Intro and Lucius may not be evil

[Amber]

No: HPFGUIDX 21217


Ack, this is quite late, but I had some thoughts that just recently 
blossomed.

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "DM" <dangermouse42 at y...> wrote:
> Lucius may be a complete jerk, but siding with Voldemort seems like 
> a very, very, very risky venture on his part, especially
> considering his family is so old (this is all IMHO of course).
> Plus, we know that Dark Lords have risen and been defeated in
> recent history before Voldemort ("Dumbledore is particularly famous
> for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945..." - HP and
> the SS, Ch6).  Given that I believe that Lucius must be around the
> same age as Arthur Weasley, it's not unlikely that he was alive
> during that time.  Why risk getting involved in something that has
> already failed once? 

Two explanations for this. 1) He doesn't believe that it will fail 
this time. He thinks that Voldie will learn from his mistakes. 
However, I don't see this as the probable explanation. I rather think 
it's 2) Lucius is planning on taking over sometime. Kinda let 
Voldemort start the whole World Domination thing, kill him, and take 
hold of the reins. Of course, whether or not he'll succeed in 
defeating Voldemort is an entirely other issue. 

Why didn't Lucius try and start his own plan for World Domination? 
Er, I don't know. I'll have to think of why. But I do believe that 
Lucius is after the same thing as Voldemort, power, power, and more 
power.

> If he was a loyal and happy Death Eater, why send his son away from
> the campsite?  Why not just let him sit in the tent or even join
> in?  Why run away from the Dark Mark? 

His son goes to Hogwarts. In a sense, Draco is his prescence there. 
He doesn't want his son thrown out or expelled. So Draco wouldn't be 
allowed to participate due to appearences.

Or maybe an age thing? Maybe the Death Eaters need to be a certain 
age to join in? Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm grasping at straws.

> Another thing that needs mentioning is his large donations to St. 
> Mungos. It seems strange to me for JKR to mention that
> specifically, unless it had some kind of meaning.  

It's his way to stay in "nice" with the Ministry. To have a voice in 
what goes on. It also ties in with a pet theory of mine. Lucius gives 
large donations to St. Mungos which means that he has a sort of say 
there. After all, they want to keep the person giving them money 
happy. I've always thought the worst torture would be to be sane but 
everyone else think you are *insane*. What if the Longbottoms are 
perfectly fine mentally but have been cursed to act crazy? The 
donations could be a way for Lucius to keep from anyone discovering 
the truth about them and helping them. But this theory is a lot of 
whatifs and fanciful imagining on my part.

> Also, the very fact the he was found innocent in his connections
> with Voldemort by the Ministry leaves one wondering - surely they
> used some kind of truth potion on the defendants.

Actually, this isn't so sure. Sirius wasn't given any truth potion 
when he was sentenced. Also I wouldn't be surprised if someone has 
developed a spell/potion that can overcome the effects of 
Veritaserum. It's certainly possible.
 
> Finally, the most convincing part about this is how much Voldemort 
> supporters seem to dislike Draco. Scabbers (Peter) attacked Draco
> on the train to Hogwarts in the first book; Mad-Eye Moody (or
> rather Crouch) turned him into a ferret and slammed him around the
> hallway. 

Hrm. Interesting. I'll have to think more on these.

> Also, one of the biggest non-supporters of Voldemort, Severus
> Snape, really, really seems to like Draco.

Several other explanations for this. One is that Snape knows that 
Draco is reporting back to his father on what happens at Hogwarts and 
doesn't want him to say something or wants a favorable report. 
Second, Snape thinks that Draco isn't cozy with his father and wants 
to bring him over to Dumbledore's side. 

Of course, all of this is speculation. We really don't know what 
Lucius/Draco/Snape is thinking. But I have the tendency to lean 
towards that Lucius does not have Dumbledore's ideology. I think that 
Lucius' possible death by Voldemort or succession of Voldemort would 
have a fascinating effect on Draco.

~Amber