Lucius Malfoy's Ambition

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 126457


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard Jones" 
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:

<snip>

> 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.

This is the big problem for me...if Malfoy is so smooth, so high up, 
he's still stuck doing the s***work along with everyone else at the 
end of OotP, and he's not important enough to rescue individually.  
When caught like he is, with a large group of fellow travelers, 
getting out legally is going to be nigh on impossible, especially 
given that we already know that Fudge is out.

I think we have greatly overestimated Lucius' actual skills.  He's 
wily in CoS, but his thuggish behavior (threatening families--not 
smoove) is not exactly the epitome of subtle.  (Not that Slytherins, 
unlike in their fanon incarnations, are always subtle either.)  And 
if he was primarily out for himself, I think he has been firmly put 
back in place by OotP.  When Voldemort says "Hop!", he says "How 
high?".

Perhaps you might consider that Lucius is, shockingly, a genuinely 
devoted ideologue.  He's certainly not powerful or competent enough 
to be the Dark Lord in waiting, but he also seems to genuinely 
believe in the political ideals that Voldemort is pushing.  The diary 
thing is admittedly very curious--does he know who and what Tom 
Riddle really is?  Bella doesn't.  One wonders if it works out 
consistently, though.  JKR's points often don't and you'll drive 
yourself insane trying to make things work out completely coherently.

-Nora gets back to less fun things (howdy, y'all)