Hermione, the girl who publicly humiliated Draco and the whole Pureblood cause, now owes a blood debt to Lucius Malfoy. Not only does he gain power over her, but by extension, over Harry, and further extension, to Dumbledore. All for the price of a very safe if monitored supposed attempt on Draco’s life, which Draco likely would have volunteered for if given the opportunity.
Lucius has hit the jackpot, even if he didn’t plan and orchestrate the whole thing. He can extract almost anything out of Harry in exchange for leniency for Hermione. It seems unlikely that the good Defense Professor would have orchestrated a plan which is entirely dependent for it’s success on Lucius failing to take advantage of the situation—unless putting Harry in Lucius’s debt was his goal.
Lucius personally has complete control of the outcome, and I’m surprised Harry hasn’t considered contacting him yet.
Indeed. Though I went a bit further (more likely than not too far ;) in the reviews:
“Speculation time: Lucius did it. But plot thickens: Draco will intervene on Hermione’s behalf, mostly on the basis of their remembered scenario being very implausible, as explained in the chapter. The Harry-Draco bond will strengthen. Just as Lucius intended, not being quite as inflexible as pictured in the discussion, and seeing that Draco will do quite well for himself as Harry’s second.
As a side benefit, he’ll get the record to show that (according to the false memory) Draco won a straight duel against Hermione. (Almost nobody will think to doubt that part of the memory—Draco might, but will keep it to himself.)”
Mr. Hat presumably can’t be Lucius, though (that “only teachers can cast this sort of stuff here without being noticed” thing), so ve’d have to be just under his control, but that should be simple enough.
But plot thickens: Draco will intervene on Hermione’s behalf, mostly on the basis of their remembered scenario being very implausible, as explained in the chapter.
Only Hermione’s supposed cold-blooded attempt to kill him is highly implausible, and Draco doesn’t actually remember nor can testify to that.
The things that Draco remembers aren’t actually significantly implausible: We know he challenged her to a duel to that very place, we know he considered himself quite likely to overpower her in that duel. Then all Draco knows of that night is that he was stunned in the back.
Draco does not even need to have been False-Memory charmed for any of the above—even if Hermione didn’t actually go to the duel, a polyjuiced Quirrell could have taken her place.
Only Hermione needs to have been implanted with false memories.
I like the Draco part, but the Lucius part seems a stretch to me. Lucius could have just stayed out of their way and let their bond grow, trusting to Draco to cozy up with a new power.
Actually, it appears more likely to me that this is a plot by Lucius to turn Draco away from Harry by setting Hermione in opposition to Draco.
But both Lucius and Draco are key to the resolution of this.
Mr. Hat is the trick for any Lucius Did It theory. Off the top of my head, I can’t find a satisfactory Mr. Hat for this scenario. Snapes seems the only possible candidate.
We know Snape wants to eliminate bullies and chose Hermione as one of his tools to do so. Perhaps this is his latest plot to turn Hermione into the ultimate bully fighting machine.
Snape considers the magical government the ultimate bullies. He will offer Hermione the power to defeat them at her darkest hour after which there will be no turning back. After destroying the magical government Hermione will see her life as serving the singular purpose of fighting bullies.
We don’t know that Snape wanted to eliminate bullies. Snape’s intervention in SPEW battles caused a serious escalation in the conflict, but it was Quirrel’s intervention in the final battle that continued the escalation to the point where something had to be done to stop it. We do not know what Snape’s intention was for that final battle.
He might not have had an intention for that battle in the first place:
And so it was with some puzzlement, a few days later, that Daphne looked at the parchment delivered to her at lunch, drawn in a hand so shaky it was almost unreadable, saying:
2 this afternoon at the top of the stairs going up from the library REALLY IMPORTANT everyone has to be there—Millicent
Daphne looked around, but she couldn’t see Millicent anywhere in the Great Hall.
“A message from your informant?” said Hermione, when Daphne told her. “That’s odd—I didn’t—”
“You didn’t what?” said Daphne, after the Ravenclaw girl had stopped in mid-sentence.
The note from Millicent was sent by the bullies; Snape didn’t send a note at all.
It seems unlikely that the good Defense Professor would have orchestrated a plan which is entirely dependent for it’s success on Lucius failing to take advantage of the situation—unless putting Harry in Lucius’s debt was his goal.
Assuming Quirrell is Voldemort, he presumably had years of access to Lucius’ mind (if he regularly required Lucius to drop Occlumency barriers). At the very least, we can assume he has an excellent mental model of how Lucius behaves. The plot therefore doesn’t seem like too great of risk for Quirrell, particularly when we consider that Lucius is about to discover Harry’s progress in turning Draco. Quirrell can safely assume that Lucius will react in a way that will pull Draco and Harry apart when he discovers this, and will therefore be less inclined to trade Hermione for something of Harry’s.
Hermione, the girl who publicly humiliated Draco and the whole Pureblood cause, now owes a blood debt to Lucius Malfoy.
The dictionary attack by H&C on Hermione happened before Hermione defeated Draco. (edit: sorry, not months before, but still before.) Back then there was no reason for Lucius to target her or even publicly notice her existence.
