Alright, let’s get this speculation-train started. My first and most obvious thought is this: Hermione beat Draco to a pulp, and Lucius reported it. He was definitely intending to do something, and would have been monitoring his son. The trouble with this theory is that it involved admitting that Hermione beat Draco fair and square. Still, for Dumbledore to cooperate Lucius is probably involved somehow.
Also, there’s Professor Quirrell to account for. I find it unlikely his absence in unrelated, especially when he probably knew Lucius would be up to something. And come to think of it, he probably has his own Marauder’s Map(we now know they’re in play). Hell, come to think of it I wonder who wouldn’t make one if they could. Anyways, he probably doesn’t want Granger thrown in Azkaban. Perhaps we’ll finally get to see him up against Lord Malfoy?
It is highly unlikely that Hermione would agree to the duel considering her reaction to whatever H&C convinced her of, and Draco saw attacking her on the spot as a forced move. So, Hermione declined Draco’s duel and Draco attacked her on the spot.
I think Hermione fought it life-or-death and did Draco serious damage.
Edit: Actually she should not have been able to do him serious damage if the wards actually work as they are alleged to work. Maybe she tried to do him serious damage, the wards did… whatever they do and Dumbledore felt compelled to report the attempt? I’m not sure any more.
Now that she’s H&C’s Mind-Rape slave, Hermione probably told him/her as soon as she got Draco’s letters. So the question is what H&C would tell Hermione to do.
Come to think of it, all this has been the result of Hermione being convinced Draco is a bad egg. So, whoever benefits from this may well be or command H&C.
Hmm, I assumed that H&C did what he did with Zabini and just planted the ideas that he wished in Hermione and left the results to play out rather then engaging with Hermione in a ongoing conversation.
H&C presumably contacted Zabini more than once when using him as a pawn. I imagine he’d talk to hermione after the battle regardless of whether she was able to summon him when she got the letter.
My first thought is this: Hermione beat Draco to a pulp, and Lucius reported it. He was definitely intending to do something, and would have been monitoring his son.
My own immediate reaction was ‘this in no way serves Hermione or Draco’s plans, so it must be a third party, and Lucius just stormed out of the battle’. Except how could Lucius know, and what exactly good does prosecuting Hermione do? It’s implied he can’t be monitoring Draco in real time by his ignorance and the letter-writing, and it also runs afoul of the Hogwarts magical defenses—so what happened, Draco got beaten, crawled to his room, wrote a letter to Lucius, got it delivered, and Lucius roused the law which rushed to arrest Hermione, all in the <~8 hours after the duel? And while Lucius may have influence in the courts and so risks little by this tactic, it makes Draco’s reputation hugely worse to basically everyone (either because he looks extremely weak and dependent on his father or because he’s attacking an innocent or because he’s using outrageously disproportionate retaliation), and I don’t see how it helps Lucius or Draco very much. Dumbledore being imprisoned would be one thing, but Hermione?
It’s entirely possible that this is entirely natural. Hermione beat Draco badly enough to put him in the Hospital Wing; either he’s legitimately near-death, or Lucius blew it out of proportion.
Alternatively, Hermione and Draco actually talked it out and are currently laying a mutual trap to figure out who’s using them both as pawns. I like this option, but it’s also probably the least likely one.
Draco being legitimately injured would explain a bit. If a cover-up was impossible and he was going to be shamed regardless, Lucius might as well have Hermione punished.
It’s entirely possible that this is entirely natural.
Sure. It’s just… I feel this would violate the idiot-ball rule—Hermione going berserk enough to put Draco in the hospital wing? Yes, she was angry before, but losing control is an idiot-ball thing to do.
I like this option, but it’s also probably the least likely one.
Agree. Not sure how such a mutual trap would expose their manipulators either.
It could be an accident—Hermione hits a chandelier with a cutting cures, etc. It’s a fight, things like that happen.
Agree. Not sure how such a mutual trap would expose their manipulators either.
Whoever’s manipulating them is probably not anticipating a team up. (And if they are, they’re beyond the two’s ability to deal with anyway, so no point in worrying about that option.) So, Hermione apparently gets taken out of the picture, while Draco is free to investigate what’s going on with a manipulator who’s moving ahead with his plan.
