DE ages/ What's in it for Lucius? (Was : Different Evil Weasley?)

[Missi]

No: HPFGUIDX 68004

Coming out of lurkdom to make my first post here:


> some friends and I had over dinner tonight. What on EARTH is in it 
> for Lucius? Not only have he and Pettigrew together done almost 
all 
> the work to bring Voldemort back to eminence, but before there was 
> even the merest hint of rebirth possible, he was using a diary to 
> channel LV's spirit. WHY? Voldy lures in his followers with the 
> old "there is no good and evil, only power and those too weak to 
> seek it" routine, and I presume Lucius would have been 
particularly 
> susceptible to this approach. However, Lucius the successful 
> business man/ respected member of the community, making megabucks 
> and commanding seats in the Top Box just by flashing a couple of 
> Knuts at a syncophant, has absolutely nothing to gain by following 
a 
> rather incompetant wizard who keeps getting himself beaten 
> humiliatingly by a little boy. In fact, he has everything to lose.

I have wondered this myself, on many occasions. Pardon me for 
interjecting movie-stuff here- but JKR has said before that she 
makes comments to the filmmakers about which aspects of the story 
will be important down the road, so perhaps it is germane. 

"I do hope the ministry is paying you well- all those extra raids," 
Lucius tells Mr. Weasley in the movie version of COS. (I'd check the 
book for details, but my son's got it in his room, in the middle of 
his series reread.) After seeing the corruption inherent in the 
Ministry during books 4 and 5, understanding Umbridge (and having 
myself experienced serious LOATHING of the character of Fudge while 
reading 5)... I have to ask, how DO the ministry treat those 
under 'suspicion' of having some relationship to Voldemort? 

Would it be possible that the MOM is actually guilty of persecuting 
certain portions of wizarding society? Seizing their property, among 
other things? Perhaps what motivates Lucius is nothing more than 
resentment and the foolish desire to preserve an archaic way of 
life. He's been raised to see himself as better than a large portion 
of society, but the rules have changed, and now he finds himself 
under the control of people he thinks are his inferiors. They can do 
what they like to him, and his fellows- and probably have. What 
contortions did he have to go through to avoid Azkaban the first 
time? What sort of things are involved in those Ministry raids? We 
simply don't know until JKR tells us. But there is enough hinting 
laid down in the pages to formulate a theory that the MOM is not 
particularly good, or fair, all of the time. It's not hard to 
imagine that an administration that got the details of the Potter 
family executions so terribly wrong has made other mistakes along 
the way. Hagrid and Sirius both spent time in Azkaban for crimes 
they didn't commit; who else is in there wrongly? What other errors 
have been made? An administration peopled by persons like Umbridge 
makes me shudder- what liberties could be taken with someone's 
rights, person, and property? Look at what's been done to Harry, 
hero of the wizarding world, in the name of preserving the status 
quo. Do we think those old, pureblood families automatically 
recieved better treatment? Here's a scary thought..Has anyone given 
a Ministry-sanctioned Dementor's kiss ever been innocent of the 
crime of which they were convicted? 

In Lucius Malfoy's case, it might not be "better the devil you know" 
so much as "better the devil who owes you more favors." If Voldy 
pulls off his coup, Lucius is in a position to be top dog in a 
Pureblood-run world, able to get his revenge on those he thinks have 
wronged him in some fashion, able to preserve that obsolete way of 
life. And if he doesn't, at least until OOTP, he had his bases 
fairly well covered with the Ministry. Maybe Lucius is an idealist, 
working for a dream he has little hope of ever achieving.

Nmissi the speculative,
Nmissi at insightbb.com