why did Voldie attack the Potter on Halloween?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 116557


Vinnia wrote:
> My friend and I had just had a discussion about
> halloween in the book. She wondered why Voldie chose
> to attack the Potters on halloween. She's convinced
> that it has something to do with Nearly Headless
> Nick's deathday. But we can't think of why! 
> 
Hannah: I love a good conspiracy theory, especially about GH, but 
I've always thought that JKR chose Halloween simply because it's the 
day traditionally associated with witches and wizards (I'm sure it's 
more complex, but that's how kids and most adults think of it).  
Something significant always happens on Halloween, in every book.  
Doesn't it say somewhere (don't have my books on hand) that the 
Potters had only been hidden there a week before it happened?  That 
could mean that it just took that long for Pettigrew to tell LV, and 
for the Dark Lord to find a window in his busy schedule. 

Having said that, I like the suggestions that maybe LV chose that 
day because the magic world was likely to be distracted, 
celebrating/ on holiday (though celebrations would presumably have 
been much lower key given the times).  This would tie in with the 
Halloween's of other books, where people's preoccupation with the 
feast is exploited by Quirrel (letting in the troll) and Riddle 
(launching his first attack).  And both of those are, in one form or 
another, LV.

I don't go along with the whole conception date theory.  How would 
LV have found out?  Would it have been that significant?  If it was, 
wouldn't they have stepped up security on that night?  Plus 
conception takes us into that sensitive subject of sex; I think that 
makes it an unlikely plot point in canon, though of course it is 
possible he was conceived on that date, and we adult fans are free 
to read any significance we like into it.  I just can't see it being 
an important feature in the eventual plot.

Hannah, who hopes that the GH explanation and timing is going to be 
more about the complex and interesting relationships between the 
adult characters, than simply a magical explanation.