TBAY: Longbottoms and memory charms

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 132310

Captain Neri, from his place at the helm of the ELKINS AVENGED, looks
through his ominiculars at the new ship who has the nerve to invade
these dangerous waters. "Man the cannons!" he bellows at his crew.
"Lets find out if the fish of Theory Bay like to eat cat poo!"

Dungrollin wrote <snipped>:
> This is the important bit ---->
> 4. The state in which we currently find the Longbottoms, sounds 
> uncannily like the state of Bertha Jorkins after Voldy had finished 
> breaking through her memory charm (but before he disposed of her, 
> obviously).<-----

Neri:
I think "sounds uncannily like" is a bit of a strong expression here,
since all we know about Bertha's state is Voldy's words: "she was fit
for nothing after my questioning, quite useless" (GoF, Ch. 1). Voldy's
criteria for Bertha's fitness and usefulness might not be the same as
Bertha's own criteria. Not a problematic point exactly, but making it
the main canon of a new ship several days before the hurricane strikes
me as a bit unsafe. Granted, I'm hardly the person to talk.  

Dungrollin wrote:
> But what about Crouch Senior? We never saw DD and Crouch together, 
> except in the Pensieve, where they hardly had the opportunity to 
> give us clues about their relationship. I don't necessarily think 
> they particularly liked each other, but they may well have shared a 
> good deal of information about fighting Voldy. The head of the Order 
> of the Phoenix, and the head of the Department of Magical Law 
> Enforcement exchanging information and working together. Sounds 
> plausible, right?

Neri:
Another small problem I see with this is that if DD and Crouch Sr.
worked together, then DD would know (or at least highly suspect) how
Crouch Jr. came by the information about the Longbottoms. So why did
DD say to Harry in the GoF Pensieve chapter that he had no idea if
Crouch Jr. was guilty or not? 

Dungrollin wrote: 
> To be honest, the only bit I'm sure of is that Crouch Junior and 
> Bella and co tortured their way through a memory charm, which had 
> been placed on Frank and Alice.  The rest is all trying to make 
> sense of it.
> 

Neri:
If it is found that Frank and Alice are Memory Charmed, then what
about Neville? Either he was MCharmed too (why?!) or his memory
problems are merely psychological with nothing magical about them.
That last possibility, IMO, would come out rather lame. Has JKR been
playing Neville's poor memory since forever only to tell us in the end
that it's *his parents* that received the memory charm, while Neville
himself is actually fine, thanks? Nope, *if* Frank and Alice are
indeed MCharmed, I think it strongly implies that Neville is MCharmed
too.  
 
So the options I see are:
 
1. Neither Neville nor his parents are MCharmed. Frank and Alice are
incapacitated "merely" because of torture trauma (probably the most
likely option, but then what *is* the Longbottoms' story, and what's
going on with the bubblegum wrappers?).
 
2. Both Neville and his parents are MCharmed (requires an explanation
how Neville got it too, and also why is Neville's charm much weaker
than that of his parents).
 
3. Neville is MCharmed but his parents are merely traumatized (still
requires an explanation why was Neville MCharmed, and also how is he
going to recover).
 
4. Neville's memory problems are completely natural but his parents
were MCharmed (as I wrote above this would be rather lame plotting IMO).

5. Neville's parents were treated with Forgetfulness Potion and
Neville got it from them through the wrappers (the ELKINS AVENGED
scenario. This explains why Neville got it too, why his memory
problems are weaker than his parents', what is the role of the
wrappers and how Frank and Alice can recover fast enough to tell us
their secret).


Neri,
getting really fed up with ship biscuits and tuna, and wishing the
hurricane would be here already.