Draco's Plot (was: Re: Ginny Haters/ a bit of Draco)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152239

<snip> 
Carol earlier:
> > You still haven't answered my question of whether 1) Voldemort
recruited Draco, gave him the seemingly impossible assignment of 
killing DD, and Draco piped up with, "Oh, yeah! I have just the way!"
or, 2) Draco went to him with *no* plan, Voldemort assigned him to
kill DD, and Draco piped up with, "Oh, yeah! I have just the way!" or
3) Draco went to LV *with* a plan, which Voldemort then converted to 
his own use, reocognizing it as a perfect opportunity to make sure
that DD was killed if the plan succeeded, but also indicating that he
wanted DD dead regardless.
> 
> > I really don't see alternatives 1) or 2) as remotely feasible.
> 
> Magpie:
> Nevertheless 1) / 2) is what we are told in canon. 3) is not. No one
in canon questions the feasibility of 1/2.  Draco's worth as a DE is
openly questioned, and that question answered by the fact that
Voldemort is planning for him to die to punish his father. I think if
the Cabinets came into it that conclusion would be there in the books.
<snip>
>
Carol responds:
Problem: 1) and 2) are contradictory and cannot both be true. They are
*not* what we're told in canon, and if no one in canon questions them,
it's because no one except Draco and LV knows about the Vanishing
Cabinet plan. Nowhere are we told whether Draco went to Voldemort or
Voldemort came to him. Both of us are deducing what we believe to be
the most logical sequence of events, and clearly we have arrived at
opposing conclusions. But I've already cited the canon supporting my
chronology upthread, whereas you're deducing yours from the incomplete
information on which the adult characters base their assumptions.

You're taking what is said by the adults in "Spinner's End" to be
fact, but aside from Snape's tendency to omit information and speak in
half truths, none of the characters present knows the whole story.
Bella admits that she's no longer in the Dark Lord's confidence; Snape
knows nothing of the Vanishing Cabinet plan, as we find out in "The
Unbreakable Vow"; and Draco is concealing his plans from his mother as
well since he slips away from her in "Draco's Detour." 

They are all *assuming* that Voldemort is punishing Lucius, which may
well be true, but Voldemort's decision to use Draco in that way does
not necessitate his ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore *before* he
knows about Draco's Vanishing Cabinet plan. On the contrary, knowing
Draco's plan gives LV exactly the weapon he needs to simultaneously
kill Dumbledore and punish Lucius. If all LV needed to kill Dumbledore
was Snape, as you imply, Dumbledore would have been dead years earlier
(assuming ESE!Snape). Certainly Snape could have let DD die from the
ring Horcrux curse if he had wanted to kill him. Instead, Snape saved
DD from death even though he couldn't save his hand. So, no; just
having Snape in Hogwarts is no guarantee that Dumbledore is going to
die. The Unbreakable Vow, having the DEs in the castle ready to kill
Draco if he fails to kill DD, and Dumbledore's wandless, weakened
condition are all necessary precursors to Dumbledore's death at the
hands of Snape. The situation in which Snape is forced to kill
Dumbledore (either to save his own life or to save the lives of Draco
and Harry, take your pick) would not and could not have occurred if
Draco hadn't brought the DEs into the castle. (The DEs would have
killed DD if Snape hadn't done so, but I don't want to get sidetracked
on that.) 

So the information Draco provides LV about a way to get DEs into the
castle plays into Voldemort's hands: He can use Draco to punish
Lucius, get rid of Dumbledore, and force Snape to kill Dumbledore
himself in the probable event that Draco fails. For Voldemort, this
information is a windfall, the means to an end (or ends) he could not
otherwise have accomplished.

Carol, noting that a great deal of information regarding Draco's
activities, including that business of the Imperius Curse, is denied
to us because we don't see from Draco's POV--and neither do the
characters, who make their own assumptions based on the limited
evidence available to them