Viridian Dreams Forum

Lucius Malfoy is a politician remember. Those sorts at least the one who are good at it, don't do back alley attacks themselves. Melissa's murder certainly was back alley politics at it's most vile. I can certainly see Malfoy senior arrange for such a thing to happen. But I agree that he would not do it himself. Wouldn't want to 'get his hands dirty' nor would he want it to be traced back to him.

I'm re-reading NoFP again, and I just finished with "Sirius, Spectacles, and Quidditch Spectacles", where the agent in place is first mentioned. The second sentence in that section is somewhat interesting.

"Among the veiled insults and threats were some very specific instructions."

Now, I think to myself "Self, why the veiled insults and threats?" Well, I'm coming up with that the agent in place is a half blood, with a pureblood patron. The patron may even possibly be the half blood's wizarding parent, with the half blood being the unexpected result of an illicit dalliance with a muggle/muggleborn.

Of course, this might just be my mind cooking up something that isn't there, but I like the thought of the agent in place being Lucius Malfoy's offspring, who uses his unwitting half brother Draco in his plans without Draco ever knowing he's being used.

MrRigger

Could this offspring's mother be Mrs. Granger just for the entertainment value?
Watching Hermione and the feret react to the idea that they share some of the same family members would be quite interesting. Almost as much fun as watching her slap him for calling her a "mud-blood whore".

I'm re-reading NoFP again, and I just finished with "Sirius, Spectacles, and Quidditch Spectacles", where the agent in place is first mentioned. The second sentence in that section is somewhat interesting.

"Among the veiled insults and threats were some very specific instructions."

Now, I think to myself "Self, why the veiled insults and threats?" Well, I'm coming up with that the agent in place is a half blood, with a pureblood patron. The patron may even possibly be the half blood's wizarding parent, with the half blood being the unexpected result of an illicit dalliance with a muggle/muggleborn.

Of course, this might just be my mind cooking up something that isn't there, but I like the thought of the agent in place being Lucius Malfoy's offspring, who uses his unwitting half brother Draco in his plans without Draco ever knowing he's being used.

MrRigger

That would fit, especially considering Tom's origins.

Oh man, bad idea, not going there.....

Afraid I have no theories as to the identity of the agent in place (at least, none that haven't already been mentioned), but I do have an idea as to his possible end that's nagging me.

Harry let out a heartfelt sigh. Even if the worst happened, all of his information wouldn't necessarily be lost forever. The part of his dream about his core exploding was probably just his imagination going into paranoid overdrive. He'd never heard of such a thing happening before, but it did make for a very dramatic ending.

He'd think back, later, on the irony of such a thought.

Assuming the agent in place is from the future and assuming that he is also subject to the same condition Harry is (that being the secondary corpus magi), if we take the irony mentioned as referring to the perceived inanity, at that point in time, of one's magical core going boom, then we just might have a walking firework of a time traveler in our future.

Probably a hilariously inaccurate theory, but I need to get it out of my brain before it trashes the place and turns me into a gibbering lunatic.

Oh, and apologies if this theory's already been brought up an I missed it ^_^;

We've basically come to the consensus that the AIP is not from the future.

Which, of course, will make it deeply amusing should it turn out that he is.
The irony comment might be related to dramatic endings, though -hinting, perhaps, that the ending of Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past will be extremely undramatic?
Or extremely dramatic, it could be either one really. The irony comment is pretty much an ideal prophecy -it can be interpreted in many ways, some of which are directly contradictory, such that pretty much no matter what happens it will be possible to say that the prophecy was correct, and to justify that statement.

Which, of course, will make it deeply amusing should it turn out that he is.
The irony comment might be related to dramatic endings, though -hinting, perhaps, that the ending of Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past will be extremely undramatic?
Or extremely dramatic, it could be either one really. The irony comment is pretty much an ideal prophecy -it can be interpreted in many ways, some of which are directly contradictory, such that pretty much no matter what happens it will be possible to say that the prophecy was correct, and to justify that statement.

Um, what?

It doesn't make sense that the AIP would be from the future. Anyway, while said person seems to be privy to some information, there hasn't been enough coverage to really hint that. I think it's more likely that Milicent will be the one to expose the AIP, or at least point Harry in the right direction. Matt's already hinted at who it was, we just need to put together the clues.

As I said earlier, many of us are going to have a moment when we find out.

I'm beginning to suspect that the AIP is someone who is a son of someone highly placed in the Ministry, of which there are quite a few in Slytherin.

Wow, I did not clue in to that consensus in the slightest =P

Point taken, Aldraia.

Question; the AIP mentions a timeline in chapter 25.

Fortunately, the week-long detention would not interfere with the timeline. That would be… unfortunate… after the lengths he'd gone to in order to set up that particular chain of dominoes.

Now, has it been agreed upon as to whether this timeline is the 'Original Timeline' (The one Harry fears; 'History' doomed to repeat itself, etc..) which the AIP is preserving, or is it the timeline for the AIP's plot (whatever that is)?

Wow, I did not clue in to that consensus in the slightest =P

Point taken, Aldraia.

Question; the AIP mentions a timeline in chapter 25.

Fortunately, the week-long detention would not interfere with the timeline. That would be… unfortunate… after the lengths he'd gone to in order to set up that particular chain of dominoes.

Now, has it been agreed upon as to whether this timeline is the 'Original Timeline' (The one Harry fears; 'History' doomed to repeat itself, etc..) which the AIP is preserving, or is it the timeline for the AIP's plot (whatever that is)?

