Neville's protection (was Re: Neville)

[j. lutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 158777

> aussie wrote:
>>> We don't know how much time passed between James dying and 
>>> the Longbottoms being attacked. <snip> Did we hear if they 
>>> were captured and taken somewhere, or was this a house 
>>> break-in and the torture went on in their home. If so, could 
>>> Neville have been under James' IC. A last act of Alice's to 
>>> save her son from being a part of the attack. <<
> 
>Abergoat:
>> Very interesting thought about Neville under the cloak, given 
>> Bella's cruelty I always did think it was bizarre she didn't 
>> try to torture Neville to get Frank and Alice to talk. << 

j.lunatic:
The charge Crouch pronounces against the Pensieve defendants ("The 
four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror...") (GoF, Ch. 30) 
usually is interpreted to mean that Bellatrix and company captured 
Frank and Alice (either together or separately) and took them to 
another location to be interrogated and tortured. But if a Death 
Eater home invasion happened as part of the Longbottom Affair, 
perhaps the last thing Alice did was to cast Petrificus Totalis on 
Neville (to keep him from crying out or crawling into view) and 
throw an Invisibility Cloak (either James Potter's or someone 
else's) over him, for his protection.

(I theorize about Alice putting a binding spell on Neville "for his 
own good," because this would thematically link to Hermione doing 
the same to him in _Philosopher's Stone_.)

>Tinktonks:
>I'm starting to wonder if maybe the Fidelius Charm to protect 
>Neville was done by either Frank or Alice but did not include 
>themselves.
>
>I.E., Alice performs charm (less expert than whoever performed 
>the Potters) and worded it so that the Secret was protecting 
>Neville from anyone wishing him harm. Therefore he could have 
>been in the house when Bella and Co attacked and they would not 
>have seen him. Sadly this did not protect the parents though.

j.lunatic:
Or Gran Longbottom performed the Fidelius Charm on the whole family 
(presumably badly, as we are told in _Half-Blood Prince_ that she 
failed her Charms OWL), and her treatment of Neville is her way of 
denying the guilt she feels over what then happened?

-j.lunatic