[HPforGrownups] Re: Plot holes filled?

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 16866

koinonia02 at yahoo.com wrote:

> A few things about this plan.  One, Voldemort didn't even know how
> many DE's would return to him.

He is, I think, egotist enough to think he could handle it alone,
anyway, and any Death Eaters that show will get in on the fun. Gravy.
And a nice filtering device to detect the faithful.

>  True, BC Jr has been feeding Voldy bits of info on what the DE's were
> doing and who was likely to return.  Still, you think one would be
> absolutely sure of how big and
> trustworthy his fighting force was.

One would. I would. But Voldemort is given to grand gestures (such as
dueling with Harry), which can backfire. Logical evil is easy to figure
out; melodramatic evil is very unpredictable. I think he was wanting the
grand gesture, especially if, should things at Hogwarts have gone badly,
he could Portkey away again out of reach.

>  Two, many of the DE's children attend Hogwarts.  Why would they take
> a chance of their own children being harmed?

Voldemort strikes me as distinctly being the type to demand loyalty to
himself above all others, family included. I still think that the bond
between Death Eater and Voldemort, the visible sign of which is the dark
mark, is more than a signaling device; I think it tied their lives to
his forever. Those who thought to return to "normal life" were kidding
themselves.

>  Can you imagine what would happen if Voldemort showed
> up with the DE's?  People would probably be running and screaming and
> everyone would be in danger.  I don't know if the DE's would have gone
> along with that plan.

....? It sounds perfect to me, from a Death Eater point of view. After
years of scraping and bowing and denying their own inner selves, wow!
Hey, nah, hey, nah, our Master's back! [ooooh, filk material there for
sure.....] Sure, there'll be some casualties. So what?

And besides that, who *ever* said that what the Death Eaters thought
made any difference at all to Voldemort? *He's* the leader, not them. If
they don't like his plan, tough. Do it anyway.

>  Also, Hogwarts isn't without some powerful witches and wizards.
> Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall (a very, very powerful witch according
> to JKR), Flitwick (there's more to
> him).  Who knows who else was in the crowd?  Voldemort didn't seem in
> any hurry to go to Hogwarts.  Surely after Harry and Cedric
> disappeared Dumbledore started to put two and two together. Dumbledore
> was probably making his own plans.

That's the whole point. It would be possible to take every single one of
them by surprise, at once. Surprise is a one-time shot. The chance for
that level of surprise is seldom seen. Two, three, maybe four well-aimed
spells, and you've taken out some serious wizard opponents, who didn't
react because of shock, didn't have their wands, whatever.

Dumbledore may well have been making some plans, but there's no evidence
that having a reanimated Voldemort in his front yard was a foreseen
contingency. It seems that chaos and disorder were the results of the
disappearance of Harry and Cedric, rather than any sort of ordered
mobilization.

> Still, I wouldn't put it past Voldemort to attempt such a thing.

I think it was the plan from the beginning. I don't think he was
expecting the whole Harry duel to take very long at all. I'm betting
that the Priori Incantatem effect took a bit more time than originally
planned. Doing the whole showy duel with Harry was also intended, I
think, to wipe any shred of doubt from the Death Eaters' minds (I can't
believe there weren't some Death Eaters of stronger mind than Pettigrew,
who, seeing their master as this nasty weak little thing, wouldn't have
simply squashed or drowned it.....then again, if the dark mark binds
unto death, maybe not...).

--Amanda, rambling now


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