Lucius is a slytherin, and not stupid. What if he really does believe Hermione is a pawn? The question remains — whose pawn?
Lucius might believe Hermione is Dumbledore’s pawn.
Lucius already believes D killed his wife, and so he would have no trouble believing Dumbledore is targeting his son. In fact, it would be to Dumbledore’s advantage (so might think Lucius) to target Draco in such a way that D can avoid taking the blame. If D wanted to impose political costs on Lucius, one way he might do it is to have someone utterly beyond suspicion be found to have attacked Draco. Then Lucius would have to use up political capital to punish an innocent little girl.
If Lucius thinks this way, it would explain his willingness to punish Hermione to the extreme — she’s Dumbledore’s pawn, and so he’s going to take her away in order to impose costs on Dumbledore. For Dumbledore to speak up for Hermione would reinforce the belief that she belongs to D.
What do we make of Harry Potter’s comments, and Lucius’s reaction to them, in this light (given that Lucius thinks Harry is the dark lord)? His “unheard sentences” would likely be along the lines of “No shit, sherlock!”, followed by, “why is the dark lord pretending to be stupid.”
The funny thing is, Quirrell’s testimony of someone with a motive to harm Draco is spot on: Dumbledore attacks Draco in order to impose costs on Lucius.
… are we really so sure Dumbledore didn’t set the whole thing up?
EDIT: I think Quirrell set it up— but I also think there’s a good chance that Quirrell didn’t just set it up to make it look like Hermione attacked Draco, but rather set it up to make it look like Dumbledore set it up to make it look like Hermione attacked Draco.
The summary of it is that Lucius thinks that Harrymort has turned sides and is now psuedo-allied with Dumbledore. Lucius thinks he’s just aligned himself on the weak side of a 2-on-1 secret war against the two strongest wizards alive, but he has no choice because they both want to destroy him.
If D wanted to impose political costs on Lucius, one way he might do it is to have someone utterly beyond suspicion be found to have attacked Draco. Then Lucius would have to use up political capital to punish an innocent little girl.
I see him gaining political capital by destroying the mudblood girl who publicly challenged and defeated his pureblood son. The purebloods in the WIzengamot were aching to abuse her.
I don’t think Harry would buy that. If Dumbledore wanted Draco dead, he’d be dead. He’s headmaster of the school for frack’s sake. And he certainly has no reason to frame Granger. His only motive for harming Malfoy would be to make Lucius throw everything away on getting Harry, after all. So unless our hero is about to confess that he is guilty, I think Dumbledore is probably innocent.
Lucius is a slytherin, and not stupid. What if he really does believe Hermione is a pawn? The question remains — whose pawn?
Lucius might believe Hermione is Dumbledore’s pawn.
Lucius already believes D killed his wife, and so he would have no trouble believing Dumbledore is targeting his son. In fact, it would be to Dumbledore’s advantage (so might think Lucius) to target Draco in such a way that D can avoid taking the blame. If D wanted to impose political costs on Lucius, one way he might do it is to have someone utterly beyond suspicion be found to have attacked Draco. Then Lucius would have to use up political capital to punish an innocent little girl.
If Lucius thinks this way, it would explain his willingness to punish Hermione to the extreme — she’s Dumbledore’s pawn, and so he’s going to take her away in order to impose costs on Dumbledore. For Dumbledore to speak up for Hermione would reinforce the belief that she belongs to D.
What do we make of Harry Potter’s comments, and Lucius’s reaction to them, in this light (given that Lucius thinks Harry is the dark lord)? His “unheard sentences” would likely be along the lines of “No shit, sherlock!”, followed by, “why is the dark lord pretending to be stupid.”
The funny thing is, Quirrell’s testimony of someone with a motive to harm Draco is spot on: Dumbledore attacks Draco in order to impose costs on Lucius.
… are we really so sure Dumbledore didn’t set the whole thing up?
EDIT: I think Quirrell set it up— but I also think there’s a good chance that Quirrell didn’t just set it up to make it look like Hermione attacked Draco, but rather set it up to make it look like Dumbledore set it up to make it look like Hermione attacked Draco.
My mental model of Lucius is here.
The summary of it is that Lucius thinks that Harrymort has turned sides and is now psuedo-allied with Dumbledore. Lucius thinks he’s just aligned himself on the weak side of a 2-on-1 secret war against the two strongest wizards alive, but he has no choice because they both want to destroy him.
I see him gaining political capital by destroying the mudblood girl who publicly challenged and defeated his pureblood son. The purebloods in the WIzengamot were aching to abuse her.
I don’t think Harry would buy that. If Dumbledore wanted Draco dead, he’d be dead. He’s headmaster of the school for frack’s sake. And he certainly has no reason to frame Granger. His only motive for harming Malfoy would be to make Lucius throw everything away on getting Harry, after all. So unless our hero is about to confess that he is guilty, I think Dumbledore is probably innocent.