[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR's cryptic answer: Who sent the Lestranges to the Longbottoms?

Magda Grantwich mgrantwich at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 11 12:57:41 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 119708


> Jen: Whew! This wasn't what I expected to hear. I've always
> believed  the Lestranges attacked Neville's parents to get 
> information about the prophecy, to get an explanation of why LV 
> turned to vapour at GH.
> 
> But no! The Lestanges 'were not in on the secret' so their visit
> to the Longbottoms was for another mysterious reason. And who sent
> them there? 


Red Hen Publications has an interesting theory - see:
http://www.redhen-publications.com/Potterverse.html page and the
essay "The Minister of Magic - that I agree with.  Once LV was
(apparently) defeated, if not dead, then the most important thing was
to hold the DE gang together and wait for his return or find out what
was happening.  And to keep the DE gang together, they had to take
out Barty "The Terminator" Crouch Sr. as soon as possible.

Red Hen posits that the attack on the Longbottoms was ostensibly to
find out where Voldemort was and/or what happened - that the real
purpose was to cause a huge stink that would embarrass Crouch and
make sure he never became Minister, from which office he would hunt
down and imprison everyone who even might be a DE or Dark Wizard.  

So someone (I'm betting Lucius Malfoy, suddenly thrust into the
position of Interim Leader after a few years as inner circle member
and possibly experiencing his first rush of personal power) organizes
a few true believers into a suicide mission and sets them on the
Longbottoms, who it's possibly known LV had an interest in for an
unknown reason.

As JKR reveals above, apparently the suicide mission themselves were
unaware of the true reason for the action and who can blame Lucius
for not telling them?  God knows what Bellatrix would have babbled on
the stand had she known the truth.  (And of course going to Azkaban
means Lucius doesn't have to put up with her presence in his family
home for a several years - coincidence?)

Magda

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