… Okay, so that was kind of nonsensical since I was deciding what my opinion was while I wrote it. Let’s try this again:
Hermione and Draco meet, and actually talk it out. They decide to work together against their mysterious puppetmaster by playing along with the plot, as opposed to completely derailing it and then not knowing who was behind it.
I really like that option as well. Rereading about Hermione’s demeanor at the breakfast table it does come across to me more as playing it cool then resignation at an impending arrest.
Additionally, to meta-speculate a bit. I think it is more likely that Eliezer would pretend to destroy the relationship between Draco and Hermione that he has been carefully nudging together for many many chapters then to actually destroy the relationship.
I actually think their likelihood of talking it out based on them being alone and unwatched is pretty high, and given hermione’s apparent lack of worry in the morning I think that’s what happened. It’s possible someone else interfered after the duel to incapacitate draco and incriminate hermione.
One way or another she seems to have been expecting this. Otherwise she’d have been freaking out that Harry had done something. So that might eliminate the possibility of the duel having gone perfectly fine and then some plotting going on afterwards.
Furthermore, if Draco was seriously harmed there is absolutely no way Hermione wouldn’t have seen him to Madam Pomfrey. Perhaps it’s going to be made to look like Hermione did something unfair, like tried to cast the Killing Curse?
As for the monitoring, it’s possible Lucius didn’t need to write but also didn’t want his son to know how much he knew about what goes on in Hogwarts.
And as to his goal, I suspect getting the twelve-year-old’s wand snapped is not his end-game. However, he could definitely get some leverage over Dumbledore if he has a serious case.
Furthermore, if Draco was seriously harmed there is absolutely no way Hermione wouldn’t have seen him to Madam Pomfrey
What makes you think she didn’t see him to Madam Pomfrey?
Though it’s always possible the wards in the castle immediately warn the teachers of a student wounded to the point of danger to life , and that therefore she wouldn’t have time to get him to Madam Pomfrey before she or a teacher arrived to the scene.
Furthermore, if Draco was seriously harmed there is absolutely no way Hermione wouldn’t have seen him to Madam Pomfrey
Only applies if Hermione is aware of Draco being seriously harmed.
Suppose she stuns Draco, leaves, then someone else decides to do a number on him, either hoping Hermione will take the blame, or just not thinking about it.
Furthermore, if Draco was seriously harmed there is absolutely no way Hermione wouldn’t have seen him to Madam Pomfrey.
Hermione is a kind, caring person with a strong moral core, a “Milgram resister” who wouldn’t even cast a Simple Strike Hex on orders from a teacher. But she’s not a pacifist, is she? Perhaps she could be convinced that harming someone, or letting them be harmed, was the right thing to do. Especially if she was brainwashed a bit.
Hermione beat Draco in a duel; he is trying a Xanatos gambit: I win? I trumpet the win loudly, purebloods rule! You win? The evil mudblood broke the rules (that she probably didn’t know) and tried to kill me.
Re-read the chapter: he’s furious and working himself further into a state where he could want that. Xanatos Gambit is maybe not the right concept; it sounds pre-planned. This could have been rage-driven, spur of the moment.
Personally, I’m worried about how Harry will react. He’s not going to take this well, certainly.
Now, the question here is how intelligent Hermione was. If she left the letter somewhere Harry can find it—or would know to look—then Harry would at least know what happened. Probably couldn’t be used as evidence, but it would help.
Hermione probably won’t be cut off from any outside contact, so she will be able to tell Harry about the duel if she wants to/is able to. We can’t discount the possibility of obvliation.
The terms of the challenge state that she can’t tell anyone about it before or after the duel or it goes to the Wizangamot. So, no, presumably she can’t tell Harry about it.
Heck, she might have severely injured Draco by accident, rendered basic medical care, and then just left, because she can’t tell anyone. If someone found Draco unconscious and half-dead later, and they figured out Hermione did it and left him, that would look like attempted murder.
Oooh, now that’s interesting. If mentioning the duel means she automatically gets declared guilty as per the Ancient Rules, it’s going to be damned tricky to walk away from this.
