The Sting: Lucius sent Bella (was:Re: LV: Where'd He Go and How did Frank...)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 150982

> Neri:
> Not in the active form, perhaps, but what about the passive form, when
> the identity of the sender isn't mentioned? And with some vagueness
> regarding the fine line between the strategic and tactical sending?
> I'm not a native English speaker, but JKR is, and this seems to be the
> way she interpreted "the Lestranges were sent to kill Neville" in the
> question.

Pippin:
Um, no. "The Lestranges were sent to kill Neville"  is coy as to the
identity of the sender but definitely indicates there was some 
agency involved. By repeating the verb, JKR
confirms that part of the rumour was correct. 


  JKR seems to be saying that the Lestranges would have certainly 
gone after Neville if they had known about the prophecy, but they 
didn't. She leaves open the question of whether the mysterious sender 
knew of the prophecy or not. 

While Voldemort doesn't say that the Lestranges tried to find him,
he does chastise the other DE's for not doing so. I don't make much
of Voldemort's failure to honor the L's above all others...he's not
exactly known for keeping such promises. Dumbledore makes a 
point of saying that the DE's are always clamoring for LV's favor,
but none of them really have it.

I agree that Frank and Alice should not have had to undergo their
horrible fate just to show us that a minor character like Lucius is
a rotter. We already knew that from his dropping the diary on Ginny.
It really should be someone they thought they could trust,
don't you think? And if it's someone that Neville trusts, so much
the better. Malfoys don't qualify.

As for the sender being after a horcrux, I don't think Voldemort thought
Bella still had one. Otherwise, he'd have expected her to use it to  bring 
him back, (ala the diary). I expect that he'd either gotten it back or
 instructed her to hide it in such a way that she could not retrieve it
before his vaporization. 

I believe it was the locket, which must have been swapped before it was 
hidden. If Regulus put spells on the phony to make it look
like the true locket (finally, a use for the switching spell!) they might
dissolve with his death, but if the locket was already hidden, who would
know?

Pippin