Noticed Something: Draco's Helpers

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 152757

bboyminn:
> "...a couple of warlocks sitting close by who were staring at Harry
with great interest, and Zabinin was lolling against a pillar...",
seems odd that JKR would point these people out at just that moment
unless they were important. This is especially true since this scene
occur just before Katie Bell is attacked by the Cursed Opal Necklace.
If fact, if you leave this information out of the paragraph where
Hermione speaks, it reads just the same.
*(snip)*
But that raises another issue, how is Draco communicating with people
outside the school. Everything is being closely monitored, so it is
unlikely that he is using Owl Post, and it's unlikely that he is
sneaking out of the school to meet someone at the gate, and he
certainly isn't sneaking off of the school grounds.

The enchanted coin he uses to contact Rosemerta I think is fine to
control her, but that doesn't explain how he is contacting and
engaging the complex assistance of Death Eaters. 
*(snip)*
Two way mirrors 
Patronus
*(snip)*
Perhaps, this will be unimportant in the final book, but it does seem
to be a vulnerability in Hogwart's defenses, and even though Draco is
gone, there are, or seem to be, Voldemort sympathizers still at the
school. They would logically need to communicate, especially those who
were helping Draco during HBP.

It also seems reasonable that Voldemort will plan to attack the school
now that Dumbledore and Snape are gone. If you control the school, you
control the children of the wizard world, and in controlling them, you
control the wizard world. It seems too tempting a target for it not to
be attacked. Of course, Voldemort doesn't always pursue the most
logical course. But it seems difficult to believe he won't see the
strategic advantage of controlling the school.

Ceridwen:
Good question, Steve!  I agree that controlling the children is a way 
for LV to control the WW.  I would even guess that, with book 7 being 
the last, he doesn't have the time to train these kids to be his DEs, 
instead he will intend to outright hold them hostage.  Whether he 
gets that far, or if it's a post-script at the end which horrifies 
everyone about what could have happened if LV hadn't been defeated at 
that time, it's something to consider.  And if it does turn out to be 
a post-script, then I would guess that someone is in trouble up to 
that point for using a curse, or for 'fighting unfairly', something 
which would sway people away from the good guys - you know how fickle 
the WW can be sometimes.

And, Draco's communications are definitely a glitch in the defenses.  
So are the love potions the twins are able to send in disguised as 
perfumes.  I think the love potions did triple or even quadruple duty 
in HBP.  Their getting past Filch was obviously meant to imply that 
there was some breach.

Oh, I just had a thought.  Could memories, the swirly non-liquid, non-
gas substances we see in Dumbledore's bottles, be smuggled in as 
perfumes or other innocent bottled products as well?

This would depend on how the Pensieve works.  Does it have to be a 
specific thing to organize and conduct the memories?  Or could any 
bowl be charmed for that purpose in a pinch?  Could Draco have 
brought a Pensieve with him?  It would not have been detected because 
it isn't Dark, and the Malfoys are rich enough to afford something 
which may or may not be pricey in the WW.  All Draco would need would 
be someone's memory of someone else talking (or can the Pensieve 
relay thoughts too?  Quibbler readers... er, enquiring minds... want 
to know!) to get the plan, and to take someone else's memory, such as 
Crabbe's or Goyle's, or his own if the Pensieve communicates 
thoughts, to send out.  It would take a while, but then, no longer 
than collecting the memory and sending it via owl post.

And, the poisoned mead had to get into the castle some way.  Was it 
carried in openly as a present for Dumbledore?  Or was it owled in 
like the perfume/love potions were?

Two-way mirrors might do it.  You liken them to cellphones/mobile 
phones.  Upper-class kids carry cellphones to school and gab on them 
all the time.  Draco is a rich kid, he might not look out of place 
with the WW equivalent.  It wouldn't be Dark, so it wouldn't have 
been detected.  JKR said the two-way mirrors would make a 
reappearance if I recall correctly - she didn't necessarily have to 
mean the same ones Harry and Sirius had.

Draco might have used the Slytherin common room's fireplace to 
communicate, as Harry and Sirius did in GoF.  But that would run the 
risk of being caught by a not-so-sympathetic Slytherin or Snape.  I'd 
keep it in the running, but far down the list.

Of course, the plan could have been set in stone so to speak before 
school began, and the only thing Draco would need to do would be 
alert the DEs when he got the cabinet repaired.  He could do that 
simply by a different coin than the one he used to communicate with 
Rosemerta, or he could go through the VC himself once it was 
repaired.  He would have to have tested it before bringing DEs 
through it, he might have sent a test parchment through which someone 
at B&B's wrote on and sent back when it was received, which would 
elicit all the shouting Trelawney heard.  Otherwise, the timeline 
would have been set in advance, Hogsmeade weekend being the time for 
Draco to get detention and to secretly communicate with Imperiused!
Rosemerta.  Another DE would already have given her the coin, as a 
tip, maybe?  This DE would also have Imperiused her, and left it for 
Draco to make communication.

And it wouldn't be hard to send a 'coded' message to Narcissa or 
someone else by owl to 'send along that present for Dumbledore' 
(mead), or for Draco to be told that 'that nice little gift has been 
forwarded to Hogsmeade' (necklace).  All that could be arranged in 
advance, only the timing to be determined.

I understand that the Order is the only group to use Patronuses 
(Patroni?) to communicate, and this was taught to them by 
Dumbledore.  Of course, that might be another Red Herring, and that's 
all we *know* right now but it isn't quite true.  But, until and 
unless we learn different, I would put that below the two-way mirrors 
on the Speculation Hit Parade.

I'd love to hear what others might think of this!

Ceridwen.