[HPforGrownups] The Longbottoms

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 158650

Tinktonks wrote:
>
>   What did Alice and Frank Longbottom know to bring on such cruel
> torture? I know may of us have fantacised about them being able to
> impart some secret to Neville etc but has any one has any real ideas
> about why on Earth the DE's would think that the Longbottom's knew
> anything about the downfall or the whereabouts of LV? I know they were
> Aurors but I find it very hard to believe that Bella would clutch at
> straws when her success would have her masters return in the balance?
>
> If this topic had already been chewed over please can someone direct me
> to a theory. If not does anybody have one?
>

Debbie:
This has been hashed over many times in the history of this list.  The most
popular view is that the Longbottoms knew nothing and the notion that they
had information was invented and planted so that Bellatrix & co. would go
after them.  Currently, I believe popular wisdom (supported by JKR's "sent
after the Longbottoms" statement) holds that Lucius did it to get Bella and
her inconvenient determination to find the Dark Lord out of the way so
Lucius could pursue a comfortable life as an ambitious political advisor and
philanthropist.

I have long been in the minority, as I maintain that it is likely that after
Voldemort's fall Frank was assigned to search for Voldemort's spiritual
remains, either in his capacity as an Auror or as an Order member (or
both).  If Frank had disappeared for awhile there would be a basis for a
popular belief that if anyone had information, it was Frank.  I have always
assumed Frank *did* have a good idea where Voldemort was, even if he didn't
tell the Ministry; if Dumbledore knows where he is, why not an Order member
who was also an Auror?  This is not inconsistent with JKR's "sent after the
Longbottoms" statement; in fact, if Frank had been away that fact would make
it that much easier to convince Bella that Frank (and Alice) had the
information she was so desperately looking for.

Debbie

_._,___


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]