HP Timeline: Neville, Harry, Spoilery

[pippin_999]

Milz:
> Exactly, and since Snape was caught eavesdropping, then Dumbledore
> should have figured out that Voldy would get that information,
> eventually (I'm not implying that he knew Snape worked for V. at
this
> time, but rather that anyone eavesdropping could have passed that
> information along to people who would tell V.)

Pippin:
Yes, yes, but nothing in the prophecy says that it only applies to
English wizards. Indeed, it rather sounds as if it doesn't: 'and
he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not.' Only Voldemort
could decide who are the people who have defied him three times, 
and he has traveled far and wide, consorting with the worst of
magical kind.

Everyone was in mortal peril at the time -- not being the parents
of the Chosen One was hardly a protection. Surely Dumbledore
was already doing all he could to protect the members of the 
Order and their families. 

We haven't heard of any special protection Dumbledore 
gave to Lily and James  except for the secret-keeper spell. 
But that takes time to set up.

It was in effect at GP a month after Voldemort's return, but they
could have started working on it as soon as Sirius returned to
England, as much as ten months earlier. And that's not counting
time to learn how to do the spell. Animagus takes five years,
who knows how long it takes to learn how to cast Secret-keeper?

Pippin