A different interpretation of the prophecy

[boyd_smythe]

No: HPFGUIDX 103897

> smartone wrote:
> <snip> <
> After all, we are still slightly unclear as to what happened to 
Neville's parents, except that they were both tortured into insanity.  
(I forget why exactly, but werent they looking for information?).  
Maybe they also wanted to hit the other baby, just out of spite or 
something. <snip>
> "smartone"

boyd:
Most of the following has been said before by others, but I have a 
couple of new conjectures. But first the quick background:

In the Pensieve scene in GoF, we find out that Neville's parents were 
tortured *after* the fall of LV at GH. We also see that Bellatrix and 
Barty Jr were sent to Azkaban for it, along with two other DEs.

But IIRC, nowhere does anyone explicitly admit to doing that specific 
torturing nor why they did it. We have to trust that Barty Sr got the 
right foursome (likely since only Barty Jr protested and he is later 
revealed to be a faithful DE) and we are left to guess at why the 
torture took place.

Which raises the age-old question: why did these DEs torture the 
Longbottoms *after* the fall of LV? JKR could have just made this 
happen before his fall if there was nothing more sinister going on, 
right?

It just doesn't make sense that the DEs are trying to find and kill 
Neville, the possible subject of the prophecy; LV is gone, assumed by 
many to be dead.

And why did JKR spend so many valuable pages dancing around *not* 
telling us what happened and why, but instead giving us enough clues 
to *guess*?

Classic JKR misdirection.

I like the following alternatives:
- The Longbottoms were spies for LV who turned on the DEs after the 
fall of LV and were caught and tortured for it by the 4 faithful DEs. 
Sure, they loved Neville, but they also hated mixed-bloods (being 
purebloods themselves) and therefore supported LV.
- Neville's granny was a secret DE or spy for LV who was discovered by 
his parents after LVs fall, and she orchestrated their removal via 
Cruciatus and perhaps a long-term memory charm, which may have hit 
Neville as well.
- The Longbottoms discovered something even more central to the DEs 
than LV--such as the source of his powers. They stumbled upon 
information about how he became the all powerful dark lord, 
information that included the secrets about Salazar Slytherin and his 
plans to rid the world of mixed bloods. I think Salazar started this 
whole series in motion eons ago and that he is the HBP (a secret known 
only to a few DEs and the Longbottoms), see my recent SSHARP OWW 
posts.

My favorite is the last, obviously, and I'm desperately searching for 
the time to put together a canonical defense of it. But only if you're 
interested.

A quickie here, though. Smartone also said:
> Yet her "extremely carefully" worded prophecy uses "either" and 
"neither." Could it then be read as "and EITHER (Harry or Neville) 
must die at the hand of the OTHER (Voldemort) for NEITHER (Harry nor 
Neville) can live while the OTHER (Voldemort) survives" ? <

boyd here again: if Slytherin is the real villain and inhabits Tom 
Riddle, then we could read the prophecy as "and EITHER (Tom Riddle or 
Slytherin) must die at the hand of the OTHER (Harry) for NEITHER (Tom 
nor Salazar) can live while the OTHER (Harry) survives"? So when Harry 
survived the AK, he sealed the fate of either Tom or Salazar. Perhaps 
the AK still must take one of their spirits, but has yet to be 
directed by Harry.

--boyd
crossing the fine line between crazy-like-a-fox and just plain crazy