Defending Draco was Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: COS 14, Cornelius Fudge

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189215


> Alla:
> 
> You do not get that Rosmerta did not do all of that off her own free will and watching for the real villain may have prevented him (or his co conspirators, I am still not sure) victimizing her as well? I really do not know what else to add then, sorry.
> 

Pippin:

DD stationed Order members to supplement the Aurors in Hogsmeade, watching for anything suspicious. Whoever did it managed to elude them, and did such a good job  on Rosmerta that her  enchantment wasn't   detected, even by Dumbledore himself. It's most unlikely to have been  Draco, who shows no sign of any talent with that curse, or anyone known to be associated with the DE's. So again, if the aurors or the Order members knew that Draco had been assigned to kill Dumbledore, it would not have protected Rosmerta.

Everyone already knows, long before Dumbledore gives his speech, that there is a murderer on the loose and that there are at least two people at Hogwarts that he wants dead. They know that his agents have been able to infiltrate Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic undetected and can make even family members and close friends do horrible things to one another without being able to stop themselves. 

Assuming that Harry told Rita Skeeter all the events of GoF, they already know that a murder was committed at Hogwarts itself, by someone thought to be a trusted friend of Dumbledore, and this happened even before Voldemort returned to full power. 

They know, in other words, that they are going to be in horrible danger at Hogwarts and that there is no telling who Voldemort's agents might be. Getting rid of Draco is not going to change any of that. Any sense of security it gave them would be false, hardly more effective than sending Hagrid to Azkaban or putting Stan Shunpike in jail.

 It's pure Yes, Minister, IMO: Something  should have been done, arresting Draco is something, and therefore Dumbledore should have done it.

If people didn't take Dumbledore's warnings seriously enough when he spoke of Voldemort by name, they certainly would not  take him seriously if he warned them against an underage wizard with nothing worse against him than being a DE's  son and breaking Harry Potter's nose. 

Yes, Draco was foolish to try to become a Death Eater. But he is not less innocent or deserving of protection than the others because he is more foolish about Voldemort. 

Nor did Draco have any way to know what being a  killer would really mean. In that sense he is like Harry, who thought that Sirius deserved to die and didn't know until he came face to face with him that he would be unable to kill him even so. 


Pippin