Who needs Harry? (was: GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182384

Lynda Cordova wrote:
>
> I realized, just as I was sending off my answer that you were, of
course referring to who in the books knew that Voldie had an obsession
with Hogwarts--blame it on a long week and an overly busy weekend

Carol responds:
No problem. :-)

Lynda:
>As for sending lackeys there was Snape of course--Voldemort didn't
realize he'd switched sides. Then there was Quirrel and Barty Crouch
Jr.  Umbridge, although never a death eater certainly did her part for
his cause and let's not forgeth that Lucius Malfoy was on the board of
governers. That's plenty of lackeys for me.
>
Carol responds:
Thanks for the explanation. I knew you were thinking of Snape, whom he
only supposed was his lackey, but I wasn't thinking of any of the
others. Quirrell was already a Hogwarts teacher, evidently on leave or
just on holiday when he met Vapor!mort, so even though he served as
LV's lackey at Hogwarts, I don't think LV sent him there. In any case,
LV was after the Philosopher's Stone. I don't think that a fondness
for or obsession with Hogwarts had anything to do with it.

Barty Jr. was certainly his lackey, sent to Hogwarts to put Harry's
name in the Goblet of fire, turn it into a portkey, and make sure that
Harry won the tournament. Again, I don't see that an obsession with
Hogwarts was involved, only a determination to use harry's blood in
the restorative potion before killing him. So, if Harry is at
Hogwarts, Barty Jr. has to be at Hogwarts.

I don't think that Lucius was a member of the Board of Governors in
Voldie's time; he was rather young. I think he made that move on his
own account after Voldie "died," trying to influence the Board of
Governors to think his way. He acts on his own trying to influence
Fudge before Voldemort returns. (He's Fudge's guest in the top box at
the QWC while Voldie is still in fetal form, depending for the
survival of that frail body on Nagini's "milk.")

Umbridge is a tricky one, but I think that she honestly believed (with
Fudge) that Voldemort wasn't back. She was interested in establishing
the Ministry's power, and her own within it, and in discrediting
Dumbledore. When she discovered that Voldie really was back, she
happily changed sides or rather, accepted the new leadership and made
sure that she had an influential position in the DE-led Ministry
hierarchy. Anyway, he certainly didn't send her to Hogwarts. He was
keeping his return to a body a secret and concentrating on retrieving
the Prophecy.

Anyway, I don't see how any of those lackeys (Snape and Barty Jr.
being the only ones that he actually sent, but I'll count Quirrell,
whom he controlled, for the sake of argument) show an obsession with
Hogwarts per se. Snape was sent to spy on DD, Barty to arrange for
Harry's kidnapping, and Quirrell to help him get the Philosopher's
Stone (connected with his obsession with immortality, but also, more
directly, like the kidnapping of Harry, to help him get a body).

Carol, who intended to offlist this response but decided to post it
here instead given the dearth of posts today