JKR's cryptic answer: Who sent the Lestranges to the Longbottoms?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 119715


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" 
<stevejjen at e...> wrote:
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> Spoiler here for anyone not reading JKR updates!
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> Rumours Section:
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> Q: The Lestanges were sent after Neville to kill him.
> 
> JKR: "No, they weren't, they were very definitely sent after 
> Neville's parents. I can't say too much about this because it 
> touches too closely on the prophecy and how many people 
knew about 
> it, but the Lestranges were not in on the secret."
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> 
> 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? LV was not giving orders anymore, so who 
was second in  command?<

Pippin:
Who indeed? This makes it even more unlikely that Voldemort's 
second in command, who was thought in PoA to be Sirius (ch's 
3 and 10), was actually Peter Pettigrew. At that time Peter was 
already presumed dead. 

It's unlikely to have been Lucius Malfoy, because Voldemort 
accused him of having done nothing to help his master return. 

It's unlikely that the attack on the Longbottoms was a set-up 
planned to discredit the Crouch family, though this is a clever 
idea. That could have been done without implicating Bella and 
the rest of her gang. 

No, I think the purpose of the attack on the Longbottoms was as 
given, to get information on where Voldemort was, by someone 
who could not go looking personally or ask himself. "Chained 
these twelve years"...and if it's not Peter, well, it has to be
Lupin, doesn't it?

Pippin