Interesting fact: just making her angry was not enough for setting up the murder attempt. She had to accuse Draco of plotting and overcome his magic, in public, to have him forced into a duel. Also, if the death-blow itself was faked, a public duel would not have been enough, Draco had to think of the first private duel.
Thus, if it is a plot to frame Hermione, whoever did it was really good (or ridiculously lucky) at predicting the consequences, not just Hermione’s reaction. So either its an extremely good Xanathos gambit, and everything was anticipated, or a completely unplanned series of consequences that just happened to have a lot of results all of which are in favor of a certain bad guy. On narrative grounds I lean towards the first version.
Hmm. On second thought, it could be just that someone set-up a very volatile situation and took advantage of each resulting opportunity instantly with extreme precision, but that seems about as hard as predicting all the consequences outright.
Or he could just be tracking everything that happened to Draco. Q has admitted to casting alarm charms on him.
In fact, it just occurred to me that Q could very well have been using Legilimency on Draco as well. Would the Aurors have checked for that? Would Lucius?
In fact, it just occurred to me that Q could very well have been using Legilimency on Draco as well. Would the Aurors have checked for that? Would Lucius?
Quirrell seems to think it’s a real possibility:
“Legilimency, on Malfoy’s heir? Did Lucius Malfoy learn of it, he would have me assassinated outright.”
Interesting fact: just making her angry was not enough for setting up the murder attempt. She had to accuse Draco of plotting and overcome his magic, in public, to have him forced into a duel. Also, if the death-blow itself was faked, a public duel would not have been enough, Draco had to think of the first private duel.
Thus, if it is a plot to frame Hermione, whoever did it was really good (or ridiculously lucky) at predicting the consequences, not just Hermione’s reaction. So either its an extremely good Xanathos gambit, and everything was anticipated, or a completely unplanned series of consequences that just happened to have a lot of results all of which are in favor of a certain bad guy. On narrative grounds I lean towards the first version.
Hmm. On second thought, it could be just that someone set-up a very volatile situation and took advantage of each resulting opportunity instantly with extreme precision, but that seems about as hard as predicting all the consequences outright.
Or he could just be tracking everything that happened to Draco. Q has admitted to casting alarm charms on him.
In fact, it just occurred to me that Q could very well have been using Legilimency on Draco as well. Would the Aurors have checked for that? Would Lucius?
Quirrell seems to think it’s a real possibility:
That’s what made me think of it!