LV's Choice: Potters or Longbottoms or Both?

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 99011

I'll apologize in advance if this has been brought up before...

We know that Voldemort knew enough of the prophecy that he was aware
that a child born as the 7th month died to parents who had thrice
defied him _could_ vanquish him.  Apparently he deduced that both
Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom _could_ fit that description.

We know that he killed James and Lily Potter and marked Harry Potter
as the one described in the prophecy, losing his body in the process.
 Dumbledore tells Harry that Voldemort decided Harry "the half-blood
like himself" was the more likely danger and that's why he went to
Godric's Hollow.

We also know that Neville's parents were tortured to insanity by
Bellatrix LeStrange and company sometime shortly after Godric's Hollow
(how long after, though? days? weeks? I can't tell).  Allegedly this
was done because the Death Eaters were frantic to find Voldemort in
the wake of Godric's Hollow.

Why did Bellatrix and the others believe that the Longbottoms would
have any useful information? Well, here's an idea...probably not
original and maybe easily refuted...but anyway:

Dumbledore at least seems to assume that Voldemort knew about both
children.  Now I know that Voldemort regularly does things that seem
illogical, but I would think Voldemort would actually want to
eliminate both children, not try to _guess_ which one he should kill.
I mean, there are two candidates, not a thousand.  If he can kill one
infant, two wouldn't be that much harder.  And it would be so much
tidier.

The only problem is that he can't kill them at the same time; one has
to be first (yes, I know time turners could solve that problem, but
let's assume that time turners are not going to be in rampant use in
the series).  So Voldemort plans to kill the Potters first, then the
Longbottoms and he told at least some of the Death Eaters that he
would be doing this.  But he probably did not confide in even his most
trusted followers _why_ he wanted to kill these two families; why give
them the idea that he might be vulnerable?  There was ample reason to
set an example by these murders, as both sets of parents had been
thorns in his side.

Of course, nobody counted on the rebound of the AK spell that
disembodied Voldemort.  The Death Eaters knew that the Potters were
dead, their house destroyed--all signs of their Dark Lord's success;
yes their child had survived, but they probably didn't see the
significance of that.  The Longbottoms on the other hand were alive
and well...how could that be, unless they had somehow
defeated/captured/killed Voldemort when he got to them?  This is why
the LeStranges and Barty Crouch Jr. tortured the Longbottoms (rather
than just killing them, for example).  By the time it became clear
that Frank and Alice had no information, the Crucio curses had driven
them mad.

Now if this scenario makes sense, it could make Harry's selection over
Neville more a matter of random selection or even convenience, rather
than a calculated choice of the "half-blood" over the "pure-blood." 
It doesn't make Harry any less the chosen one of the prophecy, but it
could explain why the Longbottoms were tortured.  We could also
speculate that it creates even stronger ties between Harry and
Neville, for though Harry is the marked one, Neville's personality was
also marked by the same events.  

Any thoughts on this? Is this off the wall?

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb