What were the Malfoys DOING there?

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 114333

Mac wrote: 
> > > No, No, No, not his 'new' target: I'm sorry to KEEP 
belabouring 
> > this 
> > > point, BUT why oh why does everone seem to keep 
ignoring 'Dobby's 
> > > warning'? when it is so strongly a cannon point? Dobby *knew* 
the 
> > > plot was about HP from the start. *HOW* we don't know. Even 
so, 
> > > there just doesn't seem to be any other explanation of Dobby's 
> > > behaviour in CoS.

Carol:

> Mac is right--Malfoy's plot apparently centered around Harry from 
the
> beginning. But how could it? How could he know what the diary 
would do
> if he hadn't written in it, and if he *had* written in it, why 
would
> he think that killing "mudbloods" had anything to do with Harry?

 
Ah, but Dobby doesn't say the plot was about HP.  What he says is 
quite interesting.  He says he knows of "a plot to make most 
terrible things happen at Hogwarts. . . . Harry must not put himself 
in peril.  He is too important, sir!" 

We can also surmise that Lucius intended the diary to release the 
basilisk to "purge the school of all who were [in Slytherin's view] 
unworthy to study magic."  According to Binns, this meant those who 
were not from "all-magic families."  Lily's Muggleborn status may 
have put Harry at risk, even though all of the basilisk's victims 
were Muggleborns, and not children of Muggleborns.  This would be 
one possible explanation of Dobby's concern for Harry.  I think 
Lucius's actual goal may not have been for the Basilisk to "get 
Harry" per se, but to wreak havoc at Hogwarts so that Dumbledore 
would be dismissed as headmaster, as he tried to do later in CoS.

What I find really interesting, though, is Dobby's reason for trying 
to keep Harry away from Hogwarts:  Harry is "too important."  How 
does he know of Harry's importance?  Is it because he knows about 
the Prophecy?  Dobby seems to know a great deal about Harry (do the 
Malfoys talk about him *that* much?), and he knows that it's Riddle 
in the diary.  Maybe what Dobby fears is a confrontation between 
Riddle and Harry that Harry will be too young to handle.

Debbie
who thinks Dobby learned about the Prophecy from his deceased former 
masters, the Potters, and that's why he's so loyal to Harry