(un)masking the DEs

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 120799


Hannah wrote:
  Oh, I love discussing this!  I still don't believe that 
> Lucius intended to bring back LV using the diary.  The idea that his 
> intention was to manipulate the young Riddle is a plausible one, but 
> the thing that bothers me is the timing.  Why do it then?  I think 
> Lucius was happy enough to be rid of LV - I don't think he would 
> enjoy all the subservience.  
> 
> To me, the diary was a way of unseating DD, discrediting Arthur 
> Weasley (and his new Muggle-protection legislation), and possibly 
> killing off Harry Potter.  I don't think Lucius knew the full extent 
> of its powers or realised that it could bring back a living young!
> Voldemort.  <snip>

Carol responds:
The question for me (besides how he got hold of the diary and whether
he had explored its powers by writing in it himself before giving it
to Ginny) is how much he knew about Voldemort's return. IOW, did he
know that LV had been inside Quirrell's head the previous school year?
Dumbledore tells Harry near the end of SS/PS that "the whole school
knows" what happened between him and Quirrell, but *how much* do they
know and how accurate is that knowledge? More specifically, what does
Draco "know" and what did he report to his father? Surely Lucius's
timing has something to do with the previous year's events(?)

Certainly by this time Lucius views Harry as a threat, and his
silencing Draco in CoS seems to suggest that something more than
Harry's status as the infant "hero" who "saved" the WW from LV is
involved here. I think Lucius knows that Harry saved the sorceror's
stone from Quirrell and that Quirrell was somehow connected with LV.
But Lucius could not have had any *direct* contact with either
Vapormort or Quirrellmort or that contact would have been revealed
later in the graveyard discussion. Did Lucius (in CoS) suspect that LV
was trying to come back and decide that he would bring about the
return in his own way so that Riddlemort would owe him a debt of
gratitude? Surely he had more in mind than disgracing the Weasleys (a
nice *side* benefit) and Dobby's behavior suggests that his target was
Harry. How could that be unless he knew that Riddle was Voldemort and
would discover Harry's identity through the diary and try to kill or
control him? And why try to kill Harry if he *didn't* want Voldemort
to return in some form?

Next time JKR holds a chat, I hope someone asks her what Lucius hoped
to accomplish by giving Ginny the diary!

Oh, and SSS, I don't think Lucius (graveyard scene) would have brought
up a *failed* attempt to restore LV, especially since he got off
pretty well compared with Avery. He was only reprimanded rather than
Crucio'd. Sometimes silence is golden.

Carol, whose fingers keep typing "Lucious" even though she doesn't
consider slippery Lucius at all luscious