo's that Fudge mentions at the Q 
      World Cup is such a bribe (after all, we know that Lucius 
      doesn't actually care about poor ill wizards, now, don't we?).  
      There is a quote in the Rita Skeeter article (in which she 
      suggests Harry is unbalanced) that could come from a wizard in 
      league with Malfoy and up to no good.

Now let's mix Jenny's theory and mine together.  What if Fudge *is* 
the one holding the Longbottoms in St. Mungo's in an artificially 
maintained stupor?  Maybe he's actually blackmailing Lucius Malfoy 
because Malfoy actually had something to do with their torture and 
wasn't caught, or maybe Fudge has an agent at St. Mungo's who 
overheard the Longbottoms, in their distress, raving about something 
incriminating they knew about Malfoy.  Fudge checked it out, realized 
it was true, and has been accepting bribes through his St. Mungo's 
agent ever since, and thus needs to keep the L's alive but helpless.  
Fudge is still somewhat afraid of the formidable Lucius Malfoy, 
however, and tries to mollify him somewhat by getting him prime 
tickets to sporting events and otherwise letting Malfoy exert his 
influence in the MoM.

> We also know, from the few lines of OoP that have been released, 
> Dumbledore will share something important with Harry; something that 
> (I'm guessing) Harry needs and deserves to know.  Perhaps the 
> Longbottoms were more connected to Harry's parents than we thought, 
> and Harry takes it upon himself (as we know he likes to do) to get 
> them out of St. Mungo's.
> 

Annemehr:
Yeah.  The Longbottoms could be very important in the fight against 
Voldemort, and here's idiot Fudge keeping them locked away for the 
sake of some money and a battle of wills with Lucius Malfoy!  And 
Harry goes to get them out -- I hope he does it *with* Neville, 
though.  I've been hoping for more of Neville through three books 
now...


> Or maybe the recent political events here in the US are just making 
me 
> think more about conspiracies...

Huh?
> 
> --jenny from ravenclaw, who thinks Harry on the cover of OoP looks 
> *nothing* like Daniel Radcliffe and who also has always like Mary 
> GrandPre's work with HP ***************************

Agreeing with you there!

Annemehr
who has already emailed Scholastic to inquire about the possibility of 
having T-shirts (black) with the OoP cover on them.  Wonder if I'll 
get any response?