Draco's Redemption / LiD!Snape rides again

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 149816

> Magpie:
> There are things that Draco shows pride in in the scene--and 
things that 
> Dumbledore praises as well. 

a_svirn:
These things being ... murder attempts, aren't they? It's not like 
they are discussing childish pranks. 


> Magpie:
>However, Dumbledore calls the wine plot and the 
> necklace plot feeble and Draco does not disagree. 

a_svirn:
Well, they didn't achieve their objective, so I guess they can be 
called feeble. Still with wine plot, at least, Draco came close and 
was clearly proud of it.


> Magpie:
> Dumbledore says Draco's heart was not in these murder attempts 
with the 
> necklace and the wine.  I don't see how that could possibly 
translate into 
> saying Draco is not only intent on killing Dumbledore but didn't 
care who 
> else he took out along with him.  

a_svirn:
Yet it *was* his intent. He slipped poisoned mead to Slughorn, 
because he knew that Slughorn intended to give it to Dumbledore. 
Unless he'd written Dumbledore down as a heavy drunkard he should 
have realised that he'd probably share the mead (with Slughorn and 
any number of others). 


> Magpie:
That suggests his heart being very much in 
> it, imo.  

a_svirn:
It does, doesn't it? 

> Magpie:
I think if that's what Dumbledore meant he would have said that, 
> spoken more about Katie and Ron and basically just had a 
completely 
> different conversation with Draco--if he wasn't dead at the hand 
of Draco 
> and his strong intent to kill. 

a_svirn:
Dumbledore is trying simultaneously to placate and threaten Draco in 
this scene. He's doing what he does best – pulling the right 
strings. Not to mention that he's being held at wandpoint. What is 
he saying to Draco, therefore, is a judicious mixture of truths and 
half-truths, rather like Snape at Spinner's End. Not that I blame 
him for that -- desperate times calls for desperate measures and all 
that. Besides he's genually trying to save the boy. However, his 
proclaiming Draco's innocence and saying that "his heart weren't in 
it" is certainly pushing the bounds of the believable. 


> Magpie:
It's not uncommon for people sabotage their 
> own attempts at things without owning their sabotage.

a_svirn:
If you say so. However it's not the case with Draco. He did send the 
poisoned wine and the cursed necklace, knowing full well what damage 
they could cause. He did also repair the cabinet and was ecstatic 
and triumphant about it to the point of whooping jubilantly. And he 
knew very well what it means – the end of Dumbledore (and everyone 
else who gets in the way of the DE). So no, he did not sabotage his 
own attempts.