Harry Potter Films Missed An Opportunity Ignoring Lucius Malfoy's Cunning Plan
In contrast to the film franchise, Dumbledore's investigation into Voldemort's Horcrux plan began in Book 2.
Harry Potter fans have long known that the movies couldn't and wouldn't capture all the details of J.K. Rowling's ingenious tale of the boy who lived.
Whole plots and characters were sacrificed for the sake of screen time. And in the case of Lucius Malfoy and Tom Riddle's diary, it resulted in a one-dimensional character and a simplified Horcrux arc.
In the second installment, Lucius Malfoy is seen placing the diary in Ginny Weasley's cauldron, causing the girl to revive Tom Riddle's memory and open the Chamber of Secrets.
At the end of the film, Harry realizes who the original owner of the diary is and confronts Lucius. But it is never explained how the Death Eater came into possession of the diary and why he did what he did, other than being pure evil.
In the book, the dialogue between Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley shows that Ginny was not chosen at random.
In fact, there was bad blood between the two men, as Arthur had been behind some laws forbidding wizards from possessing dangerous magic artifacts.
To avoid prison, Lucius had to sell some of his most valuable possessions. And he was determined to exact his revenge and eliminate Arthur along the way.
He knew that the diary's return to Hogwarts would lead to some tragic incidents involving Muggle-borns, and he hoped that Ginny's inclusion would hurt Arthur so much that he would lose his job at the Ministry.
But how did he know what the diary would do? The books explain that Tom Riddle's diary and Malfoy's possession of it were, in fact, part of Voldemort's plan.
Apparently, ever since the Dark Lord closed the Chamber of Secrets during his time at Hogwarts, he hoped to open it again one day.
That's why he created a Horcrux from his own diary and gave it to his trusted Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy, to keep and ensure that it would find its way back to the school at his command.
But Malfoy, who knew nothing of Horcruxes, broke his master's trust and used it to his advantage. Later, he was severely punished for it.
While in the books the very existence of Tom Riddle's diary became the first clue that led Dumbledore to discover Voldemort's terrible secret, the films had to rely solely on Horace Slughorn's memories, which made the Horcrux arc much less cohesive.