Why did Snape take the UV? / Role of the Malfoys

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 157368

> > Magpie:
> > He isn't suddenly resentful towards Narcissa that I remember <snip>
> 
> Neri:
> Er
 Draco apparently doesn't tell his mother anything about the 
> vanishing cabinet plan, although he is quite desperate and she might 
be 
> able to help him with knowledge of how to fix it, or at least find 
> someone who has such knowledge....In fact, the more I think about 
it, even before asking "what 
> does Draco have against Snape in HBP?" I should have asked "what 
does 
> Draco have against his own mother in HBP?"

Magpie:
But you've only come to that question via the answer you already 
want.  "What does Draco have against Snape?" is asked by Harry within 
canon. We don't ask what Draco has against his mother because he's 
trying to protect his threatened mother in the story. There's no 
indication that Narcissa's not being in on the plan with Draco is due 
to Draco's resenting her.  He's trying to protect her and she's cut 
off, out of the story, away from Hogwarts. There's no reason to think 
Draco ought to be going to her with questions about how to fix a 
broken Vanishing Cabinet or that she has access to cabinet-fixers any 
more than he does (he asks Borgin).  He's trying to be the man here--
Narcissa's not even supposed to know about the task.  He has to fix 
the cabinet himself because he's the one at Hogwarts, whatever advice 
on the subject he's getting from books or correspondence.  Narcissa's 
in danger and he has to protect her, not go running to her and get her 
more involved.  That, I think, is the most important reason he's not 
going to Snape as well.  His father's just been taken away.  He's got 
to become the man of the family or not.  I think if he could go to 
Narcissa or Snape for help he'd be a different character.

I don't see anything in canon indicating that Draco is angry at 
Narcissa, much less suggest he's angry at her because something 
recently happened that made him suspect Snape was in love with her.  
There's nothing that rules out Snape being in love with Narcissa that 
I can find, but nothing that made me particularly think he did.  (I 
did start to get definite inklings about Snape/Lily in HBP, but it's 
just a feeling that's the way the author's leading at this point.)

Eddie:
I'm surprised that Narcissa didn't tell Draco to _SEEK OUT_ Snape for
help and guidance... that he could be trusted.

Magpie:
Draco knows know that Snape is trusted as far as Narcissa's concerned--
he even knows about the UV.  I think fears of Snape "stealing his 
glory" are at least somewhat a garbled version of his real fear, the 
fear that he is as inadequate as everyone believes.

Mike:
But, LV appears to be running low on DEs and to sacrafice 6-8 of
them for this seems like a poor trade-off. More importantly,
including Fenrir in the raid has the very real drawback of scaring
the bejesus out of even the Slytherins (presuming the attack went
off as planned), which would quite probably seriously damage future
recruitment efforts. Trade a tactical win for a strategic blunder?
You don't think he recruits followers to sacrafice them so easily,
do you?

Magpie:
Voldemort's happy to rule based on fear or Imperius if need be.  I 
don't think he'd care about scaring the Slytherins.  Being able to 
induce fear means he's powerful, which is attractive to some.

Mike:
LV *knows* that DD wouldn't kill Draco, wouldn't even come close to
needing to. Much more likely that Draco would be captured, which I
suppose is still a disgrace to the Malfoy name, right?

Magpie:
LV doesn't know DD wouldn't kill Draco.  DD even says (perhaps as part 
of that "you can't kill what's already dead" line that's not in all 
editions) that LV would expect DD's side to kill Draco in response to 
this.  It's the classic weakness of evil, that it can't imagine good's 
deicisions, like the decision to offer mercy to someone trying to kill 
you.

-m