Perchance to dream...

[a_reader2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 97603

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote (about the possibility of Bellatrix being 
at GH):
> 
> Problem.
> Why then would she be among the Crucio Crowd at the Longbottom's
> trying to find out where Voldy was and what had happened to him? 
> She'd already know.  So unless Alice and Frank were victims of sheer
> spite and not as the incident is recounted in the books it probably
> wasn't her.
> 

Carolyn:
Well, there are two references to what the DE's were doing at the 
Longbottoms. 

The first is what Harry sees in the Pensieve courtroom scene, where 
Crouch Sr says: 'The four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror -
 Frank Longbottom - and  subjecting him to the Cruciatus curse, 
believing him to have knowledge of the present whereabouts of your 
exiled master..'

The second is what DD says to Harry afterwards (referring to the 
Longbottoms): 'He and his wife were tortured for information about 
Voldemort's whereabouts after he lost his powers..'

To my mind, neither of these are inconsistent with what Bellatrix 
might have seen and understood at Godric's Hollow. There would have 
been a flash of green light and the characteristic rushing sound of 
the AK, and then her cuddly favourite disappears. She knows the 
effect of the curse (unmarked but dead body), but there has been no 
mention of Voldie's body remaining in the house, so she knows he must 
be still around somewhere. Hence, she and the rest of them begin 
their search immediately ('we alone tried to find him'), and for some 
reason which we don't yet know, sought out the Longbottoms.

Barry:
Doubtful if Voldy cackles; doesn't match the image, somehow. A low
evil chuckle would be more in his line. "Cackles" usually depicts
someone decrepit, mad, female or any combination thereof.

Comb the canon. We need to find the phantom cackler.

Carolyn:
Alas, cackle-ometer in hand, after an exhausting tour of the WW, I 
find that virtually all the female characters screech and cackle 
shrilly when under pressure (and a few men as well eg Avery). JKR 
clearly ran out of adjectives at some point. Keen as I am to get 
Molly somehow, not even her shrieks can be forced into the semblance 
of a case on this one. My money's still on dear Bella on her night 
out with the lads.