Dark Conspiracy; was; TBAY:Weasley Predisposition To Imperius?

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45480

Elkins writes;

>>I've always found myself curious about Lucius' plans for that Diary, 
actually. The timing of his slipping it to Ginny always seems to suggest to 
me that it was actually a spur of the moment decision, that Lucius was 
inspired by seeing the Weasleys there in the shop (not to mention by his 
brawl with Arthur and his irritation with the recent raids on his manor), and 
that he acted on that sudden impulse.

But if that's true, then one can't help but wonder what the *original* plan 
was supposed to be.  Did he originally intend to use Draco to get the Diary 
to Hogwarts?  That seems unlikely, given that he went out of his way to warn 
Draco to stay well out of the entire affair.  Also, he did bring the Diary 
with him to Diagon Alley, which seems to suggest that it had been his plan 
from the very start to slip it into *some* student's kit.

I think that he meant to give it to Harry.  From the very start, it is 
*Harry* Dobby identifies as particularly endangered by the Diary plot, and it 
is Harry Dobby tries to keep away from Hogwarts by any means possible. ...

<snip>

...My feeling is that Harry was the intended recipient for the Diary, and 
that Lucius changed his plan at the last minute out of pure malice and spite.

Of course, that doesn't mean that he couldn't have known all about Arthur's 
tangle with Imperius, or even suspected that Arthur's children might be 
vulnerable.  But I don't think that Ginny was his original choice to serve as 
the conveyor of Riddle's Diary to Hogwarts. <<

Welcome aboard The Dark Conspiriacy.

I've been harping on this for the past year. (WELL before joining this list.) 
I even posted it here, when I first showed up, a couple of months ago. (I 
never go onto the site so I have no clue what the post # was. The Digest 
doesn't give that info.) Thank you for picking it up.

It was a portkey, you realize. 

But, by now, I'm sure you also realize that this isn't actually a ship.

Yes. I say. I say that Harry *was* the intended recipient of the Riddle 
Diary. Nothing else makes any kind of sense. WHy on earth would Dobby try to 
warn Harry off of Hogwarts over a threat to Ginny Weasley, who he hasn't even 
(at that point) properly met? 

In all we get an interesting glimpse of tangled motives, non-communication 
and cross-purposes regarding Dobby's warning to Harry Potter. 

The warning was clearly Dobby's own axe to grind. He knew of the plot, but 
did not have the authority to contact Harry on his own initiative. Lucius has 
authority to burn, but he was spearheading the plot and would not have given 
Harry Potter the slightest hint that anything was up. The Weasley twins 
suggested that it was Draco who sent Dobby to try to keep Potter from 
retrning to Hogwarts. This is a bit fortuitous, but will just about work. 
Lucius Malfoy is not about to share his plans with a whiny 12-year-old. But 
Draco, as the son of the house, does have the authority to send Dobby on 
errands.

Now, just how cunning is Dobby? He clearly is of the "Harry Potter is the 
saviour of the Wizarding World" persuasion, regardless of who his employers 
are. He has been aware of Lucius's plans for Harry Potter since the plot was 
first hatched. But there is no way that he can contact the boy or give him 
any kind of warning within the bounds of his "contract" with the Malfoy 
family. Did he grasp the opportunity of hearing yet another session of 
Draco's grousing over "that wretched Potter" to lead a conversation to the 
point of getting Draco to order him to keep Potter away from Hogwarts? That's 
the only solution I can think of, off-hand that meets all the requirements 
acto information we have been given up to that point (and since). 

Now, on the other end of the equation; why did Lucius Malfoy choose *that 
particular moment* to deploy the Riddle diary in the first place? He knew 
when Potter was going to be starting Hogwarts. Why did he feel that it would 
be any easier to aproach him at the beginning of second year, rather than 
first, or third, or any other year? He has been safekeeping the diary (and, 
it is implied, other belongings of Tom Riddle) since the Dark Lord's fall. In 
common with Dumbledore, he knows that Voldemort is not dead, just absent. He 
does not have the authority to make free use of LV's property. Why did he 
suddenly decide to do it?

