Disappearances and Nagini

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158584

Carol earlier (quoted by Steve):
> > ..., Dumbledore mistakenly states in HBP that Voldemort 
> > used Nagini to kill Frank Bryce ..., but possibly DD 
> > isn't entirely mistaken. In GoF he states that Frank 
> > Bryce, like Bertha Jorkins, *disappeared.* IOW, his body
> > was never found. Since Voldemort planned to feed first 
> > Wormtail ... to Nagini after killing them, 

Carol again:
The partially snipped sentence, which you've left incomplete, should read:

"Since Voldemort planned to feed first Wormtail . . . and then Harry .
. . to Nagini after killing them, it seems likely to me that Voldemort
fed both Bertha Jorkins and Frank Bryce to Nagini after killing them,
partly to reward or appease Nagini and partly to dispose of the
evidence." <snip stuff on VW1>

I've restored the sentence since it states the point I'm making, or
rather the speculation I'm presenting for consideration.
 
Steve (bboyminn) responded:
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong but Dumbledore says he found out
> about Frank Bryces death by reading it in the muggle
> newspaper, and when he speaks of Nagini killing, he says
> 'muggle' but he doesn't specifically mention Frank.
> 
> 
> If it was in the news, then there must have been a body
> and Dumbledore doesn't say Nagini killed Frank, just that 
> Nagini killed a muggle. <snip>

Carol again:
Actually, you *are* wrong, but it's my fault for not quoting the
relevant passage in the first place. I'm not "jumping the gun," to
quote a snipped part of your post. I'm only offering a suggestion,
which you are of course free to argue against or counter with other
canon. Note the word "possibly" in the passage you quoted from my post
and "seems likely that" in the portion I've restored. 

Here's the canon paragraph that alerted me to the *possibility* that
Frank Bryce and Bertha *may* have been fed to Nagini:

"'The years of Voldemort's ascent to power,' he [Dumbledore] said,
'were marked with disappearances. Bertha Jorkins has vanished without
a trace in the place where Voldemort was certainly known to be last.
Mr. Crouch too has disappeared . . . within these very grounds. And
there was a third disappearance, one which the Ministry, I regret to
say, do not consider of any importance, for it concerns a Muggle. His
name was Frank Bryce, he lived in the village where Voldemort's father
grew up, and he has not been seen since August. You see, I read the
Muggle newspapers, unlike most of my Ministry friends" (GoF Am. ed. 601).

So, Steve, there wasn't a body--just a "disappearance"--and Dumbledore
does specifically mention Frank Bryce, who "has not been seen since
August." We know what happened to Mr. Crouch's body, which was
Transfigured into a bone by his dear son, but Mr. Crouch wasn't
murdered by Voldemort (or by Wormtail, using Voldemort's wand) like
the other two. Both Bertha and Frank were AK'd, as we know because
their "echoes" came out of Voldemort's wand and because we see the
green flash when Frank is killed, but neither body is ever found.
Bertha remains unaccounted for until Barty Jr. makes his confession,
and even then, there's no body to be discovered. Voldemort himself
says in the graveyard that when she was no longer of use to him, he
"disposed of her" (655).

What better way to "dispose" of her than to feed her to the same
twelve-foot snake that circles the graveyard waiting to be fed Harry's
body, the same snake that has been promised, and then denied, the
treat of eating Wormtail? "'Nagini,' said the cold voice, 'you are out
of luck. I will not be feeding Wormtail to you, after all . . . but
never mind. . . there is still Harry Potter. . .' (GoF 576, ellipses
in original). 

The more I think about it, the more I'm persuaded that Frank Bryce's
and Bertha Jorkin's "disappearances" are best accounted for by their
bodies being fed to Nagini. The juxtaposition of their disappearances
with those of people from Voldemort's reign of terror *suggests*
--perhaps misleadingly, perhaps not--that other people (Caradoc
Dearborn, for example) who disappeared without a trace may have
suffered the same fate. And, as I noted in my original post, at least
two people have disappeared without a trace in HBP. It's possible that
Florian Fortescue, at least, suffered the same fate as Bertha
Jorkins--tortured for information, killed, and, if I'm right in my
speculation, fed to Nagini to dispose of the body.

Carol, who is only presenting this idea for consideration, not
presenting it as "fact"