What were the Malfoys DOING there?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 113262

Hannah wrote: 
The real question here is what Lucius Malfoy was hoping 
> to achieve with the diary.  I can think of three possibilities:
> 1. Restore LV to power through diary Tom
> 2. Kill off as many mudbloods as possible, and get the school shut 
> down.
> 3. Discredit Arthur Weasley, hopefully killing some mudbloods along 
> the way.
> 
> If 1 or 2 were his ultimate aims, it wouldn't have mattered which 
> student he used.  If 3 was his goal, he had to use Ginny (none of 
> the boys would have written in a diary).
> 
> I doubt that 1 was his aim.  Lucius doesn't seem to be suffering 
> from LV's absence, and if he really wanted him back, he could go and 
> find vapour!mort in Albania or wherever he is (Pettigew manages it, 
> so I'm sure Lucius could).

Carol responds:
I agree that Lucius seems to be doing quite well in Voldemort's
absence, but I'm not so sure that he could have discovered Vapormort
in Albania if he'd wanted to. Pettigrew had the advantage of being in
rat form and being able to talk to other small animals, who told him
about a terrible being that was possessing little creatures like
themselves. True, Quirrell also found Vapormort (and was possessed by
him--sort of--actually LV was more like a parasite who allowed his
victim to keep his own identity as long as he did LV's will--sorry to
go OT here). But I'm not sure that Quirrell was actually searching for
him. There's no evidence that he was ever a Death Eater--just young,
naive, and manipulable. Pettigrew, of course, went to LV because no
one else wanted him. Malfoy, as you say, had no motive for going back
to the vaporized Voldemort. But just possibly, he may have wanted to
bring back a young, attractive Riddle!mort in place of the vaporized
one, but it's hard to imagine Lucius taking orders from an apparent
sisteen-year-old and the more I think about it, the more unlikely it
seems.

He must have opened the diary at some point and communicated with Tom,
who gave him the idea of using it to kill Muggleborns. I doubt that
Diary!Tom would have revealed the part about being restored to human
form to slippery Lucius. (The part about discrediting the Weasleys may
not have been part of the original plan; it was probably an
afterthought on Lucius's part, an extra benefit for him that really
had nothing to do with Diary!Tom.
>
Hannah (thoroughly snipped): 
> 2 is a possibility; death's of non-purebloods <snip>

Carol:
People keep talking about half-bloods possibly being killed off,
intentionally or accidentally, perhaps because Dobby is concerned for
Harry's safety. But it appears from Diary!Tom's own words that only
genuine Muggleborns were targeted, along with "the Squib's cat." Tom
himself is a half-blood, and he regards Harry, also a half-blood, as a
worthy opponent. I know I'm in the minority in this, but I think
Diary!Tom, while he was possessing Ginny, could see his potential
victims and somehow identify them as "mudbloods"--maybe through
Legilmency in some form. I don't think that Ginny, a brand-new
first-year, would have known who was Muggleborn and who wasn't--unless
Draco was right when he said in GoF that the DEs know a "mudblood"
when they see one (and would target Hermione if they found her).



Hannah wrote: 
> I think he was motivated by a combination of 2 and 3.  The timing 
> suuggests that killing off muggle-borns was not his only aim - why 
> not do it beforehand if so?  But at the start of CoS he has a 
> problem; Arthur Weasley's muggle protection act, and this is going 
> to affect the one thing that Lucius *really* cares about - himself.  
> He realises he has an ideal opportunity to prevent the muggle 
> protection act, remove DD, and maybe even kill off some children 
> (you can see why it was so appealing). <snip>

Carol:
Can you explain how you think that preventing the Muggle Protection
from going on the books would benefit Lucius? Are you saying that
Muggle torture and Muggle killing are legal in the WW? (Maybe they
are; maybe Sirius was considered guilty of killing Pettigrew and
regarded as an accessory to the murder of the Potters, and the Muggles
weren't even considered. And no one seems to have tried to determine
exactly who was tossing the Muggles around at the Quidditch World Cup,
though the MoM officials did put a stop to the incident.) Not sure
what I think about this. It's clear, though, that Malfoy Sr. and Mr.
Weasley are personal enemies as well as being on opposite sides.

Carol, with apologies for posting without having read all the responses