The diary and Lucius's many reasons

[Diana]

No: HPFGUIDX 86480

Carpenter writes: 
> As for Lucius getting the diary directly from Voldemort, well, 
what's 
> to say that he couldn't have found it himself. Or even better, 
what's 
> to say that it was even a *real* diary? 
> 
> Dumbledore certainly never mentions anything to the effect of an 
> attempt to raise Voldemort; rather, it appears that Dumbledore 
thinks 
> that Lucius was trying to discredit Arthur Weasley and his Muggle 
> Protection Act.

I think Dumbledore was "not going to tickle a sleeping dragon", as 
the school motto goes, by avoiding the real reason the diary was 
planted with Ginny Weasley by Lucius Malfoy at Hogwarts.  At least 
Dumbledore was not going to address those issues with Lucius Malfoy 
in front of Harry.      

If Voldemort himself had given the diary to Lucius, or at least 
instructed him where to find it, I would question why the diary 
wasn't planted with another student much earlier.  And the answers 
to this question give some insight as to why the diary was 
introduced to Hogwarts when it was.  

Let's suppose two different scenarios.  Voldemort gives the diary to 
Lucius to use at a future date OR Voldemort's diary is siezed by a 
different zealous supporter immediately after his downfall.  If the 
latter is true, than Lucius either searches for or stumbles upon 
this diary at some time.  If he had found it years earlier, then why 
did he wait so long to plant it inside Hogwarts?  Especially with 
his own son present at Hogwarts while all this is going on?  Or 
maybe it could be argued that he might have just managed to locate 
the diary after a long search and this was the first chance he had 
to send it to school with a student?  

I would answer that he chose that SPECIFIC time to send the diary to 
Hogwarts for several reasons.  

Regardless of how Lucius ended up with the diary, he purposely 
planted it at Hogwarts in order for Riddle to "carry on Salazar 
Slytherin's noble work" by ridding the school of muggle-born and 
half-blood wizards, but that is just one of many big reasons for 
Lucius to do what he did.  There were hugely exciting 'bonus' 
opportunities to get more out of the diary than just the scouring of 
Hogwarts of muggle-born wizards.  And all of those bonuses were 
equally rewarding to Lucius.

The first bonus was his idea to plant the diary on Ginny Weasley.  
With this act, Lucius could cause great injury to the Weasleys 
(Ginny's death) plus bring shame, ridicule and possibly even 
criminal punishment (pro-muggles accused of killing muggle-borns) 
upon the Weasleys.  The following scandal might even have toppled 
Arthur's Muggle-Protection Act and ruined it from ever being 
passed.  I'm sure Lucius was also aware that Ginny's brother was 
Harry Potter's best friend.  Lucius couldn't have picked a more bang-
for-his-buck target than Ginny Weasley.  

The second bonus was the fact that Voldemort could, essentially, 
be 'reborn' in a new, strong, youthful body.  His master would be 
back and the war against muggles and basically everyone else NOT a 
Voldemort supporter would begin again.  I wouldn't have put it past 
old Lucius to wonder if he could exert more personal influence on a 
young Tom Riddle than the old, incredibly corrupted Voldemort.  I am 
assuming, of course, that Lucius was privvy to this aspect of the 
diary.  If he wasn't then I wouldn't be that surprised, honestly.

The third bonus was the very possible death of Harry Potter and 
perhaps many, if not all, of Harry Potter's friends and allies.  A 
large basilisk which kills people with a look was going to be 
running loose around the school, and Lucius knew (from Draco) that 
Harry did do quite a bit of off-hours and off-limits wandering 
around Hogwarts last year.  So, Lucius was more than likely hoping 
that Harry would run into the basilisk and drop dead.  
 
The fourth bonus was the removal of Albus Dumbledore as headmaster 
of Hogwarts.  Lucius was overjoyed to deliver the Order of 
Suspension to Dumbledore.   Not only would Dumbledore's absence 
allow Riddle more of a free reign, but it would 'hurt' Dumbledore's 
standing in the WW and cause Dumbledore distress.  Fortunately for 
the good guys, it seems evident that Lucius (and Riddle) do not know 
Dumbledore very well.  :)  And Lucius was probably hoping that chaos 
would reign to the point of Dumbledore's permanent removal as 
headmaster.  

I wonder if Lucius ever found out about or even suspected Riddle's 
change of plans once he began to come out of the diary?  Because 
Riddle ditched the age-old plans of Salazar Slytherin just so he 
could meet and then murder Harry.  Riddle really got his panties in 
a twist about his former future fate as revealed to him by Ginny. I 
suppose if Riddle had succeeded in killing Harry he could always 
have resumed terrorizing the school and murdering all those students 
he didn't think were worthy to study magic.  

One more thought.  I wonder how Lucius would have felt if Draco had 
mouthed off to a returned-to-the-flesh Riddle (which seemed likely 
to me, frankly) resulting in Riddle flaying Draco alive?  Whatever 
his motivations and grievances against muggle-borns and the 
Weasleys, what father puts a sociopathic murderer at the same school 
with his mouthy, no-common-sense son?  Not a bright one.  

Diana L.