Profession of Lily and James

[Nobby]

I think it is possible that Gran put a memory charm on her grandson to try and get him to forget the torture and that could be an explanation for his poor memory.

ohhh!!!!! i like that theory. Maybe this is why she is so protective of Neville now!

[Ron Weasley]

maybe they were bouth aurors

do you get a lot of money as an auror?

[pallas artemis]

I think it is possible that Gran put a memory charm on her grandson to try and get him to forget the torture and that could be an explanation for his poor memory.

My only problem with this theory is, would his Gran do that? If he was the only witness, and she wiped his memory before ministry officials got there then how would they know who had done it. She wouldn't want to tamper with evidence that could aid the capture and punishment of those responsible. I do think she would want his memory wiped after he had been questioned but then a professional from the ministry would perform the charm right

[Alice I]

I think it is possible that Gran put a memory charm on her grandson to try and get him to forget the torture and that could be an explanation for his poor memory.

My only problem with this theory is, would his Gran do that? If he was the only witness, and she wiped his memory before ministry officials got there then how would they know who had done it. She wouldn't want to tamper with evidence that could aid the capture and punishment of those responsible. I do think she would want his memory wiped after he had been questioned but then a professional from the ministry would perform the charm right

No offense intended by this by how do you question a 15 month old?
My theory was that Neville was in a catatonic state of shock and Gran did this to ease his pain.
Seeing the devistation in her grandson's eyes as well as the tourture into insanity of her only son and daughter-in-law seems to me to be a very plausible reason for placing a memory charm on the little guy.

[Nobby]

as alice and athena will probably agree, i believe that parents and grandparents will go to any lengths to protect their young!!! a extremely feel that mrs longbottom would do a lot more that put a memory charm on neville if she had to, if it protected him against a greater evil

[pallas artemis]

No offense intended by this by how do you question a 15 month old?

No offense taken. In fact it slipped my mind at the time that he was only 15 months old.
However, don't you think it is possible for the ministry to extract information from people even someone that young. Maybe some sort of memory viewing, like the pensieve but not
That makes no sense I'm sure except in my mind, but I don't know how to explain it better

[Athena Appleton]

If he was the only witness, and she wiped his memory before ministry officials got there then how would they know who had done it.

He was a year old.

I have a two-and-a-half year old who speaks like this: "Oy-a-oy-a-oy-a-cookie-oy-a-oy-a-bubbles-oy-baby! Yeah!" If we try to question him about something as simple as, who unrolled toilet paper all over the floor: him or baby? He comes back with "Yeah." "Did you do it?" "Yeah." Did Baby do it?" "Yeah." "Do you live on the moon?" "Yeah."

However, even if a child that young can't put things together and be able to be questioned about it, the vague memory can haunt them for a lifetime. I had always believed that Neville had a memory charm put on him, but I like the idea of it being someone who really cared about him and didn't want him to have to go through the agony of growing up with that... Interesting thought, Alice!

[pallas artemis]

I give up! but I would like to point out that I have some cousins who could answer questions t one and a half if you were around them alot and understood and by two wnyone could understand what they said most of the time. They my be very rare but I'm not around many kids so I wouldn't know

[Athena Appleton]

yeah, that's a rarity.

Most kids that age can answer simple questions ("Are you hungry?" "Do you want to go over to Grandpa's?"), but I don't think any 1 1/2 year old would be a credible witness. Generally speaking, a really intelligent 1-year-old can tell you he wants a cookie, or to play, or go to McDonalds... some can talk about their favorite things, but I don't know of any child that young who could witness the torturing of his parents, have a clear understanding of what happened and who was involved, and relate that to anyone else. In theory, I think that putting a memory charm on Neville was the most humane thing to do, seeing as that memory would most likely never be of any use. The only problem is that it seems to have gone wrong (it was so powerful that it knocked his ability to have a good memory out of whack).

[Meg Boyd]

this whole baby talk think reminds me of my three year-old cousin who now lives in germany, and to me he not only has a slight baby accent, but also has a german accent now (since he's been there since birth and is bilingual) so the two together makes it hard for me to understand him!

I also like the idea that Neville had a memory charm on him, since his poor memory has been a staple in many of the plots of HP! It makes a lot of sense!

As for the orignal topic, maybe the Potter's won the wizarding lottery????

[Un'Anima Persa]

Maybe they were some kind of specialists... like something no one knows about. Or maybe they worked in the dept. of Mysteries... That would be cool... and they could have gotten paid a lot... i think... do you gat paid a lot for working there? do we even know that yet?

[Hagger 9003]

i dont reckon neville had a memory charm. for one, i dont think he witnessed the toturing of his parents. if he had been there, bella would have tortured him to get his parents to give the information on LV. anyway, if he had witnessed it, u cant remember things from htat young. you can associate emotions with things, so he might have had a fear of bella because of it. plus, neville has done most of his character progression, and i think that if anything serious would come of a memory charm, it would have been hinted at more. sorry, but i dont buy it.

back on topic, i reckon that they might have been aurors, but i think they had inherited money, i think JKR hinted at that or somthing. but lily might have done something. i read that something big is going to be revealed about lily in book 6, and her job might have something to do with it. that might be the DoM, i dunno. mayb

[Asphodel]

i dont reckon neville had a memory charm. for one, i dont think he witnessed the toturing of his parents. if he had been there, bella would have tortured him to get his parents to give the information on LV. anyway, if he had witnessed it, u cant remember things from htat young. you can associate emotions with things, so he might have had a fear of bella because of it. plus, neville has done most of his character progression, and i think that if anything serious would come of a memory charm, it would have been hinted at more. sorry, but i dont buy it.

Do you really think that Neville's memory is normal? J.K.R wouldn't just randomly keep dropping hints about him having a terrible memory. Anyway, back on topic, didn't Lily and James defy LV three times as the prophecy said? So, wouldn't that mean that they were aurors?