DD and Draco's murder attempts WAS: Draco and Harry

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 153336

> 
> Alla:
> 
> Hmmm,  just to refresh my memory ( honestly, I am feeling that I 
> started to forget the most embarassing things - the reread is in 
> order :)), could you refer me to Slugghorn bringing in the mead.
> I guess I have the same question as Hagrid asked.


Ginger:
Well, I can't tell you exactly that Sluggy brought the mead in.  In 
fact, now that I have reread, it sounds like he had ordered it, and 
Rosemerta had it sent up to the castle.  We do know Rosemerta was 
Imperioused by mid-October when she gave the necklace to Katie.  
Sluggy said that he had intended to give the mead to DD as a 
Christmas present.

He says this in March on Ron's birthday when Harry takes Ron to him 
to undo the love potion that Ron accidently took.

It's in chapter 18.  US edition p. 396-7:

"Pick-me-up, that's what he needs, " Slughorn continued, now bustling 
over to a table loaded with drinks.  "I've got butterbeer, I've got 
wine, I've got one last bottle of this oak-matured mead...hmm...meant 
to give that to Dumbledore for Christmas...ah, well..."  He 
shrugged.  "He can't miss what he's never had!  Why don't we open it 
now and celebrate Mr. Weasley's birthday?  Nothing like a fine spirit 
to chase away the pangs of disappointed love..."

Sluggy goes on to propose a toast, during which Ron drinks the mead 
and is poisoned.

I read this to mean that Sluggy had purchased the mead to give to DD 
as a Christmas present.  He would have gotten it from Rosemerta, who 
would have been the one doing the poisoning as a result of being 
under the Imperious.  

I think it's pretty clear that (1) Sluggy bought it for DD, (2) 
Rosemerta poisoned it and sent it up to Sluggy, and (3) Sluggy kept 
it for himself, not knowing it was poisoned.

Later, on the tower in ch. 27, when DD is talking to Draco about the 
crude attempts of the necklace and the mead, DD speculates that 
Rosemerta had it sent to Sluggy.  Draco doesn't argue, so it would 
appear that Rosemerta did sent it.  DD comments that Filch would not 
have checked anything from Rosemerta.

So Hagrid is right.  Rosemerta did send the mead.  Sorry about that.  
My bad.  Sluggy just ordered it.


Alla:
> Oh, and about vanishing cabinets - I guess I am again not sure how 
> far the argument goes as to extent of DD knowledge about Draco.
> 
> If he knew SOME things, but not everything, I sort of understand, 
> although still expect him to guess that the person who tried 
killing 
> once will likely do it again, but if DD knew everything, that's 
> worse in my book.

Ginger:
DD was quite surprised about the vanishing cabinets.  On the tower, 
(US ch. 27, p. 586-7), DD expresses surprise about it:

"But you were saying...yes, you have managed to introduce Death 
Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I thought impossible...How did 
you do it?"
(snip as Draco stalls)
DD resumes:
"So tell me, while we wait for your friends...how did you smuggle 
them in here?  It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how 
to do it."
 (snip)
Then, as thought he could not help himself, he (Draco) said, "I had 
to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years.  
The one Montague got lost in last year."

"Aaaah."  Dumbledore's sigh was a half groan.  He closed his eyes for 
a moment.  "That was clever...There is a pair, I take it?"

"In Borgin and Burkes,"  (Draco goes on to outline the plan.)

In this conversation, Draco asks DD why DD didn't try to stop him.  
DD says he did try.  He had Snape tailing Draco.  Draco doesn't 
believe this, thinking that Snape was acting on Narcissa's orders.

So apparently, DD knew.  DD couldn't have accosted Draco with no 
evidence.  At the beginning of the year, Draco had done nothing.  He 
was merely planning.  You can't find out what someone is planning 
without getting close to them.  DD couldn't get close to Draco, so he 
sent Head of House and Family Friend Snape to do it.  Snape had no 
luck as Draco thought Snape was trying to steal his glory.

I don't see that DD could have acted before Draco tried anything.  
That would have made him no better than Rufus imprisioning Stan.  He 
did know that Draco was up to something and had him tailed.  He also 
had things coming in and going out of the school checked.  Until 
October, he had no idea whether or not Draco would even act at all 
(see the tower conversation) and after the necklace incident, Snape 
told Draco to knock it off with the bad attempts (again, the tower 
conversation).  

I don't know the exact timing of the mead, but it could have happened 
around the time of the necklace, and not much after, given that it 
was to be a Christmas gift.  Not more than a month after, anyway.

Just to throw in a RL example: long ago before such things as caller 
ID, I received several death threats on my answering machine.  I 
didn't know who left them or why.  I found out later it was a case of 
mistaken identity and I was in no danger, but it was alarming.  

All I could do was wait for someone to make a move.  I did eventually 
find out who had left the messages, and it was someone I knew (she 
had called the wrong number), but knowing who it was didn't help 
until I found out that I wasn't her target.  I couldn't very well 
walk up to her and say "Don't kill me."  All I could do was practice 
constant vigilance.  When you have to watch your every step, you 
become aware that there are so many ways for someone to try and kill 
you that it is impossible to anticipate them all.

Now I ask:  If someone you didn't like was rumoured to be wanting to 
kill you, what would you do?  If you called the police (I am assuming 
that as a lawyer you are in the social position to do that, unlike my 
position at the time of my threats), the police would tell you that 
unless a definate threat was made to you, or an attempt was made, 
that they couldn't do anything.  You could hire a security guard to 
check the comings and goings into your home.  You could hire a body 
guard.  

But would you check something given to you by a trusted friend?  
Would you have all your groceries checked?  Take out food?  If the 
person who wanted to kill you gave something to someone who knew you, 
and it killed that person, would it be because you were lax in your 
security?  If they sent something via UPS, and it killed the driver, 
should you have notified UPS not to accept any packages for you?  And 
that's even without the Imperious, which Draco used.

As Pippin said, the attempts were indeed hare-brained (DD agreed- he 
called them feeble), I don't see how DD could have stopped them, but 
given the searching of the owls and the use of the Secrecy Sensor, 
and putting a tail on Draco, I'd say he did try.

At least that's how it reads to me.
YMMV, of course.

Ginger, who got longwinded and will now pause for breath.