Longbottoms/Lestranges/Bagman/Lockhart (was: Re: JKR's cryptic answer)

[Barry Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 119806

A bit rushed at the moment, but couldn't let this thread pass without 
throwing in a few thoughts.

Mostly it's shuffling bits of the jigsaw around seeing if any fit 
together.

The Lestranges weren't after Neville, they were after his parents.

Interesting that JKR should reveal this little snippet.
It had been stated before in canon, so why the emphasis now? Though the 
association with prophecy is something new; previously we'd been led to 
believe that it was because the DEs wanted to know what had happened to 
Voldy.

Of course, I've got a theory or two about the Longbottoms, stashed 
behind the arras. And in it's own meandering way it's associated with 
prophecies. You may remember it, it's the one that suggests that poor 
Alice is trying to communicate with Neville - but she's in a pretty bad 
way. Something keeps trying to surface in her memory - Droobles Gum? 
No; the bubbles from Droobles Gum? No; it's prophecy globes. The shape 
and appearance of one makes an association with the other. She keeps 
hoping Neville will make the connection.

If this is a proper reading, there's something about a prophecy globe 
that's important for Alice to pass on to Neville.

Now JKR has made it a bit more difficult; the Lestranges were not in on 
the secret of the Prophecy. Were the Longbottoms? Possibly so. And what 
is it about the Longbottoms (Frank and Alice mark you, not Neville) 
that touches on the Prophecy? Assuming, that is, that the Prophecy in  
question is the one DD replays at the end of OoP - likely, but not a 
total certainty.

The court scenes Harry sees in the Pensieve are interesting, all  sorts 
of theories can  be cobbled together from bits we see here. That young 
Barty being involved in the DE attack on Frank and Alice was 
deliberately contrived to bring down Crouch Snr and bring in DE 
friendly Fudge as Minister. (Suggested last year IIRC and later 
expanded to include the possible ambitions of Lucius.) But there's 
someone else at those trials - Bagman.

He's accused of passing information to DEs.  Just what the information 
was we don't know, though it might be suggestive that DD's memories of 
his trial (although held on a  different day) are in there with the 
Lestranges and Barty Jnr - both concerning the Longbottom atrocity.  
Years later he's also around for the Goblet conspiracy - and Winky 
considers him a "very bad wizard".

It's DD that *chooses* which memories he puts in the Pensieve. This is 
during the TWT, when if DD has two neurones to rub together must 
suspect that there's something very strange and possibly dangerous to 
Harry going on. It's odds on that his does, he tells us that  he uses 
the Pensieve to review/consider/examine memories. And it's the key 
people involved in the TWT that he's looking at, remembering things 
about. Bertha is in there too - she just happens to work for Bagman at 
the Ministry, and just happens to go (sent?) to the area where Voldy 
just happens to be hiding out and just happens to have information 
regarding the TWT in  her head. How convenient for Voldy.

So adding two and two together and coming up with the number I first 
thought of - "sent" the Lestranges. Well 'sent' can mean 'instructed to 
go' by someone in some sort of position of authority (the Voldy deputy 
option) or it can mean 'to point someone in the direction of' (the 
friendly helper option). IMO Bagman could fit the latter - I certainly 
think he's a Voldy supporter and maybe an actual DE.

What information could Bagman have that would interest a Voldy  spy 
already inside the Ministry? Bagman wasn't working at the Ministry 
then, though he had expectations - he says that Rookwood offered to 
help. Yet it was Old Rookwood - a friend of Bagman's father - he was 
passing the information to. (Are Rookwood and Old Rookwood the same 
person? Or two generations of the same family?)  Augustus Rookwood 
(according to the Lexicon) worked in the Dept. of Mysteries, broke out 
of Azkaban, fought in the Ministry battle and probably knew more about 
prophecies than Bagman is ever likely to know.

Is Bagman just an associate of young Barty or does he have a more 
significant role? And what information could he possibly have had that 
someone working in the MoM didn't have?

While we're looking at the Longbottom affair - they are supposed to 
have lost their memories/sanity while under torture. All very possible. 
But I keep remembering who is the maestro of the Obliviate! spell - 
Lockhart. A devious, ambitious, vain, unscrupulous creep. Zapping 
helpless people would be just up his street. Could he have been 
involved? If he was it would imply that the DEs thought it best that 
the Longbottoms didn't remember something important - besides the 
identity of their torturers, that is. I never have been able to figure 
out why Bella didn't kill them, it's unlikely it would have bothered 
her much.

OK; there's the bits. Can anyone find any way to fit 'em together?

Kneasy