New OT Group - many comments on Voldemort and Lucius - Lack of Curiousity - Ghosts

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 13966

I last looked at the egroup on Sunday, so tonight I have read through
hundreds and hundreds of posts and I'm still only on 13834 out of 13965
but it's my bedtime and I am So Tired!

I saw the announcements that the Moderators are forcing us into HPfGU-OT
group. I'm not happy about that -- I expect that my responses to chapter
and character summaries will all be banished to the OT group -- but if
the Mod Squad is DEEPLY concerning with reducing the traffic on the main
list, they should exile ALL Harry/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione
shipping to a group of its own. Maybe they'll want to put all shipping
involving Draco there, too, altho' I desperately loved the suggested
quote: "I'm only sleeping with you, Potter, because your hair
complements my coloring, so don't flatter yourself."

Randy's Voldemort sketch asked:
> 1. Why is Lucius Malfoy considered by Voldemort to be a
> better servant than most of the other Death Eaters?

Voldemort treats Lucius as his pet, calling him by first name, giving
him favoritism, and letting him get away with stuff that the other Death
Eaters would be killed for. If he actually BELIEVES that Lucius IS a
better servant, that is simply the result of believing his own
favoritism. I believe that the reason Voldemort fusses over Lucius like
that is because he never got over the social class attitudes of being
Tom Riddle, working class orphan, who snobbishly admires and yearns to
be accepted by the toffs.

There could also be a good bit of personal history between them. Today,
when I was supposed to be working, I was wondering why Department of
Magical Law Enforcement hadn't gone after Tom Riddle for murdering three
Muggles with an Unforgivable Curse. Had he fled the country until he
could come back as Lord Voldemort? To study Dark Arts in the ancient
libraries of Egypt, perhaps?

Then it occurred to me that Malfoy Manor has one hell of a library of
Dark Arts, and Tom Riddle 'earning' that award for Special Services to
the school would catch the attention of members of the Board of
Governors, of which Lucius's father was probably one...

...either of them might have noticed that they both were attracted to
Dark Arts, either of them might have noticed that they both were
attractive, either of them might have made an effort to charm the other
in order to use him for his own purposes, altho' Tom's purposes would
have included access to the Malfoy library, wealth, and protection from
DMLE, while Lucius's father's purpose might have been access to this
boy's large magic power...

.... TMR might have been firmly ensconced in Malfoy Manor before he
murdered his father, and been given an alibi by the Malfoys...

... And I was wondering if, as Lucius grew from baby to young man, Tom
might have found Lucius more sympathico (because more thoroughly evil)
than his father, and helped Lucius murder the senior Malfoy in order to
get his inheritance quicker. If Lucius had an older brother, that
brother would have to be murdered for Lucius to get his inheritance at
all....

Amy Z's sketch of Voldemort said:
> When he used Quirrell's body (1992), had a flat face like a
> snake's, catlike eyes that glow red, slits for nostrils.
> In proto-human form (1994-95): as above, except like a
> child with thin arms and legs; also, hairless, with reddish-black,
> scaly skin
> Post-return to power: extremely pale (13 years out of the sun,
> don't you know); long fingers; tall and skeletally thin.  Features the

> same as in 1993.

Post-return, isn't he still scaly, altho' no longer reddish-black?
Snakes don't really have flat faces, altho' they have non-blinking eyes
which often have odd-shaped pupils. Besides the 'face like a snake', the
scales AND the tall skinniness strike me as serpentine characteristics.
Not only is he a Parselmouth with a pet giant cobra (Nagini), he turned
himself into a snake-man in his quest for immortality.

That's actually logical, as snakes have been traditional symbols of
immortality, because the skin shedding has been mistaken for
rejuvenation or because one can draw a snake swallowing its own tail as
a symbol of eternity. However, it is my strong feeling that, in the
process of becoming an immortal snake-man, he gave up sex, sexual
desire, and sexual organs.

Therefore, if he ever had an affair with Lucius (or with Lucius's
father) as so many fanfics assume, it must have been BEFORE he achieved
his transformation. I can guess that he achieved his transformation only
shortly before he began his Reign of Terror (11 years before Halloween
1981 = 1970).  The far-above H/D quote about their dark and blond
coloring would apply equally to Tom and Lucius. I don't know whether
Lucius's father was as pale as he.

> 1. What is Voldemort's primary motivation?  To live forever?  To rid
> the world of the non-pureblood (I know, he doesn't qualify
> himself--racism knows no logic)?  Sheer lust for power?

He wants to be FEARED by every wizard and witch on Earth: he said so
someplace. He wants to HURT every person who is not one of his special
pets, out of a consuming anger/hatred against all people due to blaming
all people for his own unhappy childhood, and have them know that it is
HE who is hurting them. He LOVES dramatic spectacles, which is what
leads him to do foolish Evil Overlord things. He wants power only as a
means to those ends. He wants immortality only as a means to those ends.
Perhaps he wants to destroy the whole world like Samson pulling down the
pillars of the Philistine temple?

Charmian asked:
> Why are some of the Death Eaters so loyal to him that they'd be
> willing to go to Akzaban for his sake?

I've been wondering that for years. All I've been able to guess is that
he has some powerful charisma, to which people who had an instinct for
followership responded by accepting that the right and proper way of the
world is that they should be utterly loyal to him and sacrifice
themselves for him like he was their daimyo or something, but he should
treat them as expendable. Less than expendable -- to be tortured for
amusement, not just killed to achieve a goal or as deserved punishment.

Gwendolyn Grace wrote:
> I believe Malfoy arranged the whole thing [with the Riddle diary]
> as a political ploy to shoot down the Muggle Protection Act,
> discredit Dumbledore, and possibly get a Headmaster who will
> support banning Muggle-born students again.

I agree that Malfoy's plot was to discredit Dumbledore and replace him
with a more Dark headmaster. Amanda suggested that Malfoy thus plotted
for V's sake, removing V's enemy D, and you may be suggested that Malfoy
thus plotted simply for his own sake. I don't agree that Malfoy's plot
was to shoot down the Muggle Protection Act and discredit Arthur
Weasley...

... because Lucius had brought the diary to Flourish and Blotts before
he knew that any Weasleys or Potters would be there that day. I think he
was just going to slip it into a Hogwarts textbook on the shelves and
let young TMR take over whichever random student bought that book. But
after he had that punch-up with Arthur, he suddenly realized that he
could get back at Arthur by slipping the book to Arthur's daughter. I
think he wasn't even thinking of the Muggle Protection Act at that
moment, just that it would hurt the man he hated when that man's young
daughter was killed by the Basilisk.

Milz wrote:
> If I were told that my parents were magical and that I, as an infant,
> took down the world's greatest villain, I would be very curious about
>  it all.

I think the Dursleys managed to beat the impulse to ask questions out of
him.

Jen Faulkner wrote:
> I doubt [ghosts] have conscious choice over where to haunt, but
> it would probably be the place most significant to them, which might
> or might not be the place they died.

I'm too tired to look up the quote, but IIRC Moaning Myrtle said some
happily nasty reminiscent about having made Olive Hornsby's
post-Hogwarts life a misery to her, until Olive got an MoM restraining
order against Myrtle, after which Myrtle had to haunt at Hogwarts
because no one else was willing to take her.

And it is now an hour after my bedtime! I will suffer terribly tomorrow!

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