Cabinet first

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 157808


Eddie:

> There seems to be lots of reasons to have
> included Snape -- <snip flaws in "kill Dumbledore plan">
> I have two reasons this might be:
> (1) Jo Rowling has a really good reason but we don't know it
> (2) Jo Rowling doesn't, but hey, it's children's literature and it's
> exciting anyway even if it doesn't hold up to several years of daily
> scrutiny by exacting fanatics on Yahoo.  Heck, what other literature
> could?


Sydney:

I have another possible reason.  It's crazy, but it just might work. 
Ready?  Here we go:


The plan wasn't a kill Dumbledore plan.  It was a kill-Draco plan. 
Just like it says in the book.


Carol:

As for the scene on the tower, about which I also have a lot of
questions, I have a question for you (as a group). Why do the DEs,
primarily Brutal-Face, just keep telling Draco to kill Dumbledore
without taking any further action?


Sydney:

Presumably they were confused because they didn't expect Dumbledore 
to be disarmed and helpless.  Suddenly the plan seems like it could
actually go Draco's way.  As Dumbledore says, he's more defenceless
than Draco could have dreamed of finding him.  There was no plan
beyond Draco being killed in the battle. 

I mean, what are their 'orders'?  "Draco's got to do it".  I can't-- I
just *can't* picture that Voldemort would have thought Draco Malfoy
killing Dumbledore was a viable plan.  Surely giving the DE's orders
that NO ONE is to attack Dumbledore but Draco is much *more*
suggestive of the suicide mission, than of a serious strategy for
killing Dumbledore?  


Carol:

Snape would not have been worried about Draco if he thought that DD
killing him was the chief danger. He'd know that wasn't going to
happen. He and Narcissa, rightly or wrongly, seem to have feared that
Draco would be killed by DEs or LV himself if he failed to accomplish
his mission.


Sydney:

Narcissa certainly fears that Draco will be killed *in the course* of
his mission.   Her mindset is the same (I suppose) as Voldemort's,
that faced with a kamikaze kid coming at him Dumbledore would kill him.  

Snape's fears are more complicated I think.  I think he worries, for
one thing, that Draco might wind up killing someone else (as he nearly
did)-- Snape's described as looking 'afraid' just before he confronts
Draco about the necklace.  He's got a kid running around making
flailing attempts at killing Dumbledore in a school full of other kids
(and, off-canon now, I think it drove him nuts that Dumbledore wanted
him to stand back and let Draco complete his Journey of Morality). 
And then there's the fact that he's locked into killing Dumbledore
himself (again off-canon,  I think that was the plan all along, but 
he seems to have wanted an out from it in the forest argument).  And
of course as the year wears on Voldemort puts in the screws by
announcing that Draco *will* be killed after all if he fails.  I mean,
that part *is* canon, isn't it?  The DE's don't kill Draco right away
when his wand wavers, but then they have this crazy situation where
Dumbledore is totally helpless for some bizarre reason and Draco could
actually do it.  

I seriously don't think Voldemort's "kill Draco if he fails" concept
included the idea that Draco would be in a position to do it, but be
*morally* incapable of killing Dumbledore.  Would this really cross
Voldemort's mind?  Surely the 'if he fails' part is if he chickens out
or if the good guys miss him or something, so that, whatever happens,
the plan will be accomplished.  I mean, of course, the 'kill Draco'
plan. There doesn't seem to have *been* a backup plan for the 'kill
Dumbledore' plan.  Except for Snape doing it at some point in the
future, which is carefully separated from all the stuff involving
Draco and the cabinets and the Goon Show.  "Voldemort is determined
that Draco try first".  It's *Snape* that puts his oar in and
entangles the two plans by taking the UV.  What that means is
obviously a separate discussion!  Oh-- except to say, in reply to any
theories that Voldemort used Narcissa to trap Snape with the UV, that
*whatever* happened there, Snape wasn't trapped.  He clearly made a
choice of some kind.  But that's another thread!


Carol:
It's hard to argue when the
other side is so sure it's right that it won't even make a concession.


Sydney, so sure she's right she won't make a concession, at least
unless it's a concession she can honestly make.