Dumbledore does say that Lucius didn’t know the object was a Horcrux, but remember that while he doesn’t know this, Lucius does know two things about the diary:
1. He was told by Voldemort to keep it safe; and
2. He knows that deploying it will open the Chamber of Secrets.
So I doubt he would throw the diary away just to be rid of it; he knows that more will happen than that. But it does make sense that the MInistry raids would be a factor, as he CERTAINLY wouldn’t want them to find it in his house.

As to the final point, as to whether Lucius really thinks the Dark Lord will return, perhaps that is where our most fundamental disagreement lies. The whole school knows *something* happened with regard to the Philosopher’s Stone, but, as with all rumors, bystanders are going to have wildly differing stories as to exactly what. During the end-of-year feast, Dumbledore never gives a full account of what happened, and he never mentions or implies Voldemort was involved.

During year 5, much of the wizarding world is in denial that Voldemort has returned; that includes a seeming majority of Hogwarts students, who are the best positioned to get the straight scoop. If everyone literally knew that Voldemort had tried to steal the Philosopher’s Stone, I can’t imagine that Fudge’s official denial would have gained much traction. And when Harry defiantly tells Umbridge that Quirrell had Voldemort sticking out the back of his head, he draws another week of detentions.

If, as you argue, Lucius knew the Dark Lord would return, it would have been foolhardy for him to do nothing from the time of the Chamber of Secrets fiasco until his eventual return. Lucius had two years to at least make a show of trying to bring him back, but instead he runs at the sight of the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup.

I’ve struggled some in knowing how to respond to comments on this essay, because many of them seem to disagree with my supporting points, yet don’t address the fundamental questions behind them. For instance, your first point is completely valid. But the assertion you’re contesting is really a secondary one, and I don’t think altering it would change my overall argument. To me, the point isn’t so much “Dobby *must* have been sent to stop Harry’s mail, because if he’s doing it on his own then his absence would be noticed,” as it is “If Harry is Lucius’s target, then Lucius needs to find out when he’ll be in Diagon Alley, so now we have an explanation for Dobby’s stopping the mail. And after all, if he were doing it on his own, mightn’t they notice, too?” Does that make sense?

I think on your second point, we’re in complete agreement, unless I’m missing something. It makes sense that Dobby has been ordered not to speak ill of his masters – he has to punish himself when he nearly does so by mistake. But several people have pointed out to me that Dobby could have been forbidden to speak with Harry, yet chosen to do so anyway and then punished himself. I think you and I both disagree with this, and would argue that house-elves absolutely cannot make a conscious choice to disobey.

And to your third point, you’re forgetting that we *know* Lucius won’t seek out the Dark Lord. After Harry’s first year, “the whole school knows” that Harry stopped Voldemort from capturing the Philosopher’s Stone. Lucius then has three full years to seek Voldemort before he actually returns, and never does so. To the contrary, he immediately sets his Chamber of Secrets plan in motion, which would be incredibly stupid if he weren’t doing so in an attempt to garner the Dark Lord’s favor, don’t you think? And what better way to garner his favor than to use Harry Potter?

1) The essay implies that it would be time-consuming and possibly all-encompassing for Dobby to intercept Harry Potter’s mail (and therefore Dobby had to be doing so on the Malfoys orders). But we don’t know how long that particular task actually takes.

We know house-elves have magic to help themselves complete household chores and that they have different rules for their magic than the rules for wizards. We also know that house-elves can hear their masters’ call anywhere in the world. It would not be a stretch of canon to say that house-elves have the ability to know when the owl post is arriving, and Dobby could apparate to Privet Drive to stop all Harry’s mail with only a few minutes commitment each day.

However, I’ve gathered from your writing that you’re reticent to rely on explanations involving non-canon magic, so even assuming Dobby does not magically know when owl post is arriving, he would have a pretty shrewd idea of the time of day it arrives. The Malfoys would not necessarily miss Dobby if he were to go missing for hours at a time. House-elves do most of their work unseen. As Nick says, “That’s the mark of a good house-elf, isn’t it, that you don’t know it’s there?” (GF12) In year 4, Dobby works at Hogwarts for several weeks before Harry discovers Dobby. How long do the Malfoys go without seeing Dobby during year 2?

I’ll assume for the sake of argument, however, that the Malfoys gave Dobby orders to spy on Harry and read his mail. If Dobby had been keeping Harry’s mail of his own volition, why did Dobby let the one piece of mail through that would have almost certainly derailed Lucius’s plan? If Dobby had confiscated Hermione’s letter to Ron, then the Grangers and the Weasleys would not have coordinated their visits to Diagon Alley, and Dobby could truthfully report that he has no idea when Harry plans to buy supplies. (And for your hypothesis to work, Dobby has to have seen this letter; that’s the letter that tells us when Harry and the Weasleys will be in Flourish and Blotts.)