Alright, let’s get this speculation-train started. My first and most obvious thought is this: Hermione beat Draco to a pulp, and Lucius reported it. He was definitely intending to do something, and would have been monitoring his son. The trouble with this theory is that it involved admitting that Hermione beat Draco fair and square. Still, for Dumbledore to cooperate Lucius is probably involved somehow.
Also, there’s Professor Quirrell to account for. I find it unlikely his absence in unrelated, especially when he probably knew Lucius would be up to something. And come to think of it, he probably has his own Marauder’s Map(we now know they’re in play). Hell, come to think of it I wonder who wouldn’t make one if they could. Anyways, he probably doesn’t want Granger thrown in Azkaban. Perhaps we’ll finally get to see him up against Lord Malfoy?
It is highly unlikely that Hermione would agree to the duel considering her reaction to whatever H&C convinced her of, and Draco saw attacking her on the spot as a forced move. So, Hermione declined Draco’s duel and Draco attacked her on the spot.
I think Hermione fought it life-or-death and did Draco serious damage.
Edit: Actually she should not have been able to do him serious damage if the wards actually work as they are alleged to work. Maybe she tried to do him serious damage, the wards did… whatever they do and Dumbledore felt compelled to report the attempt? I’m not sure any more.
Now that she’s H&C’s Mind-Rape slave, Hermione probably told him/her as soon as she got Draco’s letters. So the question is what H&C would tell Hermione to do.
Come to think of it, all this has been the result of Hermione being convinced Draco is a bad egg. So, whoever benefits from this may well be or command H&C.
Hmm, I assumed that H&C did what he did with Zabini and just planted the ideas that he wished in Hermione and left the results to play out rather then engaging with Hermione in a ongoing conversation.
H&C presumably contacted Zabini more than once when using him as a pawn. I imagine he’d talk to hermione after the battle regardless of whether she was able to summon him when she got the letter.
Ok, that sounds reasonable enough.
My own immediate reaction was ‘this in no way serves Hermione or Draco’s plans, so it must be a third party, and Lucius just stormed out of the battle’. Except how could Lucius know, and what exactly good does prosecuting Hermione do? It’s implied he can’t be monitoring Draco in real time by his ignorance and the letter-writing, and it also runs afoul of the Hogwarts magical defenses—so what happened, Draco got beaten, crawled to his room, wrote a letter to Lucius, got it delivered, and Lucius roused the law which rushed to arrest Hermione, all in the <~8 hours after the duel? And while Lucius may have influence in the courts and so risks little by this tactic, it makes Draco’s reputation hugely worse to basically everyone (either because he looks extremely weak and dependent on his father or because he’s attacking an innocent or because he’s using outrageously disproportionate retaliation), and I don’t see how it helps Lucius or Draco very much. Dumbledore being imprisoned would be one thing, but Hermione?
It’s entirely possible that this is entirely natural. Hermione beat Draco badly enough to put him in the Hospital Wing; either he’s legitimately near-death, or Lucius blew it out of proportion.
Alternatively, Hermione and Draco actually talked it out and are currently laying a mutual trap to figure out who’s using them both as pawns. I like this option, but it’s also probably the least likely one.
Draco being legitimately injured would explain a bit. If a cover-up was impossible and he was going to be shamed regardless, Lucius might as well have Hermione punished.
Sure. It’s just… I feel this would violate the idiot-ball rule—Hermione going berserk enough to put Draco in the hospital wing? Yes, she was angry before, but losing control is an idiot-ball thing to do.
Agree. Not sure how such a mutual trap would expose their manipulators either.
It could be an accident—Hermione hits a chandelier with a cutting cures, etc. It’s a fight, things like that happen.
Whoever’s manipulating them is probably not anticipating a team up. (And if they are, they’re beyond the two’s ability to deal with anyway, so no point in worrying about that option.) So, Hermione apparently gets taken out of the picture, while Draco is free to investigate what’s going on with a manipulator who’s moving ahead with his plan.
