The Longbottoms

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 158659

Tinktonks:
> What did Alice and Frank Longbottom know to bring on such cruel 
torture? *(snip)* 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?

Ceridwen:
This has probably been chewed over several times, and someone sharper 
than I will point to the threads, I'm sure!  ;)  But, since I didn't 
get much chance to have my say then, I'll do it now.

I think LV's plan was to go to the two children born at the end of 
July, to couples who had "thrice defied him", that night:  visit the 
Potters first, kill Harry, then move on to the Longbottoms and kill 
Neville.  Moving so quickly would have limited the possibility that 
someone would warn the Longbottoms and move them to safer 
surroundings.  It would also get rid of the two possibilities at once 
and clear the field for LV.

The three Lastranges and Barty Jr. may have known where he went, or 
they may have discovered or been informed of his itinerary later on.  
They either didn't believe their master had been vaporized, or they 
thought the Order and therefore the Longbottoms had some secret 
information - after all, the Order had taken care to spirit Harry 
away from the scene.

This, of course, gets into other things - who sent the Lastranges and 
Crouch on their mission?  This person would have to have been in LV's 
confidence to know where he was going.  Who would have betrayed the 
Longbottoms to LV, presuming that they had also been advised to take 
a Secret Keeper and did so?  Is there a possibility for another rogue 
SK/Order member?  Would they have used someone as SK outside of the 
Order?  This scenario would call for another traitor, since Peter 
Pettigrew would only be my outside choice for SK to the Longbottoms.

That is why I think the DEs, or at least one faction of the DEs, knew 
there was something about the Longbottoms that would have interested 
LV that night and so went after them.

Ceridwen.