TBAY: ELKINS AVENGED (4 of 4)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 130892

 
> Jen: Bravo, Neri! You deserve some sort of TBAY trophy (or a really 
> stiff drink) for tying together pretty much all the dangling 
> plotlines around the Longbottom torture, Pensieve Four, the 
> Crouches, Fudge....and need I go on? (The Veil, Neville, Gran--oh 
> wait--how does Trevor fit in all this?<g>). 
>

Neri:
No Trevor, sorry <g>. I still wonder about him and also about the 
Mimibulus Mimbeltonia, but I simply didn't have enough details on 
Uncle Algie to play with, so I kept him in the thematic support, with 
an option to be promoted into the plot if some new details are added 
in the beginning of HBP.

Another loose end I didn't manage to tie in is that tea that Neville 
had with Crouch!Moody in GoF. There are of course several optional 
ways to make it fit it into the ELKINS AVENGED, but everything I 
could think of involved at least as much assumptions as solved 
mysteries, so I let it lie for the moment. 

> Jen: 
> I need to re-read and see if there are any holes in the deck or 
> leaks below <beg>, but really, the idea of Fudge's involvement and 
> the Forgetfulness potion is both a very compelling plot-line and a 
> fitting, yet heart-breaking, theory for Neville's forgetfulness 
(and 
> it *is* described as "forgetfulness" when he receives the 
Remembrall 
> in PS/SS). And you've given perhaps my favorite thematic 
explanation 
> for the Longbottoms: Weak, pure-blood bunglers with hearts of gold 
> (my addition <g>). Well, except there's a teeny-tiny hole there in 
> that Gran describes them as 'highly gifted' in OOTP, but then what 
> would we expect her to say? Of course she wants to remember her son 
> as 'highly gifted' given his current condition.

Neri:
I should clarify that I don't think Frank and Alice were bunglers 
like Neville. I really don't see them passing auror training if they 
were (although Tonks apparently made it while bumping into every 
piece of furniture in the way). No, I think Crouch Sr. would have 
chosen only the best aurors for his (hypothetical) plan. The best and 
the most pureblood. 

I do see Frank and Alice as bunglers in a more metaphysical level. 
The Potters were killed by Voldy, but at least they had kept their 
dignity. The Longbottoms' humiliating situation is the ward probably 
has a symbolic meaning. Also, in sharp contrast with the Potters, the 
Longbottoms didn't manage to leave their son anything magical. This 
is also symbolic. The purebloods aren't necessarily blunderers, some 
of them are very powerful, but they're damaged in some deep way.

There's also a Chekhov Rifle on the wall since GoF that hadn't shot 
yet (or most probably it did, but we weren't told about it yet): 
Crouch Sr. had authorized the aurors to use the Unforgivables. 
Fighting the enemy using evil ways must come with a grave symbolic 
price. Perhaps Frank and Alice were tempted to use the Unforgivables 
and are paying the price now.

Neri