Draco and Dumbledore/ Molly and Harry-Treated like Family

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 159937

> Magpie:
> Sorry--yes, that's true.  I was using "accident" in response to the 
> idea that Dumbledore might have assumed that he was the only person 
> in danger because he was the one Draco was targetting.  But 
> absolutely the deadliness of the mead and necklace were both 
> intentional--which is why there is a real danger of Draco hurting or 
> killing someone as long as he's doing this.  Ironically, as far as I 
> can see what keeps Draco from killing anyone else the way he almost 
> killed Ron and Katie isn't Dumbledore's or Snape's precautions at 
> all, but the fact that Draco doesn't try any more stunts like that.  
> So he's batting two for two up until the cabinet--two murder 
> attempts and two near-deaths. Their surveillance seems to be fairly 
> useless. The only time we see it having any effect is when Draco is 
> unable to work on the Cabinet the night of the Christmas party (we 
> assume). <snip>

Carol responds:
I don't think their surveillance is useless. Once Snape tells Draco
that "already you are suspected of having an hand in it" (the cursed
necklace incident) and that such tactics are amateurish and easily
traceable to him, he goes back to his primary plan, the cabinet.
Granted, Snape fails to get that information from him, but at least he
did prevent any more near-deaths of innocent people. It was too late
to do anything about the mead (the arrangements were already in
progress), but after his talk with Snape in December, Draco does
nothing else to endanger his fellow students. (That Slughorn opens the
bottle of mead in March is beside the point; he acquired it before
Christmas.)

Carol, noting that Snape had to use DE-based pragmatic arguments
rather than moral arguments to deter Draco, but they seem to have
served their purpose