Lost Generation

[Mistress Siana]

Why on earth does Harry never ask about his grandparents?

As wizards normally become considerably older than normal people, it seems as though their generation has suffered unnaturally many deaths. As far as we know now, Harry's grandparents are dead, as are Sirius's parents and the parents or Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda, Lucius Malfoy seems to be in charge of the whole 'Malfoy Empire' , which suggests that his parents are also dead, Neville's gran seems to have lost her husband, and according to JKR. Mr Nott sr is an elderly widower. Apart from Neville's grandpa whom we know nothing about, all of them died during Voldemort's first reign. Were they all victims of the war? What happend?
I always used to think that mentioning any of them would make the story unnecessarily long and complicated, but wouldn't it be better then to just not mention most of them instead of proclaming them dead? Above all, I find it strange that Harry doesn't ask about his grandparents, not even when Sirius explicitly mentions them. To me, the fact that we haven't be told anything about them yet suggests that there might be more to their story. If it were just some insignificant detail, it could already have been handled with two or three randowm sentences. It might not be a coincident that they died during the first war. Or possibly, it's not a coincident that this 'lost' generation is the same that Lord Voldemort belongs to. In the chamber of secrets, Tom Riddle said that in his school days, his closest friends already knew him by the name Voldemort, but today, that connection is almost unknown. What happened to his old friends?
Not a usual topic, I know, but...

[Phinea Rogue]

Not an usual topic, but a very interesting one. I've always wondered about this too. I think I saw a similar discussion somewhere in some other forum (don't remember where)... Yes, where are the other wizards of Voldie's age?

Anyway, it's possible that they all weren't supporters of Voldemort. As we saw in the Black House, the Blacks (parents of Sirius) thought that Voldemort's ideas were good and noble, but Sirius said that when Voldemort showed his true colours, they got scared. Regulus too seemed like he got scared of what Voldemort wanted. I wonder how the others reacted. Is Nott the only pure-blood (excluding Neville's grandmother) who became a Death Eater?

Well, I find it higly impossible, but what if Voldemort killed them off when they chose not to support him openly? Or what if they died in the first "reign" of Voldemort?

[carsten]

To even expand this interesting idea a bit further: There were two major upheavals in the recent past: The Grindelwald incident 1945 (mentioned in book 1) and LV's first reign. It seems to me, that the wizarding community with many members showing a child-like behaviour, is not very mature, when it comes to solving problems. There is no noticeable system of law enforcment.

There were some remarks about the nature of giants killing each other, but the wizards are not much better.

So a death toll was paid several times in the past, two that we know of. I hope we will learn more about these events in the remaining books. The hints are too strong for neglecting these.

[Tanuki]

Well, considering that Lilly was muggleborn, yet Petunia never mentioned them or had them over to visit, we can assume Harry already knows they're dead. They always mention Harry having no other family. Therefore, we can assume they were all dead, and not just by Voldy's hands; remember, people die and not always by violence. He also go to see them in the mirror of erised, so he got as much as anyone can get without meeting someone

[thestral]

but for every grandparent to be dead? i don't know it's weird, maybe it's just an oversight, i mean perhaps it's easier for JKR not to mention them cos she does have to juggle like a million characters.

[Tanuki]

Bingo, you hit the nail on the head. The more people you bring into a story, the more people you have to take into consideration later

[Mistress Siana]

Yeah, sure, but she did bring them into the story. There's a difference between just not mentioning them and proclaiming them dead. Of course I've thought about that possibility, I'm not stupid, but there are some points that speak against it.

[Hagger 9003]

the grandparents seem to be before voldies first reign, but still have been cut down in numbers. this might have been voldies rise to power, but i am not sure. i tend to think its more to do with grindelwald. he sounds like a pretty cool baddy, and must have had a big battle with DD. however, voldie is more powerful, as i think its been said at least once that he is to most powerful dark wizard this century. so, then, it might have been his rise to power after all. hmmmmmm.

on the other hand, yeh, its too complicated to have too many characters. JK has done enough planning with harry's generation and james generation, she doesnt need to do anymore. grandparents will make it too confusing. i doubt she will emaborate even on grindelwald.

[Mistress Siana]

Last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one - Lupin in OotP

That's another thing. Even in case Lupin exaggerated a bit there would have been about 400 (!) Death Eaters. In the graveyard scene at the end of GoF, there were about 40. There seems to have been a mass slaughter...what happened?

[carsten]

That's another thing. Even in case Lupin exaggerated a bit there would have been about 400 (!) Death Eaters. In the graveyard scene at the end of GoF, there were about 40. There seems to have been a mass slaughter...what happened?

Moody is said to be one of the "nicer" aurors, who brought the DEs back alive if possible.

Seems to me, that both sides were not exactly picky in choosing their methods.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

when lupin said they were outnumbered 20:1 does he mean de's vx ootp or de's vs ootp and ministry? out of the 400 estimate, there were 10 in azkaban that escaped in OoTP, but are there any more in there? also a number of them were killed and others were too scared after lv's fall so they are still in wizard society, like karkaroff

[Mistress Siana]

He meant the Death Eaters vs OotP, I think. It would be even worse otherwise. We know what happened to some Death Eaters, but where are the at least 300 others? Maybe Lupin exaggerated, but there were some other people around and noone commented. I don't know...I can't imagine JKR was just being careless.

[Phinea Rogue]

I think that he could have meant the DE or more likely those on Voldemort's side - I believe that he doesn't have only the Death Eaters, but some other followers who aren't that close to him. DE are his closest followers, the highest ranked ones and then there are others - maybe spies in the ministery, people he "persuaded", people who side with him but don't become DEs...

[Mistress Siana]

But do they pick out and kill OotP members? I guess you have to be quite close to Voldemort to go at such a great length.

[Phinea Rogue]

I don't know. Maybe if a follower killed someone from the OotP, he would get "promoted" to a higher rank and become a DE.