And does it *really* make sense that QuirrellMort would make *no* contact 
with *any* of his followers? Particularly once it was clear that Quirrell's 
body was failing?

QuirrellMort was in a bind by the end of the school year. He didn't trust 
Snape, because it wasn't clear exactly where his loyalties lay. He *had been* 
a follower, but Dumbledore may have won him over since then. Besides, who 
knew just how all-encompassing Dumbledore's security system was inside 
Hogwarts. No, better to do nothing which will show his hand openly here in 
Hogwarts. But there are plenty of owls for everyone's use, and Dumbledore 
doesn't read the staff's private mail. 

By the time he was killing unicorns to survive, it was clear that the Stone 
was in a labrynth which was designed to serve as a trap, and that he was 
unlikely to have more than one real chance at it. Afterwards he was going to 
have to make a break for it. His first priority is to capture the 
Philosophers' Stone, and to escape with it. Killing the Potter brat is a good 
deal lower on his list. After the failed attempt to throw the boy off his 
broom, QuirrellMort seems not to have interfered with Harry at all. And if 
Harry hadn't meddled in matters by entering the labrynth when he wasn't 
supposed to, QuirrellMort would have been stuck at the Mirror until 
Dumbledore and his allies caught him there, unless he gave up and left 
without the Stone. Their final confrontation would not have happened in that 
book. Killing Potter in his own (stolen) person while at Hogwarts is too big 
a risk for too small a result.

Which does NOT mean that he intends to allow Potter to live. Potter remains 
unfinished business. 

However, while at Hogwarts, Quirrell's failing body reminds him that he left 
a piece of himself behind at Hogwarts in the diary, and that if that fragment 
could be brought out of it, the revenant might well provide a willing and 
compatable host for his non-corporeal consionsness. The Elixer of Life would 
keep Quirrell alive more handily than unicorn blood, but he is able to move 
from one body to another and a fresh body with a willing host would be a far 
better candidate to share his immortality with. With a wonderful added bonus 
in the symetry which required that in order to call the revenant out of the 
diary, another life will be needed in trade. An exquisitely appropriate way 
of settling the score with Potter. 

How could Voldemort, from what we have seen of him, possibly resist it?

I do not know just when Lucius was first contacted, nor how Voldemort framed 
the contact. He would have needed to make sure that Lucius knew it was not a 
hoax, but I suspect that he didn't attempt to try to convince Lucius that he 
was back, tanned, rested and ready to party. And I think that the contact was 
all in one direction with Lucius holding himself in readiness for ins
tructions as a back-up. His place on the Board of Governors would have made 
intercession possible, should it have prooved necessary. As I've stated 
before, I believe that one of the last things QuirrellMort did before 
entering the labryinth was to owl Lucius Malfoy to tell him to deploy the 
Riddle diary. And that he clearly instructed Lucius to give it to Potter. We 
saw the plot go awry when Arthur dragged Lucius into a fistfight at Flourish 
& Blotts and things got personal. 

However, Lucius Malfoy was very much in evidence all through Harry's second 
year. Just about everywhere you turned yohu saw him and the Board of 
Governors, and their dictates. 

In Goblet, Voldemort's coldness toward his "slippery friend" Lucius seems 
singularly ungrateful given the efforts that Lucius had plainly been 
expending all through CoS toward getting his Master back. That the attempt 
had not succeeded was not for lack of trying on Lucius's part. Until you 
factor in the possibility that Voldemort has a specific *reason* to hold that 
particular failure against Malfoy. And I suspect that not following orders to 
the letter may be that reason. One begins to wonder just what the specifics 
of which failure were that he holds against the DE who he tortured with 
crucio (Avery? or Nott?). 

Oh, by the way. The door is not locked. Of course the doorknob could be 
another portkey...

-JOdel