When were the Longbottoms attacked? (was Re: Did the Potters know the prophecy?)

[Juli]

No: HPFGUIDX 117440


--- quigonginger <quigonginger at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Ginger replies:
> I'd agree on that last part except for Sirius'
> description in GoF of the Longbottom incident.  
> When the trio visits him in the cave, they 
> start talking about young Barty.  Sirius says,
> (ch.27, p.527 US paperback) "Crouch's son was 
> caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd 
> managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. 
> Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort 
> and return him to power."

Juli: Barty Jr was caught with DEs that managed to stay
out of Azkaban, this doesn't mean he wasn't involved
in the Longbottoms' torture. Bella & Co were torturing
Frank and Alice in order to get some idea where LV
was.

> Sirius was in Azkaban within a couple days of LV's
> demise.  Since Bella was his cousin, he'd have taken 
> special notice of her arrival compared to the arrivals 
> of strangers or near strangers.  I would think that 
> talking one's way out of Azkaban would take a bit of 
> time.  

Yes, but we don't know how long was it between LV
going vapor and Bella going to Azkaban, it may have
been months, since we know it happened long after LV
was gone and everyone felt safe. 

> Earlier in that same paragraph, Sirius said, "When
> Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter 
> of time until Crouch got the top job" (referring to 
> Minister).  "But then something rather unfortunate 
> happened."  
> 
> It's kind of hard to interpret that paragraph. Crouch 
> definitely had supporters for his fight against LV and 
> the DEs; that much is clear.  When LV disappeared, 
> people thought he'd be the next Minister.  How long did 
> it take for them to go from just supporting him to 
> viewing him as the heir-apparent? <snip> 

Juli: During the entire VWI Crouch was favourite for
new MoM, he was a declared enemy of the dark side, he
fought fire with fire, but then after LV was gone and
Crouch Jr was found hanging out with DE, then his
popularity went down. He became a third or fourth for
the MoM, we know DD was the first choice, Fudge was
the second in line, DD didn't want the job so Fudge
got it, and Crouch? Off he goes to the Department of
Int'l Cooperation all because his son's a DE.

> So Lestrange, party of three, had time to talk their
> way out of Azkaban and Barty had time to gather support 
> for Ministerial candidate between the time Harry 
> Vapourflected and the time that the Longbottoms were 
> hit.  Sounds like a bit of time to me, but I could 
> well be reading it wrong.  Thoughts?
 
Juli again: I don't think Barty Jr was with the
Lestranges when he was caught, he could have been with
any other DE but he was convicted with the Lestranges.