I've just now thought of the possibility that the 'timeline' that the AIP is referring to is a normal everyday timeline as in I need to remember to do this on this day. As in a day to day plan of what he needs to do to complete his objectives. The Evil Authorlord probably used the word timeline to throw everyone off, you know a red herring and all that.

Yeah, I'm almost certain that the timeline mentioned there was simply referring to the AIP's plan to attack Harry.

MrRigger

Seeing that Harry wasn't attacked in the original timeline why would the agent in place be thinking about keeping it intact if he was from the future?

Assuming that it will be in fact possible to figure out who the AIP is at some point, thus that the person either plays some role in canon apart from random student N, or already has a role in NoFP and the comment about 'one of the few minds worthy of his house' the only real possibility is a Slytherin student. Apart from Cho are there really any Ravenclaws that are not so much of a blank slate in canon that you could hint at them being the AIP? (I'm pretty sure it is not Cho for some reason). Following this logic he could only really be Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini or the earlier mentioned student N (which would make the whole discussion kind of pointless)

I actually think there could be merit in Alex Mcpherson's idea of Mrs. Norris being the AIP.
In the original time-line, Peter Pettigrew spent years in his animagus undetected by the Weasley family.
Filch is a squib and would have no ability to detect an animagus, even if it was under his care.
Mrs. Norris can go anywhere, because she is a cat, and no one would be suspicious.

The only thing that could possibly hinder Mrs. Norris would be Professor Dumbledore realizing that she has a human mind, assuming there are fundamental differences between the mind of a cat and the mind of a human that could be detected with legilimency. Although he never seemed to pick up on Pettigrew. Maybe he simply never bothered to look into the minds of animals?

Anyway, I could totally see the plot twist of Mrs. Norris as the AIP.

The main problem I see with that is he fact that McGonigal would be pretty likely to recognize a fellow cat animagus.

I'm beginning to suspect that the AIP is someone who is a son of someone highly placed in the Ministry, of which there are quite a few in Slytherin.

I've forgotten; is it confirmed that the AIP is male, or in Slytherin?

Because your comment of 'parent highly placed in the Ministry' makes me think of Marietta Edgecombe; who was an informer in canon. Granted, that was just to her mother and the Ministry, not to Voldemort, but...

I seem to remember the Agent in Place being rather smart, cunning, and vicious. Right? I wouldn't use any of those adjectives to describe Edgecombe. It's been a while since I read NoFP, so I could be wrong, but that's the reason I wouldn't expect Marietta to do anything worthwhile.

If I recall correctly, male is confirmed, Slytherin is not; the only House clue I remember is "one of the few minds worthy of his House" which could easily be Ravenclaw.

True, but which Ravenclaw would fit the bill. That isn't a house we know all too well.

Whoever the agent-in-place is has to be good at potions and manipulating Draco and his crew. He's probably an associate of the Malfroy family, and is probably from hufflepuff or ravenclaw.

Manipulating Draco would not exactly be difficult. Pander to his prejudices, stroke his ego and so on. Despite not being entirely stupid, Draco is still not the sharpest tool in the box, let alone experienced in recognizing when someone is trying to manipulate him into a rash course of action.

We have all assumed a lot of things, but the AIP is almost certainly older and has had some time to get noticed as an effective person. While I doubt it is a Slytherin prefect, it could explain some things.

We have all assumed a lot of things, but the AIP is almost certainly older and has had some time to get noticed as an effective person. While I doubt it is a Slytherin prefect, it could explain some things.

Which could also be said about a Ravenclaw prefect. Heck even Cormick McClaggen could be the AIp though I grant you, Gryffindor's don't have the reputation of being particularly intelligent... But really why are we focusing on Slytherin? That seems a little presumptive. This story is not being written by Rowling so we can't assume that the bad guys are only in Slytherin.

True, true. I think the assumption on Slytherin is automatic. The possible Ravenclaw connection is worth merit, since we don't get any remote description of who the AIP is, and whether he was directly involved in Melissa's murder.

Why are we focusing on Slytherin? That seems a little presumptive. This story is not being written by Rowling so we can't assume that the bad guys are only in Slytherin.

Your point is well made. It seems we've fallen into the same loop of thinking as Harry. D'oh. However, I do think the argument could be made that a Slytherin is more likely, if certainly stereotypical. Consider: the patron is obviously someone of considerable influence and wealth, most of which seems to be concentrated in Pureblood Slytherin families both in canon and NoFP; also, the Agent appears to have been behind the attack on Cho--while Ravenclaws are certainly capable of being ruthless, I think they, along with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, value House loyalty, whereas our green-clad friends hold different views of loyalty...and the price for violating it; and lastly, as we've determined, this person manipulated Draco--who, while prideful and far from the sharpest tool in the shed, is far more likely to be easily manipulated by someone he knows and someone he trusts (both by degrees, of course) and Draco doesn't seem the type to take stock in what anyone non-Slytherin has to say.

All this said though, it would be par the course for the Authorlord to mindfuck us any whichway he fancies. I suspect we aren't going to have anything beyond bare-bones clues for a very long time.

In a case where justifying one or the other, a Slytherin is more likely, but it is not impossible for it to be a different house. It could just as easily, however unlikely, be a Gryffindor for all we know. After all, there is precedent with Peter Pettigrew.

Cormic McClaggen...? Not that I was thought he was likely when I first thought of him but well. He is politically well connected and it possible that even Draco could be manipulated by him he is pureblooded if remember correctly