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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 159989

Pippin wrote:
> <snip> 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.

Carol responds:
But Draco wasn't trying to crash the party. He was caught by Filch in
an upstairs corridor (guess which one) and "confessed" to trying to
crash the party only because it gave him an excuse for being out of
bed. Clearly, he didn't want to be there. (At first he was openly
angry, but he calmed himself and started "acting" because he had to
appear to want to be there. Snape's anger and trace of fear indicate
that he knows Draco was up to something else. (Whether he has
suspicions about the RoR, I don't know. I'm betting that he does and
that he relays them to Dumbledore.) BTW, no friends of Draco's were
attending the party, unless you count Blaise Zabini, who does not seem
to be on friendly terms with him. (I think the Blaise lolling against
the post in the Three Broomsticks must have been polyjuiced Crabbe. Or
maybe polyjuiced Crabbe took Draco's detention and "Blaise" was
polyjuiced Draco?)

As for no more attempts to use tactics like the necklace or the mead,
he wasn't deterred by Katie's accident ("That Bell girl must have an
enemy"), but as I said in another post, Snape's words about clumsy,
amateur tactics that can easily be traced back to Draco ("Already you
are suspected of having a hand in it") seem to have had their intended
effect. It's too late to do anything about the mead, which at any rate
is supposed to be sent to Dumbledore, not served at the party, but
Draco doesn't try any more Plans B and C after the talk with Snape.
It's back to the cabinet, which will enable him to get DEs into the
castle (if only he can figure out how to do it) and attack his
intended target with no mishaps that can be traced back to him.

Carol, who sees no trace of fear for his fellow students in Draco's
behavior, only fear for himself and his family later in the book