Lucius Malfoy's Ambition

[Richard Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 126456


I want to argue that Malfoy, LV's "slippery friend" (OOTP 33/650), is 
trying to play both sides of the fence at the same time: he wants to 
come out on top no matter who wins.  He wants to become Minister of 
Magic if the good guys win and have LV killed by Harry and take over 
the dark side if the good guys lose.  Maybe he'll exploit the 
knowledge that Bellatrix gained that LV is not a pureblood to get a 
rift started among the DE's with him leading those who want a 
pureblood in charge.

On the one side, he has his flunky Bagman installed at the Ministry 
and was on the Board of Directors of Hogwarts before he messed things 
up in COS.  He also is a generous donator to St. Mungo's.  All of 
these are attempts to position himself powerfully in the wizarding 
world.

On the other side, he wants to have keep Harry alive because only 
Harry holds the key to having LV killed.  Two things point to this.  
First, notice that he saved Harry from being killed in the DoM.  
Second (and this is more speculative), I think he might have sent 
Dobby to Harry in COS to try to prevent him from going back to 
Hogwarts to protect him so that he would be alive later if LV came 
back to finish LV off for him.  Malfoy was trying to get the monster 
in the Chamber of Secrets released to rid the school of mudbloods and 
to discredit DD, and he would not want a non-pureblood like Harry in 
danger if he needed him later.  (I still don't know why Malfoy was 
trying to get Tom Riddle reborn.  Maybe he didn't know that that 
would be a consequence of his plan or that the monster was a 
Basilisk.  Did he know it was Riddle or just the "Heir of 
Slytherin"?  There is no evidence in COS or GOF that LV knew of 
Malfoy's actions in COS.)  How else could a House Elf go to help 
someone else except on orders from their masters?  They are bound to 
serve "one house, one family" — how else would Dobby go to help 
another even if Harry was responsible for the downfall of LV the 
first time and helped to improve the House Elves' treatment.  (But 
this does not explain why Dobby keeps hurting himself when he is 
helping Harry.)  Also, wouldn't Malfoy have noticed all the time his 
House Elf wasn't around?

Also consider the fact that Snape apparently hangs out with Malfos — 
Malfoy's "laddog" as Sirius called him — and his loyalties are not 
exactly clear.  It may be Malfoy who is the Order's spy, passing 
information through Snape.  Is it another instance of playing both 
until a winner is clear?

Of course, Malfoy now has a lot of explaining to do now that he has 
been caught in the DoM.  But his silver tongue may get him out of it 
again, just as he did after the first war.  But if LV helps him 
escape from Azkaban, then it will very hard for him to try to 
convince anyone that he really was on the side of the Ministry all 
along.

In short, Lucius is just a power hungry opportunist with no 
convictions on either side.  He can be sure to be on the winning side 
by being on both sides and becoming number one on whichever sides 
wins.  Thus, he doesn't care who wins as long as he comes out on 
top.  He's the paradigm of Slytherin ambition and sliminess.

Richard Jones