2) We have canon of at least one instance of a house-elf disobeying a direct order. In Kreacher’s Tale, Harry tells Kreacher, “I forbid you to call anyone ‘blood traitor’ or ‘Mudblood.’ ” There’s not a lot wiggle room for Kreacher to intentionally misinterpret that order. And yet a few pages later, and during the same conversation, Kreacher calls Hermione a Mudblood again. While Harry reminds Kreacher of his direct order, Kreacher starts punishing himself. (DH10) I take that to mean that a house-elf cannot intentionally disobey an order, but they can do so accidentally.

A house-elf can also follow the letter of an order while intentionally ignoring the spirit of an order. When Harry order Kreacher to follow Draco, Harry definitely gets the impression Kreacher is looking for a loophole. (HB19) When Kreacher reports back to Harry, Kreacher gives Harry completely mundane and useless information knowing full-well that that was not the information Harry wanted. (HB 21).

Put those two together, and Dobby actually has a great deal of latitude in his interaction with Harry. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that Dobby is visiting Harry and giving Harry information, as long as Dobby isn’t knowingly and intentionally breaking a direct order from the Malfoys. (It seems that Dobby is forbidden to speak ill of the Malfoys. That incites Dobby to punish himself twice during the encounter.)

3) I initially really liked your hypothesis that Lucius had been planning what to do about a possible return of the Dark Lord since before Draco entered Hogwarts, and that his initial plan was to have Draco befriend Harry. But I just can’t bring myself to accept a sticky problem: If Lucius really had tired of the Dark Lord’s methods, then he had no reason to hold animus toward Harry Potter (at that point.) Harry had almost certainly done Lucius a favor by vanquishing the Dark Lord.

However, I really think Lucius thinks the Dark Lord is gone. For good. Lucius is a true-believer that muggle-borns and blood-traitors are a threat to wizarding society. And it’s a shame that the Dark Lord fell. Lucius may have lost some political clout after Lord Voldemort’s first reign, but that has everything to do with the Dark Lord’s sudden downfall. If Lucius thought the the Lestranges were correct—that the Dark Lord could come back—then he would actually attempt to bring him back. But Lucius doesn’t really believe that.

What I imagine Dobby overheard, then, was Narcissa telling Lucius how spectacularly Draco and Harry had clashed that spring. The mention of Hogwarts turned the conversation toward the Chamber of Secrets. I really think that’s why Dobby made a connection between the Chamber of Secrets and Harry.

Anyway, I’ve immensely enjoyed your website and I thank you for the forum to discuss ideas.

I agree with Ashlee and others about Dobby’s motives for worshipping Harry. I don’t think that his attachment to him demands any further explanation than that Harry treats him well and stopped what was probably the worst time of Dobby’s life. (We don’t often think of the things he must have seen and even been involved with.)

I also don’t think that we (any of us) are reading too much into the books. Life and art are complex and we know that JK Rowling planned the whole series well before publishing it. She knew a lot more about the story than she ended up publishing and she clearly meant to show the reader certain details at certain times. (Just think of the mentions of Aberforth and Grindelwald early in the series!)

Although I don’t agree with your whole argument, this particular question is pretty open-ended. I think your most compelling point is how Dobby managed to spy on Harry so long without the Malfoys noticing. It is entirely possible that they were using him to keep tabs on the people they considered enemies, especially Harry.

Lastly, we don’t know that Lucius didn’t forbid Dobby to speak to Harry, since Dobby has to physically punish himself whenever he disobeys orders, and he does so frequently when warning Harry. This leads to another question of what Lucius’ orders were, which could potentially support your theory!

It isn’t mentioned specifically, but Ron could have even had Scabbers in his pocket when they went down to the COS; otherwise, I’m certain Harry told Ron more about what happened & what Dumbledore told him after everyone else left, which Scabbers/Wormtail could have overheard. When you actually think about, Wormtail probably had a lot to tell Voldermort about conversations he overheard between Harry, Ron & others.

Your reading of the situation is probably what Jo intended. But as I say in the essay, it has some big holes in it. Most especially, I don’t buy that Dobby overheard Lucius “talking big” about a general threat and immediately jumped to the conclusion that he had to spend his entire summer at Privet Drive withholding Harry’s mail so as to prevent Harry Potter from returning to Hogwarts on the off chance that the threat somehow impacted him. Dobby will later be aware of much more direct threats to Harry than this, and will act much less protectively. So in my mind, something more has to be going on, whether Rowling intended it to be or not. And that’s what I set out to explain. :)