Voldemort's Mission Implausible

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 40157

To me, one of the fundamental plot (as opposed to thematic or characterisation) weaknesses of the Spying Game theory (Message 40044) is the long time before Voldemort is rescued.  There are a number of possibilities involving the notion of loyal DEs (in all that follows I assume that some DEs at least are loyal, but I don't assume that Voldemort can be sure of it):

(a) Voldemort really is unable to contact the DEs and they are unable to find him.  In that case we have to explain how Pettigrew could succeed where others had failed.

(b) Voldemort is unable to contact the DEs but they could find and contact him fairly readily.  In this case, if in fact loyal, why did they not do so?

Scenario 1: Voldemort did not wish to be found, so although they tried, he hid and they failed.  In this case, why?  The most likely explanation seems to be that he did not, in fact, trust them in his weakened state.  He is only prepared to trust Pettigrew because of his unique situation as one requiring protection from both sides in the war.

The best we can make of this is that Malfoy and others *are* loyal, but Voldemort believes that they are not, or at least dare not risk it.  If so, he has been pleasantly surprised by the graveyard scene (but, of course, does not show it).  It really means that the hardest part of the potion was the flesh of the servant: any other servant than Pettigrew might, in Voldemort's planning estimation, walk away once the baby was dumped in the potion.  The only alternative was Crouch, who was needed to send Harry (could Voldemort have instead arranged for Crouch to *fetch* Harry?).

The main weakness of this scenario is that Voldemort is incredibly lucky (from his POV: I don't think it matters to this argument whether this is the result of Dumbledorean manipulation) that a Pettigrew is available.  He is out of contact by assumption (a): he doesn't even know Pettigrew is *alive*.

Scenario 2: The DEs did contact Voldemort but he did not make use of them.  This stretches belief.  If he trusted them enough to meet them when they turned up in Albania, in his weakened state, would he not have gone ahead with re-embodiment much earlier, say, when Harry was four years old?  The hue and cry for DEs would have died down: V could come back to England and start to rebuild his power base.  He still has the obstacle of the Dursleys if he is to insist on using Harry, so he may have to wait until he starts Hogwarts, but he would be in a position to manipulate his placemen into Hogwarts in advance at least.  And, if there are other ways to re-embody, or get to an acceptable immortality, he has more freedom with DE support to try them out.

Onward.

(c) Voldemort is able to contact the DEs but they have trouble locating him.

If he refuses to try, this is another version of Scenario 1 above.  The DEs are in fact trying, but he keeps out of their way.  If he contacts them and tells them how to find him, then this moves us into...

(d) Voldemort and the DEs can contact each other, and do so.

This may seem to be a version of 2 above but there is another possibility: that he can do remote contact, while concealing his precise location from presumed untrustworthy DEs.  One can envisage the following sort of conversation:

Voldemort (in Albania, breathing noisily): Good evening, Lucius.  The emperor has swept away the last vestiges of the old republic - oops, wrong script... (squeaks as he adjusts set)... SurPRISE!
Lucius Malfoy (at Malfoy Manor): My Lord! How delightful!  And may I compliment you on your very fetching and ever-so-slightly suggestive snake?
V: Lucius, I want you to dig out my old school diary and hang around Flourish and Blotts until you can palm it on one of the Weasley children.  Then await further orders.
LM: My Lord, where are you? Only tell me and I can apparate to your side in an instant. I can organise accommodation at Little Hangleton.  I can provide every wizarding luxury.
V: Not so fast, my slippery friend!  I have no doubt you would be only too happy to have me in your grasp in my weakened state.  No, if you are as loyal as you say, then obey my orders.  The diary, darling!

...and so on.

This looks a bit more likely, but ultimately one is still left wondering what, absent Pettigrew, Voldemort's plan precisely *was*.  The DEs all imagine that Pettigrew is a traitor (and if Voldemort suspects different, and disabuses the DEs of it, he then runs the risk that Pettigrew loses all motivation to assist Voldemort since he no longer need fear the DEs) and have no idea where he is, if they don't just assume he is dead.

So, SPYGAME theorists: You are a disembodied Evil Overlord, stuck in a backward part of Europe.  Your rather odd servant Wormtail is missing, presumed dead.  Your enemies the aurors have gone back to Alert State Black and are no longer surveilling your servants.  You know which, if any, of your servants you can trust, and how far.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with a master plan which will bring you back to full power - and this is the important bit - and to take *fourteen years or more* to do it.

Please swallow this message before reading it.

Bwhahahaha!

David, who has affectionate memories of Albania and reckons a dose of the coffee would have solidified Voldemort much easier than all this airy-fairy potions nonsense


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