very basic confusion

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 163751

Finwitch:
> I think we have a little in canon to say that Voldemort DID intend 
to kill both. Because of some DEs going to Longbottoms in search for 
him. I mean, why there?

Ceridwen:
Someone sent them.  But, as you say, why?  There were criteria to 
mark the "one with the power" - born to those who had thrice defied 
him, and born as the seventh month dies.  The Potters and 
Longbottoms, as members of the Order, would have been in positions to 
defy LV at least once, and he doesn't seem to be the type to overlook 
something like that.  The Longbottoms as Aurors, of course, would 
have defied him professionally as well.

Slight side-trip: I was joking with a friend, and asked where half 
the prophecy ended exactly.  Turns out there are 81 words, and the 
first half ends at "but he will have power".  Someone else might 
stick the "the" after that; I didn't since I assume the space between 
them marks the half.  The first half does not say "will be born", 
only "born".  And by eleven years into VWI, there must have been 
others who had defied LV three times, Aurors like the Longbottoms at 
least, who had children born at the end of July.  I just wonder, 
without the last line which says, "will be born", how did LV decide 
coclusively that it was a baby he was after?

(Okay, I know, self-fulfilling, his choice marked the Chosen One)

Finwitch:
*(snip)*
> I think the DE-visit on Longbottoms is enough to say (along with 
Voldemort's pleasure in killing) that he DID intend to slay both.

Ceridwen:
(back on track now ;) ) I agree.  And I think that the plan may have 
been to go to the Potters first, since the SK was cooperating so 
graciously, then bop over to the Longbottoms right afterwards.  When 
LV was vaporized, Bella and the boys didn't believe it could have 
been done by the Potters, who were dead, or by their baby (maybe no 
one knew the baby was the target), so they assumed that the 
Longbottoms had captured him as part of an Auror set-up to draw out 
his followers by pretending he was gone, and went to find out exactly 
what had happened to him.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe no 
one but LV, Snape, and possibly Pettigrew, knew that the targets were 
the children.  LV may not have wished his followers to know there was 
a prophecy concerning his potential downfall - he can't look 
invincible if there's that possibility, can he?

Ceridwen.