Draco and Dumbledore WAS: Re: Dumbledore Does Lie - Sort Of

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 159946


> > Pippin:
> > 
> > I actually agree with you that Dumbledore's main objective is to
> > show Draco that he's not a killer. What I disagree with is that there
> > was such a great risk of Draco murdering someone that Dumbledore
> > would have been justified in depriving Draco of his civil rights. 
> > He knew that Draco would not kill if he had a choice, since he
> > didn't kill Harry when he had the chance. 
> 
> a_svirn:
> Yet your assertion is somewhat at variance with the fact that Draco 
> sent a bottle of poisoned firewhiskey to Slughorn. Which could have 
> been fatal to any number of people (presumably Dumbledore does not 
> drink whiskey alone), and nearly resulted in three deaths. One of 
> those was only very narrowly averted. Not to mention the necklace 
> plan, which was less likely to succeed, yet no less murderous in its 
> intent.

Pippin:
A child's intent is by definition not fully formed. If adults entice a
child to kill and help him to obtain weapons, then it is they who have
the murderous intent, not he, and they who need to be locked up
for the safety of others. 

Granted, Draco's half-formed intentions were very dangerous and 
could have caused several deaths,  but the same could be said of 
many other Hogwarts students including Harry, Ron and Hermione. 
Preventing this sort of thing is extremely
difficult, because the kids try things that no sane adult would
even imagine, like stealing thestrals and flying off to the Ministry
to challenge Voldemort, or poisoning a bottle bound for a castle 
with hundreds of people in it on the off chance that it might reach 
your target.

I don't think the mead would have done much damage if it had
arrived at its intended destination. Dumbledore wasn't as
ostentatiously paranoid about what he drank as Moody is, but
except for the cave I don't believe we ever saw him him drink
anything that wasn't prepared by the Hogwarts Elves or conjured
by his own magic. The bottle would probably have ended up
in the RoR's storehouse of discarded items, where there seem
to have been plenty of weapons and potions handy. That Draco
felt nonetheless that he had to bring a weapon from outside 
the castle tells us something about his state of mind.

I'm wondering now about Draco's attempt to crash Slughorn's
Christmas party. I doubt he wanted to be a guest at a gathering
where poisoned mead might be served. Could it be he was having
second thoughts about his plan and realizing that the mead might
go astray and harm his friends? He doesn't make any more
attempts that we know of, but seems to go back to the cabinet
plan.

Harry realized immediately after the necklace attempt that Draco 
would have to have an accomplice in Hogsmeade. Presumably
Dumbledore would have realized the same. Should he have
put the whole town in protective custody then? Or does
he care enough about civil rights not to do that? 

Sirius's case is different. He was thought to be insane, which
AFAWK would have denied him a trial in any case, and the 
evidence against him was overwhelming. 

Pippin