The Diary; LV's mudblood ancestry

[maria_kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 57301

Echa wrote: 
> I always got the impression that the Diary didn't really have much 
> to do with Harry, but rather it was all about Lucius pulling out a 
> card to play against Arthur Weasley in response to the Muggle 
> Protection Act. Had nothing to do with Voldemort, it was just 
> vengance, plain and simple.

Maria wrote:
> I'd have to say, yes and no. I think that jeopardising the Muggle 
> Protection Act was Lucius's primary motivation, but really he was 
> killing several birds with one stone - getting rid of Dumbledore 
> and several Muggle-borns as well as helping out Arthur with his new 
> law. 

Valky Speaking: (all further quoted material from Valky's post)
> I disagree indupitably. Dobby was adamant in his pleas with Harry 
> that the planting of the diary was intended to bring direct 
> consequences on Harry.

Are you *sure* Dobby wasn't just telling Harry some story that Lucius 
Malfoy fed him? You know, sort of like Dobby "overheard" Fake Moody 
telling McGonagall about gillyweed in GoF?

> In my opinion, as I have mentioned in other postings. I don't think 
> that Lucius is a very powerful wizard. 

Well, we haven't seen Dumbledore do much difficult magic either, 
except for the Patronus in PoA, so I don't think that we can conclude 
that Lucius isn't very powerful. 

> He appears to get by relying 
> quite heavily on his wits and not his wizardry. 

I don't think we've seen Cunning!Lucius either. I mean, acting 
through others isn't necessarily a sign of cunning, is it? Voldemort 
does call him "my slippery friend," but really, is there *anyone* 
who's met the man think that he was "just Imperio'd?"

I'm really not so sure if he's all that smart. He has a lot of 
influence, to be sure, enough to compensate for a hypothetical lack 
of brilliance.

> I dont believe that 
> Lucius would have the courage to open and converse with the diary. 
> Although, it was obvious that he was aware that the essence of a 
> powerful Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, was stored within it
> He smuggled it into Hogwarts using a Weasley child for the reason  
> of discrediting Arthur, quite probably.

Agreed.

> However, his prime motivation was to unleash Lord Voldemort so he 
> could do away with Harry. 

To reiterate, I think that his primary motivation was to make 
Arthur's law fall through, but that he was aware that he'd be 
accomplishing multiple goals.

Really, why would he feel the need to do away with Harry, especially 
since he's no reason to believe that Diary!Riddle would be trying to 
do it, instead of sic'ing the Basilisk on Muggle-borns? 

Lucius is quite comfortable the way he is now.

> Lucius is threatened by a great many wizards, not least of all 
> Dumbledore and Harry Potter. The diary, for him, was a weapon, to  
> use against the more powerful wizards that threaten his rise to 
> superiority in the wizarding world.

How is he threatened by Dumbledore and Harry Potter?

> I believe his plan was something like this:
> Find a child in Hogwarts to give the diary to. Once it is in the 
> hands of a curious, foolhardy, first year student witch or wizard, 
> the power of Lord Voldemort will be released to take its revenge on 
> Hogwarts. Riddle could do away with Dumbledore, or at least
> discredit him enough to have him shamed out of his position of 
> influence in the wizard world. He could also take on the 
> inexperienced Potter boy and get rid of him too. I think the murder 
> of mudbloods was inconsequential to Lucius, or at most, a sideshow 
> to the main event. 

Again, I don't think that Lucius had any reason to believe that 
Riddle would be interested in taking on Harry. The last time the 
Basilisk was released, a Muggle-born girl died - that's all. Riddle 
himself stated that he wanted to rid the school of Muggle-borns. 

But I agree with you that the murder of Muggle-borns wasn't something 
Lucius was particularly interested in - it was simply a side dish.

> Which would be, to get Tom Riddle to do his dirty work for him and 
> take on the big guns at Hogwarts. 
> He then planned to work together with Voldemort to restore the DE 
> movement to power through Hogwarts. He also made an assumption that 
> his hand in freeing Tom Riddle would bring him favouritism with his 
> master LV.

You know, I'm so not sure that Lucius knew all the particulars of the 
diary magic...

> And finally, Why Ginny? It was a bonus that the feckless Ginny was 
> available to him right at the particular moment that he planned to 
> dispose of the diary. Why not take down Arthur Weasley while he was 
> at it? 

Lucius comes, picks a fight... nah. He planned it.

To quote bboy_mn, that's my story and I'm sticking to it... unless 
someone manages to convince me otherwise. ;-)

Maria