What Came First: Task or Cabinet? - The Plan v1 & v2

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 157656

Mike:
> Wrap around from here to Carol's point above. It becomes pure 
> speculation as to whether Draco went to LV or was summoned by LV.
> But do remember, although Draco only threatened Harry at the end of 
> OotP, it was Dumbledore after all who actually captured his father. 
> That does seem like a pretty strong motivation for revenge. My 
> preference, Draco went to LV with the cabinet idea thinking he could 
> facilitate some terrorist raid on the school. (Thanks Betsy) He 
> never dreamed he would be assigned the task of killing DD.
> 

Pippin:
If Draco heard about the cabinets before the raid on the Ministry,
then there is an excellent chance that he told his father about his idea,
and *that* is how it reached Voldemort. It would be just like Voldemort
to make Lucius in some way the instrument of his own ruin.

I don't believe that Voldemort ever had the slightest belief that the
 cabinet could be fixed and I think Draco came to agree:

"But I got this far, didn't I?" he said slowly. "They thought I'd die in the
attempt, but I'm here..."  


If Voldemort had any serious idea of repairing that cabinet, would he
have assigned the task to an untried youth? 

If Voldemort  thought that the cabinet could be fixed, would he
have had Draco instructed in occlumency, yet left him on his own 
to discover how the cabinet could be repaired?

If Voldemort had been planning a raid on Hogwarts for months, why did
the  Death Eaters arrive with no plan in place  to get Dumbledore 
back to the castle (or, apparently, to wreak havoc in the corridors.) Their
supply of darkness powder was inadequate. They bunched up and were 
trapped by the Order instead of spreading out. Dumbledore was lured back 
successfully  only by luck.  The Dark Mark might just as easily have 
brought the Ministry rushing to the scene before Dumbledore returned. 

Isn't it a bit odd that in a castle of uncounted passages and 
one hundred forty-two staircases, a small group of DE's should just
happen to blunder into a small group of Order members?

And why should the attack have been scheduled for when Dumbledore
was out of the castle. Was it because while he was gone, certain Order 
members would be there, and one of them is a traitor? 


Pippin