What Came First: Task or Cabinet? - A tale of two Dracos

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 157695

> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> It's clear that Draco wanted to keep his plans secret from his    
> mother, so he couldn't just sneak off to Knockturn Alley any old   
> time.

Betsy Hp:
I just find it very odd that Draco would seek out Voldemort with a 
half-backed, not fully formed, might not work at all, plan.  And I 
find it even harder to believe that Voldemort, upon hearing the half-
assed plan, wouldn't send somebody to check up on it himself.

I also have a really hard time believing that Draco couldn't have 
talked his mother into going to Diagon Alley for some shopping much 
earlier in the summer.  Especially with Auntie Bella's help.

> >>Carol:
> At that point, he talks to Borgin about getting instructions
> to fix the cabinet and threatens to send Fenrir Greyback if he    
> doesn't cooperate. It's pretty clear at this point that he must   
> have told LV the plan and that at least some Death Eaters,        
> including greyback, are in on it.

Betsy Hp:
Why?  We have nothing to show that Draco was in communication with 
Greyback.  Considering his fear of werewolves (going back to PS/SS), 
it seems quite likely Draco is lying here.  It's not like we haven't 
seen Draco fronting before.  The boy excells at such behavior.

> >>Carol:
> So although I think that it's perfectly possible and very much in
> character (not to mention in line with Draco's expressed desire for
> revenge in OoP and the whole Montague subplot) for Drado to have   
> gone to LV in the first place...

Betsy Hp:
Actually, I'd say it's very much *not* in character for Draco to 
seek out Voldemort.  He's never taken such an active role in the 
past.  Never.  He prefers to make up clever songs, or create silly 
buttons than get actively involved.

I also don't see the follow through in Draco's expressed desire for 
revenge *on Harry personally* and the leap to a plan to take down 
Hogwarts into which Harry never enters. 

> >>Carol:
> ...(much more likely from a logical standpoint than LV coming     
> after *him* and Draco just happening to have the perfect way of   
> getting DEs into Hogwarts)...

Betsy Hp:
It's only logical if we're supposed to believe Voldemort approached 
Draco and asked him to figure out a way to get some Death Eaters 
into Hogwarts.  Which we're not. (As shown by what Draco under 
pressure to perfom and perfom now actually does: try and kill 
Dumbledore.)

What we *are* supposed to believe is that upon being told that he 
was to kill Dumbledore, Draco started thinking on various ways he 
could do such a thing and survive.  Then the logic of his cabinet 
plan shines through.  Get himself some back up, and (as suggested 
by... ooh, can't remember sorry, upthread somewhere) possibly get 
himself a way out.

> >>Carol:
> ...I don't disagree with Magpie's general approach to Draco's     
> character arc or her view of his deteriorating relationship with   
> Snape.

Betsy Hp:
Having read your posts I think you take a harsher view of Draco's 
relationship with Snape.  But that's a different discussion. <g>

However, by going with the "Cabinet came first" theory, you do 
undermine the character arc that I, and I believe Magpie, see for 
Draco in HBP.  For some odd reason you "Cabinet first" folk have a 
hard time seeing that.

> >>bboymin (post 157687>:
> <snip>
> Next, I absolutely deny that my version alters the current or
> future story in any way. I'm not forcing it in a new direction;
> only explaining the direction it took. 
> <snip>
> So, I flatly reject the idea that my theory alters the
> storyline or character motivation in any way.
> <snip>

> >>Alla (post 157691):
> Yes, of course Draco's story is about a personal change and       
> emotional development, or I should correct myself and say that I   
> hope it is about change, because it may just as well be Draco     
> choosing Voldemort side in the end IMO, but this is I guess       
> besides the point here. But Steve seems to agree with it and does 
> not cross out any of it, IMO.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
No, Steve's version *completely* changes the thrust and the 
underlying theme and even the growth of Draco's character.  He's 
insisting that Draco suddenly (out of nowhere, really) decides 
(chooses) to play with the big boys and goes to Voldemort.  

But the entire theme of Draco's story in HBP is that he feels he 
*has no choice*.  Draco says this time and again.  And it's not 
until he's in front of Dumbledore that Draco is made to see that he 
*can* choose.  It's an extremely powerful gift Dumbledore is giving 
Draco, and something Dumbledore has always been big on: the power of 
choice.

The canon has this rather elegant story where a naive child is 
chosen by Evil to do an evil deed.  The child did not choose to 
become evil, but Evil has selected him and the child cannot choose 
differently.  Or at least, so Evil would have the child believe.

But Good comes along and tells the child that he is still innocent, 
that the child can still make a choice, can choose *against* being 
Evil.  Good gives the child what Evil would deny him: the freedom, 
the ability to choose.  And we see the child choose against Evil.  
(Now we're just waiting to see if the child will choose *for* 
Good.)  

Steve's version has it that the child has *already chosen*.  So 
Dumbledore's offer, Good's offer, is empty.  Draco cannot choose 
*against* Evil because he's already chosen *for* it.  So instead of 
a tale of growth, we have a tale of a fall (all told off page), that 
*might* turn into a tale of redemption (but probably not).  If Steve 
is right I'm betting that Draco dies within the opening pages of 
book 7.  Actually, I'm betting we read that Draco has already died, 
because the Draco story is now an off-page thing.  (And boy, didn't 
JKR waste her time in HBP!)

> >>Carol, who hopes that Betsy will examine her arguments and her   
> earlier posts in this thread, which I'm sure contain no such      
> motive as is attributed to posters who "want" Draco's idea to come 
> before L's assignment (actually, I only want it to be considered   
> as a possibility)

Betsy Hp:
Oh sure, this "cabinet first" theory may turn out to be true.  
Quirrell may have been replaced by his evil twin brother; Ginny may 
have stolen the diary from Lucius; rocks may fall from the sky and 
kill everyone.

Anything could happen, but some things don't seem all that likely to 
me. <g>

Betsy Hp (who really does find that the "cabinet first" people are 
pretty down on Draco on a whole and is suspicious that this is big 
motivation behind the theory)