Lupin is Ever So Evil, Part Two--Replies

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 130765

> Neri: 
> I have always took the "Voldemort's second-in-command" to 
> be a complete fabrication, a typical Daily Prophet catch 
> phrase. 
> 
> Pippin:
> Then what do you make of JKR's statement that the 
> Lestranges were "sent" after the Longbottoms?

Neri again:
This single word "sent" should be considered in the context in which
it appeared, that is, in the rumors section of JKR's site: 

********************************************
http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/rumours.cfm

Rumor: The Lestranges were sent after Neville to kill him.

JKR's answer: No, they weren't, they were very definitely sent after
Neville's parents. I can't say too much about this because it touches
too closely on the prophecy and how many people knew about it, but the
Lestranges were not in on the secret.
********************************************

The word "sent" seems to appear in JKR's answer only because it
appeared in the original rumor (which was probably sent by a fan or
encountered by JKR in some website), while JKR's answer itself is
obviously concerned with other issues she wanted to clarify: that the
Lestranges weren't after Neville and that they didn't know about the
prophecy. In this context, I'd say it's a rather long shot to conclude
that the Lestranges were "sent" by some "second-in-command" who's very
existence is highly doubtful. They could have been sent by somebody
lower in the hierarchy, but who had some key information about the
Longbottoms that the Lestranges didn't have, or by someone higher in
the hierarchy but still not a mysterious "second-in-command" (Lucius
Malfoy, for example).

Having a "second-in-command" strikes me as extremely out-of-character
for Voldy. Such a title implies that if something happens to the
first-in-command, the second-in-command takes his place, an
unthinkable idea for Voldy. The whole organization exists for him
alone. In the graveyard scene he stood in the center, all the DEs
stood around him in a circle, and there wasn't any special room
reserved for a "second-in-command". The most Voldy would allow is
someone like Malfoy being the commander of specific operations, but
Malfoy too stands in the circle with all the other DEs.

> Pippin:
> Why "just one year"? Sirius was twenty-two when he was 
> sent to Azkaban, so Lupin had been out of school four 
> or five years already.

Neri:
I wrote one year because according to Sirius in the Shack Wormtail was
spying for one year before GH. And while Sirius doesn't say how he
came up with this time period, it seems likely that he had heard it
too from the DEs in Azkaban, or he would have been less specific. 

Voldy's words to Wormtail in the graveyard also imply that Wormtail is
a returning member. "You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out
of fear of your old friends (GoF, Ch. 33, p. 649 US)". Why would Voldy
expect any loyalty from an enemy who was caught and bullied to give
information only a week before GH? A page later Voldy adds, after
issuing Wormtail his new silver hand: "may your loyalty never waver
again". Then Wormtail "takes his place in the circle", a place
apparently reserved for him by the other DEs. This suggests he was
already a DE before GH, a rather fast promotion if he did it in a
single week.  

> Pippin:
> A very neat solution is to suppose that Voldemort used 
> the codename "Wormtail" for his spy all along, so that 
> the DE's never knew that Peter and Lupin were two 
> different people.

Neri:
This neat solution doesn't fit very well with the sequence of events.
You suggest Voldemort gave ESE!Lupin the codename "Wormtail" long
before GH. This was in order to confuse the Order, I assume? Then why
did Sirius suspect Lupin but *not* Wormtail? Then a year or so after
that the Potters decided to protect themselves with a Fidelius, and
whom did they choose, very unexpectedly, to be their Secret Keeper?
Wormtail. Was this an amazing coincidence, or is Voldy a seer?

Neri