Was Draco's task surprising?

[macfotuk]

No: HPFGUIDX 134287

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "snipsnapsnurr" 
<snipsnapsnurr at y...> wrote:
> Am I the only one who thought right up until the scene in the 
lightning 
> struck tower that Draco's task was to kill Harry? 

Didn't really know WHAT he was up to, but was fairly sure it WASN'T 
to try to kill Harry (except that I agree with the idea posted long 
ago, e.g. by kneasy) that perhaps LV has finally concluded that 
altough there is nothing special about Harry in terms of *a*n*other* 
wizard might stand a chance of killing him even wgere some special 
charm prevents LV doing so and has several times to date. Even so, I 
always felt that LV was 'saving' Harry for himself (and JKR too, for 
the final book - Harry Potter and the Final Showdown). Like you I'm 
surprised it was DD that was the target, but I guess the thinking 
was to hit DD from a direction he might least expect, one of his own 
Hogwart's students.

The idea that 
> Voldemort would send a strutting little pissant like Malfoy to 
> assassinate the only man he had ever feared never even occured to 
me. 
> The reason I bring it up is because I think Dumbledore thought the 
same 
> thing. The last thing he did before being expelliarmus-ed was to 
freeze 
> Harry under the invisibility cloak. If he had realized that Draco 
was 
> after him rather than Harry, he probably would have done something 
> else. 

Nope!!!! I disagree. DD cottoned on EXACTLY to what was going on and 
knew that sooner or later an attack/his death was bound to happen, 
especially when his withered hand was a clear sign he was close to 
the end of his powers. He also knew (or at least hoped) it would be 
Snape (our half blood prince - now wasn't THAT a surprise? well it 
was to me at least), because they (DD/SS) agreed it in advance. 
That's why he pleads/begs (DD NEVER begs) - he's saying to 
Snape 'you MUST do this' (just as he told Harry you must do ALL that 
I say before they went on the cave trip), not only because it'll 
keep you in LV's good books where the good guys need you to be, but 
also because you'll then be able to protect Harry as your bond to 
James OBLIGES you to do, and because you won't then die from not 
honouring your *unbreakable* bond to Malfoy's mother AND because you 
at least will do it quickly and cleanly unlike many other DE's or 
LV. DD knows he's 'had his day' and that it's time to both make way 
for the 'chosen one' AND to let him get on with it alone, in his own 
unforseeable way. As such, you can see I am not yet persuaded that 
double, triple, and redoubled secret agent Snape may yet turn out to 
be acting nobly - a master stroke I think on JKR's part to leave him 
still so ambiguous (I loved his weasling with Bellatrix in the 
Spinner's End chapter btw - even convinced ME that he might be 
easily seen as evil and OK by even LV himself when I was thinking LV 
would have to be totally stupid to be taken in. Clearly, Snape is a 
TREMENDOUSLY skilled wizard, as his repeated parrying of Harry's 
attacks - like batting away the attempts of a child - showed near 
the end). Wish I knew whose side he was on really. Certainly, Snape 
is too smart a wizard not to have spotted Harry's (second) 
broomstick on the tower rooftop where later someone else (can't 
remember who) did so and concluded HP must have witnessed DD's 
demise. So, Snape arrives on the roof, takes in the situation as 
only he can, realises it's all up for either Malfoy or for DD, i.e. 
the latter and so puts into execution (reluctantly or otherwise) the 
pre-agreed plan. 
 

>Something to defend himself. 

There is NO doubt in MY mind that the DD at the end of OotP could 
have wiped the floor with everyone on that rooftop in HBP, even the 
alarmingly good Snape, but was either too weakened by the cave or 
else by events and aging during and since OotP, or else reluctant 
for his own good reasons to try.

>Also, didn't Harry warn Dumbledore 
> that Malfoy would act the next time Dumbledore left Hogwarts? And 
the 
> next time he left, he took Harry with him. Maybe to protect him?
> 
> Maybe that was Dumbledore's big mistake. He did say something in 
the 
> cave about old age underestimating youth.

Call me delusional (har har JKR interview with Melissa and Emerson 
btw - see her website), but I believe that DD has made few mistakes 
EVER, even those he rates himself as having been mistakes (he was 
ever his own harshest critic). 
> snipsnapsnurr