Voldemort's strategy in Year Six - his Hit List

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 123280


Jim Ferer wrote:
> 
> Keeping Hogwarts secure is the primary strategy for accomplishing
> this.  Hogwarts is now both the strategic and operational center of
> gravity of the wizard world in this war, not the Ministry.  The
> parents of the students will, I think, pin the hopes of protecting
> their children on Dumbledore and Hogwarts rather than bringing their
> sons and daughters home.  The adults will face danger for themselves
> if they believe their children are being cared for.
> 
> Jim Ferer

Eustace_Scrubb:
On the flip side, one of the best ways for LV to sow panic and doubt
would be to show that Hogwarts is not as secure as the parents would
like to think it is.  How might that be accomplished?

(Eustace pauses to remove one of his favorite dead horses from the
paddock for another beating...)

I still wonder whether the Hogwarts Express and/or Platform 9 3/4
might be vulnerable to an attack.  Obviously they are protected from
Muggles and undoubtedly there are other magical defenses for the train
and the platform too.  But we do have some evidence that these
defenses are not considered foolproof.  In POA, someone apparently
felt Sirius Black could have slipped onto the train and hence
authorized the Dementors to stop and board.  I tend to think this was
a genuine fear...the alternative would seem to be that Umbridge or
someone else at MoM was trying to eliminate Harry much earlier than we
are led to believe in OoP--not impossible, but I don't think we've
been given much reason to believe that so far.  

Also, JKR has said that LV's supporters will do things that even
Muggles will begin to notice.  Again, some sort of incident in a
location where the WW and Muggle world are cheek-to-jowl would be
likely to fit the bill--perhaps the Muggle portion of the station
suffering collateral damage in an attack, or at least something that
reveals the existence of the platform to the Muggles.

If LV can demonstrate that transportation to and from Hogwarts is not
safe, he would do a great deal to damage to Dumbledore's image as the
WW's potential savior.

Cheers (ever so darkly),

Eustace_Scrubb