Draco the Death Eaters and Voldemort (was: Re: Draco's culpability...)

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 139897


> Betsy Hp:
> I agree with everything except that last part.  Draco obviously 
> expected Death Eaters to arrive once he'd restored the Cabinet, and 
> I believe I've stated that I'm aware of that.

One thing I don't think I heard you say was what sort of punishment 
Draco should recieve for his actions. Even if there were mitigating 
circumstances there should be a consequence to his actions. After 
all, it wasn't like he was being held at gunpoint. He kept up his 
actions even after he was safely behind the wards of hogwarts and he 
could have gone to dumbledore at any time. Should he have his wand 
snapped? should he be imprisoned? What should happen to him according 
to you?

> Betsy Hp:
> Yes.  And yet, one in which Draco gains no lethal skills.  That 
> interests me.  Just as it interests me that, though the end is 
> assassination, the means is so very benign.

Ummm...assassination, no matter the mechanism, is never benign. It's 
methodical murder.
 
> Betsy Hp:
> True.  And it's to Draco's credit (in a coldly intellectual way) 
> that he was able to do the impossible and breach Hogwarts' 
> security.  Though I'm betting Voldemort will still punish (if not 
> kill) Draco for failing to pull the trigger in the end.

While I am the first one to say that Draco is smarter than I gave him 
credit for I think Draco's success is more due to Dumbledore's 
failure than his own intellect. As much as I like Dumbledore there 
was no excuse for letting him continue on his mission when his every 
act either directly or indirectly put his students and faculty in 
danger. Two of his students very nearly died. It was totally 
irresponsible to allow Draco to continue just because none of his 
plans had not yet led to an actual death.

> Betsy Hp:
> Thank goodness for Dumbledore. <g> 

Why thank goodness for Dumbledore? Dumbledore has no authority to 
give forgiveness or pass a benediction to Draco. The only people who 
can do that are the ones he hurt or nearly killed. What would Bill, 
Ron, and Katie think of Dumbledore calling Draco an *innocent* and 
trying to get him into hiding so he can avoid the consequences of his 
actions?

 > Betsy Hp:
> But the two attempts were neither sophisticated nor efficient.  
> Neither Katie nor Ron were the intended victim.  Katie was actually 
> the messenger, and when you kill your messenger before message 
> delivery you've pretty much destroyed your plan.

Does the fact that they were inefficient matter? He still attemped to 
kill dumbledore and nearly did kill two other people. that is quite a 
bit of blood regardless of efficiency. 
 
> Compare that with the beauty of the Cabinet plan, opening a back 
> door not even Dumbledore realizes exists, and it's pretty apparent 
> (to me anyway) that Draco really didn't put much effort into the 
> first two attempts. 

I don't think the cabinet plan was part of the dumbledore murderplot. 
seems to me that they were two different battle plans. Even with 
Dumbledore dead, there were still wards enough to make it difficult 
to get into hogwarts so the vanishing cabinet was still needed either 
way. I think the attempts were genuine good faith attmepts on 
Dumbledore's life, but after they failed he probably hoped the 
distraction of the death eaters getting into the castle would let him 
get close enough to knock DD off.

phoenixgod2000