DD and Draco's murder attempts - No Evidence!

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 153419

> 
> bboyminn:
> <snip>
> 
> Yes, at the end, at the top of the tower just before Dumbledore died,
> he was able to bring the various fragments of information together and
> combine them with was Draco was saying in the moment, but that doesn't
> mean he had all that information all that time. 
> <snip>
> 
> I really don't think it is fair to expand Dumbledore's conclusion at
> the end backward in time and assume he always had that information.


Neri:
Yes, I quite agree. We can't really fault Dumbledore for his handling
of the Draco case. After all, he was extremely busy with a far more
important, in fact the *most* important mission of the war –
discovering and destroying Voldemort's horcruxes.

So actually, Dumbledore had handled Draco in the most sensible way. Or
at least, in what appeared to be, from Dumbledore's point of view, the
most sensible way at the time:

He put secret agent Snape on the case.

Now, you've got to admit that this must have looked like a very shrewd
move at the time. Secret agent Snape (which Dumbledore trusted
completely) was ideally situated and equipped for this specific job.
He was Draco's teacher. He was Draco's head of house. He had a good
relationship with Draco for the previous five years. He had good
relationships with Draco's father and with Draco's mother for Jo knows
how long. Draco believed him to be on Voldemort's side. He had
connections with Voldemort himself. He most probably knew what Draco's
mission was. He had an undisturbed communication with Dumbledore. He
could receive from him any number of additional agents needed for
assistance in the case: Hogwarts staff members, Order members, Aurors
situated at Hogsmeade, over a hundred house elves and an unknown
number of portraits. But most of all, he was a 38 years old
experienced agent working against a 16 years old amateur. Yep, I'd say
this was quite a sensible move from Dumbledore's point of view.

Of course, everything's easier in hindsight. In hindsight it seems
pretty obvious that Dumbledore should have delegated the case to
secret agent Potter. Secret agent Potter, a 16 years old amateur
himself working with zero help and zero information from his superiors
and employing just two house elves, was very close to solving the case
all by himself. In fact, several hours before the final attack he
reported its likely source and time, if not its means and nature, and
demanded proper action to be taken. The single unreasonable mistake
that Dumbledore had made in the Draco case was that, trusting secret
agent Snape to do his job, he completely ignored this report from
secret agent Potter. A single and very critical mistake. And what was
secret agent Snape doing at the time? He was sitting in his office.

Well, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. After all, secret agent Snape
did deliver poor results several times before. So poor, in fact, that
it was questionable whose side was secret agent Snape actually working
on. But it was only as a result of his abysmal performances in the
Draco case that secret agent Snape achieved a record no other agent in
military history, as far as I know, had ever achieved – killing his
own supreme commander. So really, I don't think we can fairly fault
Dumbledore for messing up the Draco case.


Neri