Dobby's motives in C of S

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 32652

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "day782002" <elizabethlouiseday at h...> 
wrote:
> I have been wondering why Dobby initially approaches Harry in the 
> beginning of C of S. [snip]  If Lucius has been plotting to enable 
> the diary to be used to reopen the chamber then why not get Draco 
> to do it?  

CoS suggests many intriguing things about Lucius Malfoy, although he 
seems to be a somewhat peripheral character in it.  The following 
things are possible:

Lucius Malfoy 

1) knows that Tom Riddle became Voldemort
2) knows that Tom Riddle, not Hagrid, opened the chamber of secrets, 
and that therefore Hagrid's expulsion was bogus
3) knows what happens when someone writes in the diary
4) knows that there is a basilisk in the chamber

Now, as to the question of why he doesn't have Draco write in the 
diary instead of trying to put Ginny in this position: If he knows 
that writing in the diary drains the life-force from the person who 
does this, it's possible that he doesn't want this to happen to his 
son.  It's also possible that if he knows about the basilisk, he 
would feel that his son would be at risk from the creature, as 
well.  Plus, if anyone caught Draco killing roosters or doing any of 
the other things Ginny did while under the diary's influence, Draco 
is the one who would get in trouble, which would make Lucius Malfoy 
look bad.

Lucius Malfoy seemed to be largely motivated by hatred of Arthur 
Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act.  (We get the impression that 
he's thrilled about Arthur getting in trouble for the Flying Ford 
Anglia.)  The idea of Arthur Weasley's daughter being found 
responsible for setting a beast on Muggle-born students was 
appealing to him.  His main miscalculations were that it didn't seem 
to occur to him that the school could be permanently shut down 
because of the chaos caused by the basilisk, and he also didn't 
consider that Draco could still be at risk, since truthfully, the 
basilisk didn't care which students were Muggle-born and which 
weren't.  

The part about Dobby intercepting Harry's mail and trying to prevent 
him from attending Hogwarts does seem like a bit of a plot hole, in 
retrospect.  Did Lucius Malfoy simply want to prevent Harry from 
returning because he rather outshone Draco during the previous 
year?  Did he really think Harry could be someone who could solve 
the mystery of the diary and defeat the basilisk?  He DID, but was 
that a realistic expectation of a twelve-year-old boy?  

Or, if Lucius Malfoy did not send Dobby to prevent Harry from coming 
to Hogwarts and Dobby merely did it on his own, then why?  Dobby 
didn't know Harry from a hole in the wall.  If he was trying to 
protect Harry from being at the school when there would be a 
basilisk wandering around the castle, it would make some sense for 
them to have a previous relationship.  The best we can do is 
speculate that Dobby heard Draco ranting about Harry Potter at 
Malfoy Manor, but that seems a poor prologue to the elf making the 
effort to go to Surrey and prevent Harry from going to school to 
protect him (and every time he does something he's not supposed to, 
Dobby has to start punishing himself).

I suppose we can comfort ourselves with the thought that the reason 
OotP is taking so long must be so that she can avoid plot holes like 
this and Flints like the wand-order mistake, and the fifth book will 
be completely free of any problems of this sort...

--Barb
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Psych
http://schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb