When did the Lestranges attack the Longbottoms? (Was: Old, old problem)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 151114


>
> > >>Neri:
> > <snip>
> > Therefore Karkaroff was caught the year before GH, and the six    
> > months it took Moody to track him should not be counted in        
> > figuring the time of the attack on the Longbottoms after GH. 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Ooh! Which means that Snape was spying for Dumbledore for over a 
> year before Godrics Hollow, right?  
> 

Neri again:
Not that I think he wasn't, necessarily, but I don't see how you
conclude that from the above. 

Let me explain this timeline more clearly. Karkaroff was caught about
a year before GH. He apparently spent that year in Azkaban, not
informed about who else was caught and who got killed, and probably
hoping Voldy will win the war and come get him out. Then he heard
Voldy lost and the Ministry was rounding the last of the DEs, and
understood that his only way out is to make some fast deals on the
expense of his comrades. His hearing that we witness in the Pensieve
certainly takes place *after* GH, although we can't be sure how much
time after (rounding the last of the DEs perhaps took some time. Or
not). So even when Dumbledore says in this hearing that Snape was
spying for him before Voldemort's fall, I don't see how you can
conclude that it was more than a year before.

Neri