Draco and Dumbledore/ Molly and Harry-Treated like Family

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 160111

 
> > Pippin:
> > That would be an excellent reason to continue the surveillance, 
> actually.
> 
> a_svirn:
> It would, if it worked. Since it didn't – and students became 
> increasingly endangered – it was time to try a more direct 
> investigation. 
> 

Pippin:
Increasingly endangered? The mead was far less dangerous than
the necklace. We are told that Katie could only be saved because
her contact with the necklace was so minimal. Ron, OTOH, could
have been saved by anyone with a bezoar handy, and if a bezoar
was not handy, a House Elf could have fetched one in a twinkling.

I'm not sure what you mean by a more direct investigation. A
search of the RoR wouldn't have revealed anything because they
didn't know what they were looking for. Draco was questioned
and used occlumency to hide his thoughts. 

In any case they had no reason to think that Dumbledore
couldn't return instantly, via Fawkes, and deal with anything that
came up while he was gone.

Really, if Dumbledore had not been afflicted by the poison, 
which he couldn't have planned on, he could have dealt with 
Draco and all the DE's handily before Snape ever got there. 
He might have been able to do so anyway, even in his weakened
state, but I think he knew that the greeen goo was fatal and 
decided to take advantage of it.

I suspect he realized that the locket was fake as soon as he
laid hands on it. But in that case, he had either been baited into
a trap by Voldemort, who would then already know how his
secrets had been compromised, or he had fallen into a trap
meant for Voldemort himself. Either way, whoever set the trap 
had no need for the victim to survive.

> > Pippin:
> > If he didn't know what Draco was up to, how could he be sure 
> > Voldemort wouldn't send another agent to do the same thing? 
> > At least with Draco, he knows who he has to watch.
> 
> a_svirn:
> That's just it: he knows *who* to watch, but not *what* to watch.

Pippin:
Um, usually when solving a problem one tries to reduce the
number of unknowns. At least Snape knows who Voldemort's
agent is. But if he wanted to, Voldemort could put the Imperius
curse on almost anyone and send them to do the task. This way
Snape knows who to watch, and even what to watch for -- the 
arrival of backup. There is some canon that Dumbledore
knew where to watch as well.

The DA encounters the Order a few corridors away from the RoR. 
At first I thought the Order could have been drawn by the 
commotion, but if they'd been patrolling in different
parts of the castle they wouldn't have arrived all at once. They
must have been stationed there -- close enough to interfere if
trouble arose, but not so close that they would alert Draco.

Possibly they thought they were guarding Gryffindor Tower,
which would place them between the DE's and the nearest
group of students without letting the Order know anything
that might compromise Snape.

Pippin