Neville/Memory Charms

[Jaimee]

No: HPFGUIDX 56975

Lately there has been a lot of talk about Neville and the possibility 
of him being with seeing/hearing distance of his parents at the time 
of their torture....


Kelly said:
I had always assumed he was an infant like Harry, which made me 
wonder why people thought he wouldn't have been killed, let alone 
remembered anything.  Then I got to thinking that his parents were 
found alive and their tormentors were captured, so the DE's didn't 
get to finish their dirty deeds.  Which left me with Neville's age at 
the time.

<snip> If these particular trials were held not long after 
Voldemort's disappearance, then we can put Neville between 1-2 years 
old. Later, we see Crouch Jr.'s trial for the torture of the 
Longbottoms.  Harry places his age at around 19.  So this trial would 
then have had to be 3-5 years after the first batch, giving a little 
bit of leeway for age miscalculations on both ends.  If this is the 
case, Neville was anywhere between 4-7 years old.  Let's say 5 just 
for the fun of it.   This would be long enough after all the post-war 
trials that the WW would have been feeling safe.  This would also 
make Neville old enough to be able to remember what transpired if he 
was actually at home at the time, and not with his Gran. 

(Side note there:  I sometimes wonder if Neville was even at home, 
because I could see the DE's easily killing him or torturing him just 
to get at his parents and maybe to make them talk if they were there 
to gather information.  Therefore, either they had a really good 
hiding spot for him in the house, or he was not home at the time.)



Now from J:

I am wondering why it matters so much what age Neville was at the 
time of the attack??? Why don't we take a little look at another 
wizard whose parents suffered at the hands of LV--meaning, of course, 
Harry :-D

Harry WAS at home when his parents were murdered. Harry was 
approximately the same age as Neville (probably younger) when each of 
their respective horrific events took place. And Harry DOES remember 
certain things from the attack. (1) In the first few chapters of 
PS/SS it is revealed to us that Harry remembers the blinding green 
light and LV's laugh. And (2) in PoA the Dementors cause Harry to 
HEAR the events that took place on that night in Godric Hollow.

So probably a great clue as to whether or not Neville was home during 
his parent's attack is to pay attention to how he reacted to the 
dementors on the train--Ch. 5 PoA Hardback US edition...

OK. Soon after Harry comes to when the dementor is sent away, "Harry 
looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back 
at him, both very pale." Now, we all know that dementors the 
dementors affect those with unhappy pasts more than others. These are 
the only two that JKR notes as "pale," and both definitely have 
unhappy pasts. (Ginny with the how she was influenced by the diary 
and Neville with his parents.) Yes, it could just be out of concern 
for Harry that the are "pale"...or it could be because they tend to 
be portrayed as weaker characters than the threesome. But I think the 
paleness was the direct effect of the dementors.

Continuing on...later texts Neville comments on the Dementors. He 
says, "It was horrible...did you feel how cold it got when they came 
in." Neville makes no mention to hearing or remember anything unhappy 
from his past. Then on the following page, the text point out that 
Ginny "was huddled in a corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt." 
No more mention of Neville. So did Ginny suffer more from the 
dementors than Neville??

Alright :-D Here are some conclusions we can draw from looking at 
this text: (1) Neville definitely does have something in his past 
that the dementors bring forth--otherwise he wouldn't have been so 
pale. (2) It is not something as effective or affective--both would 
work, right?--as Harry's or Neville would have been passed out on the 
floor as well. (And it might not even have been as effective or 
affective as Ginny's, judging by their reactions. Unless Neville is 
made of tougher stuff than we realize!)

So...my guess would be that Neville WAS NOT home when his parents 
were tortured. If he were, he would've felt as much of the dementors 
effect as Harry. Probably what made him look so "pale" is visiting 
his parent in St. Mungos, seeing the state they're in, and knowing 
what put them there.

Those are my thought on Neville!

~J
Who agrees with Harry that Neville deserves more a great deal more 
sympathy and support that he appears to be given because it would be 
really hard to have parents who don't remember you (...which would be 
my theory as to why Neville is the way he is...)