… Okay, so that was kind of nonsensical since I was deciding what my opinion was while I wrote it. Let’s try this again:
Hermione and Draco meet, and actually talk it out. They decide to work together against their mysterious puppetmaster by playing along with the plot, as opposed to completely derailing it and then not knowing who was behind it.
I really like that option as well. Rereading about Hermione’s demeanor at the breakfast table it does come across to me more as playing it cool then resignation at an impending arrest.
Additionally, to meta-speculate a bit. I think it is more likely that Eliezer would pretend to destroy the relationship between Draco and Hermione that he has been carefully nudging together for many many chapters then to actually destroy the relationship.
Draco definitely won’t be pleased by these accusations. I wonder if he’s going to have to reveal himself as a non-racist before this arch is up.
I actually think their likelihood of talking it out based on them being alone and unwatched is pretty high, and given hermione’s apparent lack of worry in the morning I think that’s what happened. It’s possible someone else interfered after the duel to incapacitate draco and incriminate hermione.
To be honest, she reads more “hysterical and hiding it” then “unworried” to me.
One way or another she seems to have been expecting this. Otherwise she’d have been freaking out that Harry had done something. So that might eliminate the possibility of the duel having gone perfectly fine and then some plotting going on afterwards.
Yeah, one way or another Draco is either injured or “injured” (with quotes), but the duel definitely didn’t go off as might be expected.
Furthermore, if Draco was seriously harmed there is absolutely no way Hermione wouldn’t have seen him to Madam Pomfrey. Perhaps it’s going to be made to look like Hermione did something unfair, like tried to cast the Killing Curse?
As for the monitoring, it’s possible Lucius didn’t need to write but also didn’t want his son to know how much he knew about what goes on in Hogwarts.
And as to his goal, I suspect getting the twelve-year-old’s wand snapped is not his end-game. However, he could definitely get some leverage over Dumbledore if he has a serious case.
What makes you think she didn’t see him to Madam Pomfrey?
Though it’s always possible the wards in the castle immediately warn the teachers of a student wounded to the point of danger to life , and that therefore she wouldn’t have time to get him to Madam Pomfrey before she or a teacher arrived to the scene.
Only applies if Hermione is aware of Draco being seriously harmed.
Suppose she stuns Draco, leaves, then someone else decides to do a number on him, either hoping Hermione will take the blame, or just not thinking about it.
Hermione is a kind, caring person with a strong moral core, a “Milgram resister” who wouldn’t even cast a Simple Strike Hex on orders from a teacher. But she’s not a pacifist, is she? Perhaps she could be convinced that harming someone, or letting them be harmed, was the right thing to do. Especially if she was brainwashed a bit.
Hermione beat Draco in a duel; he is trying a Xanatos gambit: I win? I trumpet the win loudly, purebloods rule! You win? The evil mudblood broke the rules (that she probably didn’t know) and tried to kill me.
I don’t think Draco would choose to have Hermione’s life completely destroyed. He wants her shamed, not imprisoned, dead, or wandless.
Re-read the chapter: he’s furious and working himself further into a state where he could want that. Xanatos Gambit is maybe not the right concept; it sounds pre-planned. This could have been rage-driven, spur of the moment.
His thoughts clearly state that the purpose of the duel is to be a test for the real thing.
Personally, I’m worried about how Harry will react. He’s not going to take this well, certainly.
Now, the question here is how intelligent Hermione was. If she left the letter somewhere Harry can find it—or would know to look—then Harry would at least know what happened. Probably couldn’t be used as evidence, but it would help.
Hermione probably won’t be cut off from any outside contact, so she will be able to tell Harry about the duel if she wants to/is able to. We can’t discount the possibility of obvliation.
The terms of the challenge state that she can’t tell anyone about it before or after the duel or it goes to the Wizangamot. So, no, presumably she can’t tell Harry about it.
Heck, she might have severely injured Draco by accident, rendered basic medical care, and then just left, because she can’t tell anyone. If someone found Draco unconscious and half-dead later, and they figured out Hermione did it and left him, that would look like attempted murder.
Oooh, now that’s interesting. If mentioning the duel means she automatically gets declared guilty as per the Ancient Rules, it’s going to be damned tricky to walk away from this.
Hence, a dead-drop, assuming she thought of it.