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

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 119776


Snow:
> I'll try again with a thought I had in a post some months ago, 
> pertaining to this subject, that Harry was left with the 
> Longbottoms for safe keeping during the missing twenty-four hours, 
> which led the remaining death-eaters definite cause to 
> investigate. 
> 
> Where else would Harry be safe and well taken care of, after his 
> parent's death, but an Aurors house, who by the way just had a 
> child themselves that knew Harry's parents being in the Order 
> together. 

Jen: I keep forgetting the missing 24 hours because part of me 
worries this is another 'maths' problem on JKR's part. I do hope 
there's a significance there, and like you said later, Hagrid might 
need a little help taking care of an infant!

Snow:
> Everything went flawlessly that day into the night
but
 someone 
> knew the whereabouts of the child that brought down their Master, 
> Voldemort. The people protecting this child, who disposed of their 
> Master, surely would know something?

Jen: There's a hitch, though. In my mind JKR was indicating the 
Longbottoms, unlike Bella & Co. were aware of the prophecy and the 
possibilities for Neville as a target. Surely they would also be 
protected by the Fidelius? Unless they refused. As aurors, perhaps 
they made a choice *not* to go into hiding and to continue to fight 
the good fight. That's pretty risky though, with Neville's life on 
the line. 

Snow: 
> Someone in the ranks of Voldemort knew that Harry, the resilient 
> child, had been taken to the Longbottoms for protection after the 
> incident at Godric's Hollow. It would have, however, been 
> assumable to Voldemort's mates that anyone who had been given such 
> a high priority task (as to take care of the child that destroyed 
> Voldemort) would also know some circumstances of the whereabouts 
> of the victim. The Longbottoms surely would have been privy to 
> information of what had happened to their Master, right? No, they 
> weren't, which was ingenious of the General in charge, 
> Dumbledore.  (It's rough being a General)

Jen: This would be highly disappointing to me if Dumbledore 
essentially set up the Longbottoms without any means of protecting 
them. He would be risking not only the Longbottoms lives, but 
Neville's and Harry's as well if he sent Harry to a location 
unprotected by the Fidelius or other means.

Now if the Longbottoms *were* in a protected location, that means 
another betrayl by a Secret Keeper. That would be a little redundant 
after the Pettigrew betrayl, but more palatable than the first 
option.

One last possibility: Harry did stay with the Longbottoms, but the 
DE visit happened several weeks or months after that fateful night, 
long enough for the Longbottoms to be out of hiding.

Snow:
> Lucius looks too obvious of a suspect to inform the death-eater 
> troops of his findings of information on Harry but he is of course 
> suspect. I'm not quite certain who I would attribute the "Harry 
> whereabouts" to be, but it is extremely doubtful, if not 
> impossible that it was Snape. 

Jen: I wish we had a better candidate than Lucius. There's not much 
suspense there. And if JKR hadn't said the Lestranges were "sent" to 
the Longbottoms, I would go on believing it was Bella who engineered 
the whole thing. After all, in the Pensieve scene in GOF, she yells 
out, "The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch!...he will reward us 
beyond any of his other supporters! *We alone were faithful! We 
alone tried to find him!*" (emphasis mine) (US, chap. 30, p. 596)

Do you think all this was another editing error on JKR's part or did 
someone really 'send' them? Cause by the time their trial rolled 
around, it appeared to be after most of the other DE trials; Crouch 
Sr. was 'gaunter and grayer' than before. Hmmm..

Jen