Longbottom's torture (was: Snape and Lily and Florence and Ginny and.. .)

[Arya]

No: HPFGUIDX 80884

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, RSFJenny19 at a... wrote:
> KathyK wrote:
> Crouch Jr. and the Lestranges torture the Longbottoms into insanity 
> AFTER Voldemort's AK curse backfires on Harry.  They do it because 
> they think the Longbottoms have information on Voldemort's 
> whereabouts.  Read GoF Chapter 30 (p 603 of the US paperback ed.)


> 
> Now Jenny here:
> 
> I wonder if that is really the reason the Longbottoms were tortured. I'm not 
> trying to say the LV sent them, but DD said that the information gotten from 
> the Longbottoms was none too reliable, given their condition.  He was 
referring 
> to who did it to them, but this can also mean that their information on *why* 
> they were tortured was also unreliable.
>

I think you have to be careful-- the assumption that they were tortured 
because the DE thought they had knowledge of Voldemort's whereabouts is 
conjecture, at best.  I think it may also be a possibility that they wanted to 
know where someone else is---maybe someone who had disappeared...such 
as a certain little baby named Harry?  



> And even if it were the reason why, what made Bellatrix and Co. think they 
> had this information? Was Frank there the night the Potters were killed? The 
> reason I think of Frank is because he was the focus of the torture, and they 
> moved on to Alice when he wouldn't talk.

To go with my possibility that the longbottoms were tortured for info on Harry's 
whereabouts, I cite the yet-unnamed godmother of Harry.  I think it may be 
possible, to assume that whoever his godmother is, she was a contemporary 
of Lily and James, female (duh), and also currently not around or else she 
would have been revealed to Harry.  The only person thus far fitting this 
criteria, is Alice Longbottom.  Why wouldn't anyone have told Harry about 
this?  Well, who wants to tell the poor boy, yet another person who was to 
have been a parental figure is  irretreivably gone--possibly because of him?

If it were known that Harry Potter was alive, yet orphaned, after his "defeat' of 
Voldemort, it would likely be easy to find out in public records who the 
godparents were.  Sirius was in Azkaban shortly after the defeat and 
Dumbledore decided to use the blood link to Petunia, but DE wouldn't know 
about this.  They may, however know, who Harry's godmother had been and 
have went to them to find Harry.  (Or even neville, who also may have been 
hidden away at the time for his own protection, as the threat of the known 
prophecy still lingered.)

> While I'm heading in the direction of the night the Potters were killed, can 
> anyone kindly direct me to the consensus that was reached about how the 
heck 
> DD knew they had been attacked?????

Still a mystery, but many theories....See the Lexicon for the theories.


> ~RSFJenny~
\

Arya