Cabinet FIRST!

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 157892

-
> 
> Mike:
> I must have read close to 100 posts on this subject. Did you 
realize 
> that it spread over six threads? Other than some Montague timeline 
> research that I added for clarification (and I admit, to egg on the 
> argument <eg>) I essentially stayed out until the end. My analysis 
> of the whole debate, in simple terms: The "suicide mission only" 
> crowd were arguing that you can't put the cart before the horse. 
> The "cabinet firsters" argued that they were putting the horse in 
> front but they just wanted to know how many horses were pulling 
this 
> cart. So, sorry Sydney, but the Cabinet firsters never had a 
problem 
> with the direction your cart took, they (and that includes me) said 
> they were going in that direction too, just getting there with more 
> horsepower.
> 

Julie:
I'd just like to point out that it is NOT "cabinet firsters" 
versus "suicide mission only." It seems pretty much agreed
(certainly in the text) that it was a suicide mission, as 
whether Draco was to fix the cabinet primarily and then use
it to kill DD, or whether he was to primarily kill DD using
the cabinet or *any other means* is irrelevant to the belief
that his chances at completing either were slim to none. So
it's more like "it's about the Cabinet, dummy" versus "it's
about killing Dumbledore, dummy" camps. (Er, the "dummy" part
is just for humor, absolutely no intent to insult either camp,
as I'm in one of them ;-)

Your cart analogy doesn't equate at all, at least not to me.
This has nothing to do with carts, or horses ;-) Er, really,
though I don't see how it applies.

After all this debating, I think I still stick to the
conclusion that Draco's main job was to Kill Dumbledore.
This is what he had to do, what he and his family would 
be killed for if he didn't do, KILL DUMBLEDORE. The Cabinet
is certainly involved, and LV may well have known about it
from the beginning. Perhaps Draco told him at the first 
meeting, or after LV told Draco he had to kill Dumbledore,
Draco then said "Aha! I have just the means!" 

So be it. Still, the cabinet didn't seem to be of paramount
importance to Voldemort, or some sort of displeasure would
surely have been shown (probably on Draco's body) when Draco 
abandoned the cabinet idea for a while and tried to kill
Dumbledore by other means. I mean, just how long is Voldy
going to sit around twiddling his thumbs while Draco hems
and haws between fixing the cabinet and giving up on it?
If Voldy knew the cabinet plan from the beginning, he would
like it--it is clever after all--but there's no evidence 
he was wedded to it. From Draco's other murder attempts,
he seems to have been willing to leave Draco to his own 
devices cabinet or not cabinet. 

As for letting the DEs into Hogwarts, I suppose that was 
a nice bonus once the cabinet was fixed. I'm sure Voldemort
was all for it. But I don't see that it was of primary 
importance, as they were only there to ensure Draco killed
Dumbledore (or to kill Draco if he failed). Voldemort had
no great plan to send a mass force of DEs in to take over
Hogwarts (and why not, I do wonder?). The DEs served one
purpose, to assist Draco (or, again, to kill him), so I
don't see why they weren't in fact "available" to him from
the beginning. (Draco did tell Snape he had "better help"
or something like that, which would imply he had access to
the DEs.) Additionally, they didn't *have* to be present,
as they wouldn't have been if the necklace or poisoned mead
had been successful. They can always kill Draco later, if
need be, as Voldemort doesn't seem to have any problem 
hunting his errant DEs down (Regulus, Karkaroff). 

Umm, I guess that's it then. As always, I'm willing to be
proven wrong in Book 7 ;-)

Julie, who figures the biggest question left out of this
debate is still why Voldemort didn't take over Hogwarts
when he had a golden opportunity?