Draco vs. Dumbledore or What was V thinking?!? (was: Re: Spinner's End...)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 157328

> >>Mike:
> > What I want to know is why LV wants Draco to infiltrate some    
> > DEs. When DD is at full strength he had no problem handling,    
> > what 9, 10 of them in the DoM, and LV knows it. So LV is going   
> > to send 6-8 of his less than Sterling DEs into Hogwarts where DD 
> > will be on his home turf and will probably have Order and       
> > Teachers to call on.

Betsy Hp:
Ah, but remember, Draco waited to call in the Death Eaters until 
*after* Dumbledore had left the building.  There were Order members 
lurking about, but that was a big secret, wasn't it?  Especially 
that there were Order members actually *inside* the castle.  
Remember, the Death Eaters were supposed to take everyone 
*completely* by surprise.  Draco wasn't supposed to be suspected at 
all.

> >>Mike:
> > If he expected Draco to fail at killing DD (and face it who 
> > wouldn't) what does he expect his DEs to do? 
> > <snip>
> > I'm not so sure LV is such a brilliant tactician. There might be 
> > method to his madness, but all I'm seeing so far is the madness.
 
> >>Ceridwen:
> Following on from your paragraph before, if LV expects Draco to    
> fail, I thought at first that LV expected the DEs to back him up, 
> kill DD in case he did fail, and kill Draco too for failing.  Why 
> else send a monster like Fenrir Greyback? 
> <major snip>
> All of the DEs there, and Greyback, seem like liabilities.  If    
> they are killed or captured, LV and the DEs are better off.  Sort-
> of like the Brown-shirts who were gotten rid of, since they were   
> so brutal they were a liability, once Hitler gained power.  Maybe 
> we saw the Brute Force Squad of the DE here?

Betsy Hp:
Oh I totally agree that we saw the Brute Force Squad of the Death 
Eaters.  Voldemort sent in his beserkers, not because he *wanted* to 
get rid of them, but because they would cause the most damage and 
they were, in the end, expendable.

Remember, Draco is being set up to fail here.  This is a plan born 
of rage, as per Snape, and Voldemort's main goal is to punish 
Lucius.  A dead Draco does that much better than a live Draco 
covered in Death Eater glory.  So Voldemort sends through his 
bloodiest, most violent, loves kids in *all* the wrong ways, Death 
Eaters not to back Draco up, but to cause untold havoc.

Sure, the teachers of Hogwarts are no easy pickings, but they should 
have been taken completely by surprise.  The Death Eaters should 
have been able to spread through the school, not get bunched up in 
one section of hallway.

And Draco would have been distracting Dumbledore.  With the added 
bonus of possibly forcing Dumbledore to kill a child (something I 
think Voldemort would realize Dumbledore would be loath to do).

Sure in the end, Dumbledore and the teachers would have prevailed, 
but at what cost?  Would any kind of body-count be acceptable to the 
WW?  Talk about a psychological coup.

> >>Mike:
> > <snip>
> > Snape wasn't part of the plan because he was still in his office 
> > knitting tea cozies when Draco and the DEs where on the tower.
> > <snip> 

> >>Ceridwen:
> <snip>
> But, now we have Snape being out of the loop, "knitting tea        
> cozies" while the action is coming down.  So, what did he really   
> know at Spinner's End?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Snape wasn't part of the plan because he wasn't supposed to take 
part in it.  Snape (as Ceridwen points out in a part I snipped) is 
not a beserker.  He's not cannon fodder.  So Voldemort would expect 
him to stay out of the way.  Snape will know that Draco has a 
mission to kill Dumbledore (Snape was probably there, based on some 
of his comments, during the rage fest that led to this plan) but he 
won't know the nitty-gritty because he doesn't need to know the 
details.

Once the poop hit the fan Snape would realize what was going on and 
act accordingly (which was probably to lay low, *maybe* take out 
Dumbledore if the chance arose.)  But really, the mad-dog crazies 
attack Hogwarts was Bellatrix's show.  This was her chance to show 
Voldemort that she could get it done.  (Sly Snape manages to steal 
her thunder.  Wonder how that's going to go down?)  So Snape knew 
enough to keep him out of trouble and to keep him from completely 
screwing up the plan.  But he didn't know the exact details because 
he didn't need to know.

> >>Carol, who's also confused as to how having Draco complete his 
> > assigned task (killing DD) would give Snape a little more time   
> > to spy at Hogwarts since there would be no one left to spy on    
> > except McGonagall and Flitwick, neither of whom seems           
> > particularly important to the Order

> >>Ceridwen:
> I've wondered the same thing.  The only person left at Hogwarts of 
> interest to LV would be Harry.  
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
But a Snape still at Hogwarts would be a Snape still in the Order.  
And the time you *most* need information on your enemy is when that 
enemy is thrown into chaos.  It would have been incredibly helpful 
for Voldemort to know just how badly the Order was thrown by 
Dumbledore's death, who exactly was primed to take over (if anyone), 
what new plans of action are being taken, what use will they make of 
Harry, how will they protect Harry, etc.

Obviously it's not the be all, end all.  Killing Dumbledore is huge 
and I don't think Voldemort is going to be too out done with Snape.  
(Voldemort still has delicious reason to punish Draco in any way 
he's sees fit.  He can still make Lucius squirm.)  But if there had 
been a way for Dumbledore to die and Snape to remain undercover, of 
course Voldemort would have preferred that. 

Betsy Hp (who ruthlessly snipped and cut and pasted and put just 
about everything out of order for her own organizational reasons <g>)