Snape and the Longbottoms

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 140365

The usual apologies if this idea has been presented before, I solemnly
promise I never read it anywhere before.

A few facts first (please someone correct me if I'm wrong on some of
them):

* Snape has been mistreating Neville ever since Neville arrived at
Hogwarts.

* Neville was one of the two Prophecy babies.

* The Longbottoms were staunch enemies of LV, they had already
thwarted him three times.

* DD said that Snape was surprised and upset when LV decided that the
Prophecy applied to Harry.

* The Longbottoms were members of the Original Order of the Phoenix,
and they were quite young then.

So I theorise that there's a very simple way to connect all those
facts: Snape hated the Longbottoms, considered them even more
dangerous than the Potters, and fully expected LV to think that the
Prophecy applied to their kid. And just like he has with Harry, he's
reported the hate he had for the Longbottoms on their kid.

Why Snape hated the Longbottoms is an open question, but there are
many possibilities:

- simply because they were Aurors

- maybe he had fought them personally and been defeated by them,
during one of their thwartings of LV

- my favourite possibility: maybe the Longbottoms were just a few
years older than Snape and the Marauders, and they were personal
enemies of the Gang of Slytherins just like James was the personal
enemy of Snape. Since Snape hanged with that Gang for a few years, he
adopted their personal hate of the Longbottoms as his own.

I also think that no matter how high profile the Potters were as
enemies of LV, the Longbottoms were higher still. They were both
purebloods, they were popular, I get the feeling that the Longbottom
family is a reasonably wealthy and respected family (I wonder which
family Alice was from?), and they were probably a bit older than the
Potters which means that they had been fighting in the war for a bit
longer (it does seem, after all, that Bella and Co assumed that the
Longbottoms were "big enough" in the Order that they would know what
had happened to LV, so it seems that they were no "junior officers").
So it would make sense to me that Snape, upon hearing the Prophecy,
would immediately assume it referred to Neville and would never give a
thought to half-blood Harry. 

What I like in this theory is that it is very simple and yet explains
two pretty sticky points:

- why Snape has been bullying Neville : because he's a Longbottom, and
he even looks like his mother. It's simply a personal matter, just
like it is with Harry.

- why Snape was surprised when LV decided to go after the Potters:
because he had been fully expecting him to go after the Longbottoms
instead, he had never considered the possibility that LV would esteem
the Potters' offspring to be a greater threat than the Longbottoms'.

No canon proof, of course, so no point asking for it :-)

Del