A Question

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

Hello! I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but since I came across the topic here, I thought it would be appropriate.

I was reading oryx_leucoryx's wonderful GoF chapter commentary and it was mentioned that Bellatrix/the Lestranges managed to talk their way out of Azkaban before attacking the Longbottoms. This is actually something I've come across before on various forums and when reading theories, but I can't find anything about it in the books. I tried looking for old interviews and it isn't mentioned there either as far as I can tell. So I was just wandering, how do you know this? I'd be very grateful if someone gave me a quote or something :)

Also, this is my first post here, so I'm sorry if I've made some grave error.

Comments

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Hello! I think this may be a fan theory, given what we know, rather than something that was ever stated explicitly, but I could be wrong about that.

The timeline is fuzzy, but there is some general agreement that the attack on the Longbottoms happened some weeks or months after Halloween of 1981. Moreover, I belive that, as far as we know, the Lestranges were only convicted of torturing the Longbottoms; they weren't convicted of any other crimes. Barty Sr. says at the hearing we're shown:

You planned to restore He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to power, and to resume the lives of violence you presumably led while he was strong.

Therefore, it appears that either the Lestranges were never suspected of being Death Eaters before their attack on the Longbottoms, or they were able to prevent any previous accustaions/charges from sticking. Either is possible, I suppose, but I guess many find the latter more believable.

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I always assumed that the Lestranges were never suspected, or if someone did hint then the Ministry's attitude would have been something like Surely not? A girl from a good family like that? Her father was a Black you know! But now that I think about it this doesn't make sense, cause the whole Longbottom incident took place after Voldemort's fall, so they wouldn't have had their dark marks anymore(?) and the Ministry wouldn't have known that they were necessarily Death Eaters, even if they did torture the Longbottoms. I'm coming around to your second option, too.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Well, it's possible that the Ministry only learned that the attackers were Death Eaters because the responding aurors heard Bellatrix screaming, "Where is the Dark Lord?!" when they arrived at the scene, or because one of the culprits revealed that they were trying to restore Voldemort during his or her interrogation. So you could be right that nobody suspected the Lestranges before then.

OTOH, it's hard to believe that there hadn't at least been some speculation about Bellatrix and the Lestrange boys. Bellatrix's cousin, Sirius, was "known" to be a DE, and her sister, Narcissa, was married to a suspected one, so the Blacks probably weren't still automatically considered to be a "good family" by the end of 1981.

I also find it rather likely that some other DE, such as Malfoy or Avery, said something about the Lestranges as part of his efforts to escape his own punishment.

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

Good points! Lucius may have wanted Bella locked up for fear of what she might do.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Sirius believed Barty may have only accidentally been with the Lestranges. We also know the identification of the attackers was based on the Longbottoms' testimony (according to Dumbles) and thus there was room for doubt, at least with regarding to Barty. So no, they were not caught on the scene of crime. For some reason the attackers did not kill the victims once they were done with them, left, and got caught later based on the victims' statement.

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

Another indication that Rowling didn't think this through? Cause that's a pretty stupid thing to do and that was before any of the Lestranges' stupid actions could be blamed on Azkaban induced madness, so why would they do it? Oh well, maybe they were just over confident...