Longbottoms' memory charm (was Re: Ginny Weasley, Neville, thestrals

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 89602

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "elfundeb2" <elfundeb at c...> 
wrote:

<snip>
> 
> What the speculation doesn¡¦t answer, though, is who would have 
given 
> Neville a memory charm and why.  I think Neville¡¦s parents¡¦ 
insanity 
> is part of this same mystery.  The pieces we have now just don¡¦t 
add 
> up.  Why were the Longbottoms left alive?  Surely their torturers 
> can¡¦t have assumed that they would be rendered permanently insane 
> from a little Crucio.  There¡¦s no evidence elsewhere in the books 
to 
> suggest that this was a known effect of the curse.  Do we *really* 
> know that Cruciatus caused their insanity?   

I've always understood that the tormentors were caught red handed, 
and that's why the Longbottoms were found alive.

> 
> And why aren¡¦t they getting better?  If intensive remedial potions 
> and charms can produce improvement in Gilderoy Lockhart, surely 
they 
> would help wizards as talented as the Longbottoms.  
> 
> One of my old pre-OOP theories was that it was an overwrought 
memory 
> charm that caused Frank and Alice Longbottom to lose their sanity.  
> The reappearance of Lockhart on the same ward where they¡¦re 
> imprisoned seems to reinforce that theory.  My alternative theory 
> was that the Longbottoms lost their sanity after being tortured (as 
> Bertha Jorkins was) in order to break through a memory charm placed 
> on them earlier, and that like Bertha¡¦s, their ¡§minds and bodies 
> were damaged beyond repair.¡¨   Maybe the Lestranges extracted this 
> information (though I can¡¦t figure out why the Longbottoms would 
> have already been memory charmed), or maybe someone in the 
> Department of Magical Law Enforcement did it in order to learn the 
> identities of the Longbottoms¡¦ torturers and satisfy the public¡¦s 
> demand for convictions.  In the latter case, it would be prudent to 
> cast the charm on Neville as well, to erase his memory of his 
> parents after the torture.  And if the DMLE was responsible, they 
> would have good reason to be continuing to cover up, which would 
> explain why the Longbottoms aren¡¦t getting any better.

It doesn't make sense to me that the Longbottoms' insanity is due to 
a memory charm placed on them *after* they were tortured. It's true 
that Lockhart lost his mind following the misplaced memory charm, but 
I see it as due to the fact that he didn't mean to direct it towards 
himself and that the wand he used was pretty much broken down. 
However, we learn from the Lockhart incident that it is possible to 
lay a memory charm on oneself. This ties in to my my pet theory 
regarding the Longbottoms' insanity: that they laid a memory charm on 
themselves, to protect whatever crucial piece of information the DEs 
were desperate to recover regarding Voldemort. It was the attempt to 
break through this memory charm that made them insane (which we know 
happens because of the Bertha Jorkins story). In the same vein, it 
was his parents who memory charmed Neville, both in order to protect 
him, and to protect the information he might have absorbed from them. 


<snip>


Naama