Voldemort in COS

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 39849

OK, here's my understanding of why Dumbledore says what he does about 
Voldemort in COS.

Pip wrote:
>
In CoS Dumbledore says:
> "What interests me most is how Lord Voldemort  managed to enchant 
> Ginny..."
> 
> [This is a Voldemort plan]

At this point Dumbledore knows (indeed has known since opening 
Creevey's camera) that a (the?) Basilisk is involved and that this 
requires a Parselmouth.  Since what has been going on is plainly 
evil, Voldemort is the obvious suspect as the only other known 
Parselmouth is Harry.  He is also concerned to reassure Ginny and her 
parents that she is not to blame and can probably sense that Harry is 
holding back information for fear that she might.  So he throws out 
that line with the double aim of getting Harry to speak while showing 
the Weasleys that the stakes are very high.  The question vapour!
Voldemort or diary!Voldemort is meaningless to him at this time.
 
> After he's been given the diary:
> 
> "Older and wiser wizards than she [Ginny] have been hoodwinked by 
> Lord Voldemort"
> 
> [This is still a Voldemort plan]

Again his main concern is to reassure Ginny and her parents.  The 
hoodwinking is not necessarily that she was a pawn in a master plan, 
just that she was deceived by Riddle in the diary.  To be taken in by 
Riddle (as indeed Harry was) *is* to be hoodwinked by Lord 
Voldemort.  Dumbledore wants to emphasise to Ginny that though she 
feels like a fool, she is in distinguished company. And to her 
parents that in the circumstances punishment is inappropriate.
 
> "But this time,  Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. 
By 
> means of this diary." (and Dumbledore is described as 'watching Mr. 
> Malfoy closely').
> 
> [This is a Voldemort plan. Voldemort had to give someone else 
orders 
> to do the actual work, but this is a Voldemort plan].

I take it Dumbledore means Riddle acting through Ginny.  He watches 
Malfoy closely because he suspects he had something to do with it.  
He doesn't know (as we don't) whether the diary is a carefully 
calculated move in a wider game or just a piece of opportunism.  
Malfoy doesn't let him know, and nor, ultimately, do Dobby and Harry.

My biggest difficulty with the whole diary plot is the scene in 
Flourish and Blott's.  Are we to suppose that Malfoy hung 
suspiciously around the shops in Diagon Alley for the last week or so 
of the summer holidays on the off-chance that he would catch the 
Weasleys on their day there?  I prefer the interpretation that he 
knew he could slip the diary onto *some* student, and got lucky with 
the Weasleys.  How much of what he knew the diary would do, we don't 
know.  Indeed, the diary itself is somewhat puzzling: Riddle says he 
created it to finish Slytherin's noble work, but he was easily 
distracted onto understanding and finishing off Harry, as well as 
ensuring his escape from the diary.  If Malfoy's idea was to attack 
Harry (and I think Dobby isn't implying that: he thinks everyone is 
in danger but cares more about Harry) then the diary went off on the 
wrong track initially; if it was to release the Basilisk, he was in 
danger of finding he'd released a whole lot more.

In short, if there was a coherent plan, there seems to have been no 
guarantee that Riddle would play ball with Malfoy (or old Voldemort); 
if there wasn't, well, there wasn't.

David