Cabinet FIRST! One last time. (Long--sorry!)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157860

> Julie:
> The cabinet being Draco's main assignment always falls
> apart for me at the same point, and that is when Draco
> tries to kill Dumbledore *twice* without using the 
> cabinet (which he hasn't yet fixed). If Draco thinks
> the cabinet is the main thing, and he only slowly 
> realizes he'll be expected to kill Dumbledore once 
> the cabinet is in place, then why he is *prematurely*
> trying to kill Dumbledore? And why isn't Voldemort,
> after Draco does this twice, not crucioing the little
> prat within an inch of his life? I mean, if Voldemort
> wants Dumbledore dead on *his* timetable, wants the DEs
> there when Draco attempts the murder, and instead Draco
> goes off making reckless and very feeble attempts to
> kill Dumbledore, why oh WHY isn't Voldemort really,
> *really* peeved? Draco should be looking all bent and
> mutilated like Wormtail by the time he finally gets
> with the real program and gets the stupid cabinet fixed, 
> shouldn't he?
> 
> Julie, still unable to reconcile Draco's half-assed
> attempts on Dumbledore's life with the cabinet first
> theory.
>
Carol responds:
I wanted to stay out of this thread, but I'll just make one last
comment. (I know. I said that before. Sigh!). Draco is being
pressured, apparently by the DEs rather than Voldemort himself at this
point (October for the necklace and December for the mead. He doesn't
start crying in the bathroom till April or May, and it's May when he
obliquely informs Myrtle that LV himself has threatened to kill him).
I think the DE in charge, possibly Brutal Face (Yaxley?), has told him
to get on with fixing the cabinets or kill Dumbledore some other way.
Draco panics, thinks of the necklace at Borgin and Burke's, and has
whoever Imperio'd Rosmerta deliver it to her. (Your guess as to where
Draco got 1500 galleons is as good as mine.) And when that backfires,
he tries the mead idea. Note that once he's talked to Snape, who
points out that he's already suspected of involvement with the
necklace, he goes back to the cabinet plan, which is definitely the
primary plan, to which he has devoted all those hours and all that
work. He just thought it would be much easier to fix and panics when
he finds he's having difficulty. Just because the cabinet is the main
*plan*, the one for which he requires DE knowledge and cooperation,
doesn't mean he can't use other means to do the *job* (kill DD) if
that fails.

BTW, I think it was Pippin who said that all the adults in "Spinner's
End" agree that Voldemort expects Draco to fail. Only Narcissa
expresses that view as a certainty; Snape seems to suspect it (which
is not to say that he views the assignment as a suicide mission per
se; he knows that LV really wants DD dead); and Bellatrix views the
assignment as an honor--no mention of expected or even possible
failure from her. It's all assumptions on their part. All of them have
limited knowledge and none of them knows about the cabinet, which I
believe is the primary plan for getting the job accomplished from the
beginning. That doesn't mean Draco can't fall back on some other means
of killing DD if the plan fails.

I also think that Bellatrix teaching Draco Occlumency is intended to
keep Snape from "stealing Draco's glory" by taking over the cabinet
plan, including the actual killing of DD with the DEs as back up. What
"glory" would there be in killing DD with a cursed necklace or
poisoned mead?

That's just my view, of course. but as I pointed out elsewhere,
Draco's comment to Moaning Myrtle (essentially "I can't do it and he
says he's going to kill me") almost certainly refers to the cabinet.
Voldemort wants it repaired and Draco still hasn't done it after seven
months. I don't think Draco is even thinking about the killing part
yet. He just thought, as he tells Snape months before, that it would
take much less time to accomplish his plan.

BTW, I'm not arguing at this point that the cabinet plan came first.
I'll go with Mike's compromise view that it came up and was worked out
in Draco's initial interview with Voldemort, regardless of why Draco
was summoned. (I see nothing to disagree with in Mike's response to
Betsy.)

Carol, wondering how Draco and the DEs communicate with Draco (do they
use coins, too?) and how the necklace got to Rosmerta