LV's Choice: Potters or Longbottoms or Both?

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 99105

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eustace_Scrubb" <dk59us at y...> 
wrote:
> 
<snip> 
> 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.
> 

For your theory to be correct, we must assume that the Longbottoms 
were attacked almost immediately after the Potters' death, since 
within a day or two it was known all over the WW that Voldemort had 
been vanquished by Harry Potter. But according to canon, the 
Longbottoms were attacked a long time (years) after Voldemort's 
downfall. 

My theory about why the DEs targeted the Longbottoms is also 
speculative and relates to their job as Aurors:

We know that DD and others in the WW didn't believe that Voldemort 
had been truly vanquished. It makes sense, then, that there would be 
aurors assigned specifically to find where he was hiding, what 
exactly had happened to him, etc. In fact, it doesn't make sense not 
to have done so, when we know that there was a sustained, years-long 
effort to round up DEs. If there were such aurors, the Lestranges et 
al. would of course try to find information regarding Voldemort from 
them. They might have had many connections with the MoM, but we are 
certain of one - Crouch Jr. was the son of one of the most powerful 
MoM officials, and could easily find out who were the aurors assigned 
to find Voldemort. 

So, my theory is that the Longbottoms were attacked because they were 
the aurors (or some of them) whose mission was to find Voldemort. 


Naama