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

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 89660

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" <naama_gat at h...> 
wrote:
 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. 

Jen: This is a very compelling theory! An attempt to break the 
memory charm on the Longbottoms explains their condition more 
thoroughly than the explanation given of repeated Crucios (or they 
endured both). 

I'm wondering about Neville, though. He would still be a baby at the 
time of his parent's attack and unable to really understand any 
complex secrets. From the scene in GOF where Neville turns white 
watching Fake!Moody and the spiders, I'm wondering if the memory 
charm wasn't put on him AFTER the torture, which he witnessed. Even 
a baby would sense the tension of hearing his mother and father 
screaming. We already know Harry is capable of recalling the scene 
of his parent's murder, albeit with the help of Dementors, at around 
the same age.

That still leaves the question of who charmed Neville if it was 
after the torture, when his parents were incapable--my vote is Gran!

Jen Reese