If we assume he assumes Harry is Voldemort, which seems like a good assumption given his recent behavior, he would think Voldemort would see the symbolism in the price. And then… what? Is he taunting Voldemort? I mean sure he’s angry, but taunting Voldemort doesn’t seem wise.
First possibility that comes to mind is that it was a nicely salient price point that Lucius could be sure Voldemort wouldn’t be willing to pay to get back a valued ally. After all, Voldemort implicitly said as much before, if Dumbledore’s testimony about his reaction during the last war is to be trusted.
Lucius probably doesn’t want to taunt Voldemort, but he does want to win, and by persisting when Harry made it clear where his interests lie, Lucius has already implicitly opposed himself to Voldemort in the current conflict. I can’t think of any other price point that’d work better, either, now that the precedent’s been set—a little lower sends a message that Voldemort is less serious in his intentions than Dumbledore, a lot lower risks being paid in full, and higher makes Lucius look desperate.
Depending on how well known the ransom story is, he might also have been trying to score points off the other people in the room by drawing an implicit parallel to those events. Of course, by doing so and getting a different outcome, he’s lost some of the moral high ground; I’m not sure how much, though, given how cold Harry was being and given the little stunt with Umbridge and the Dementor. Lucius is also probably updating his estimate for the Harrymort interpretation downward now (previously he had a hypothesis that matched all his data; now he has new data both for and against and should be very confused), but I’m not prepared to say what the consequences of that might be.
First possibility that comes to mind is that it was a nicely salient price point that Lucius could be sure Voldemort wouldn’t be willing to pay to get back a valued ally. After all, Voldemort implicitly said as much before, if Dumbledore’s testimony about his reaction during the last war is to be trusted.
Lucius probably doesn’t want to taunt Voldemort, but he does want to win, and by persisting when Harry made it clear where his interests lie, Lucius has already implicitly opposed himself to Voldemort in the current conflict. I can’t think of any other price point that’d work better, either, now that the precedent’s been set—a little lower sends a message that Voldemort is less serious in his intentions than Dumbledore, a lot lower risks being paid in full, and higher makes Lucius look desperate.
Depending on how well known the ransom story is, he might also have been trying to score points off the other people in the room by drawing an implicit parallel to those events. Of course, by doing so and getting a different outcome, he’s lost some of the moral high ground; I’m not sure how much, though, given how cold Harry was being and given the little stunt with Umbridge and the Dementor. Lucius is also probably updating his estimate for the Harrymort interpretation downward now (previously he had a hypothesis that matched all his data; now he has new data both for and against and should be very confused), but I’m not prepared to say what the consequences of that might be.