Edited to add: in fact, the attack was immediately after Hermione had been made to stop her anti-bullying campaign and publicly punished and humiliated—partially making up for any offense she caused Slytherin up to that point.
How about, follow the money? Who gains?
Hermione, the girl who publicly humiliated Draco and the whole Pureblood cause, now owes a blood debt to Lucius Malfoy. Not only does he gain power over her, but by extension, over Harry, and further extension, to Dumbledore. All for the price of a very safe if monitored supposed attempt on Draco’s life, which Draco likely would have volunteered for if given the opportunity.
Lucius has hit the jackpot, even if he didn’t plan and orchestrate the whole thing. He can extract almost anything out of Harry in exchange for leniency for Hermione. It seems unlikely that the good Defense Professor would have orchestrated a plan which is entirely dependent for it’s success on Lucius failing to take advantage of the situation—unless putting Harry in Lucius’s debt was his goal.
Lucius personally has complete control of the outcome, and I’m surprised Harry hasn’t considered contacting him yet.
Right. And Lucius calls Snape his “valuable ally”, so it’s likely that Snape has done the dirty work for Lucius inside Hogwarts.
Or Snape is just a good double agent.
Indeed. Though I went a bit further (more likely than not too far ;) in the reviews:
“Speculation time: Lucius did it. But plot thickens: Draco will intervene on Hermione’s behalf, mostly on the basis of their remembered scenario being very implausible, as explained in the chapter. The Harry-Draco bond will strengthen. Just as Lucius intended, not being quite as inflexible as pictured in the discussion, and seeing that Draco will do quite well for himself as Harry’s second.
As a side benefit, he’ll get the record to show that (according to the false memory) Draco won a straight duel against Hermione. (Almost nobody will think to doubt that part of the memory—Draco might, but will keep it to himself.)”
Mr. Hat presumably can’t be Lucius, though (that “only teachers can cast this sort of stuff here without being noticed” thing), so ve’d have to be just under his control, but that should be simple enough.
Only Hermione’s supposed cold-blooded attempt to kill him is highly implausible, and Draco doesn’t actually remember nor can testify to that.
The things that Draco remembers aren’t actually significantly implausible: We know he challenged her to a duel to that very place, we know he considered himself quite likely to overpower her in that duel. Then all Draco knows of that night is that he was stunned in the back.
Draco does not even need to have been False-Memory charmed for any of the above—even if Hermione didn’t actually go to the duel, a polyjuiced Quirrell could have taken her place.
Only Hermione needs to have been implanted with false memories.
I like the Draco part, but the Lucius part seems a stretch to me. Lucius could have just stayed out of their way and let their bond grow, trusting to Draco to cozy up with a new power.
Actually, it appears more likely to me that this is a plot by Lucius to turn Draco away from Harry by setting Hermione in opposition to Draco.
But both Lucius and Draco are key to the resolution of this.
Mr. Hat is the trick for any Lucius Did It theory. Off the top of my head, I can’t find a satisfactory Mr. Hat for this scenario. Snapes seems the only possible candidate.
We know Snape wants to eliminate bullies and chose Hermione as one of his tools to do so. Perhaps this is his latest plot to turn Hermione into the ultimate bully fighting machine.
Snape considers the magical government the ultimate bullies. He will offer Hermione the power to defeat them at her darkest hour after which there will be no turning back. After destroying the magical government Hermione will see her life as serving the singular purpose of fighting bullies.
edit: I was joking :P
How does Snape have the power to destroy the government, with or without Hermione?
We don’t know that Snape wanted to eliminate bullies. Snape’s intervention in SPEW battles caused a serious escalation in the conflict, but it was Quirrel’s intervention in the final battle that continued the escalation to the point where something had to be done to stop it. We do not know what Snape’s intention was for that final battle.
He might not have had an intention for that battle in the first place:
The note from Millicent was sent by the bullies; Snape didn’t send a note at all.
Assuming Quirrell is Voldemort, he presumably had years of access to Lucius’ mind (if he regularly required Lucius to drop Occlumency barriers). At the very least, we can assume he has an excellent mental model of how Lucius behaves. The plot therefore doesn’t seem like too great of risk for Quirrell, particularly when we consider that Lucius is about to discover Harry’s progress in turning Draco. Quirrell can safely assume that Lucius will react in a way that will pull Draco and Harry apart when he discovers this, and will therefore be less inclined to trade Hermione for something of Harry’s.
The dictionary attack by H&C on Hermione happened before Hermione defeated Draco. (edit: sorry, not months before, but still before.) Back then there was no reason for Lucius to target her or even publicly notice her existence.
Edited to add: in fact, the attack was immediately after Hermione had been made to stop her anti-bullying campaign and publicly punished and humiliated—partially making up for any offense she caused Slytherin up to that point.
The attack depicted in Ch. 77 was clearly recent, after the events of the SA sequence.
Oops, sorry, my bad. I was thinking of H&C’s first appearance. But it was still before Hermione defeated Draco publicly.