Voldemort then began to
plot Dumbledore’s assassination and the takeover of Hogwarts. Toward this end,
he made sixteen-year-old Draco Malfoy a Death Eater, and told him to
kill his Headmaster and get a small army of Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Draco’s
worried mother added some extra insurance – she secretly made an Unbreakable
Vow with Severus Snape for Snape to protect Draco and kill Dumbledore if
Draco failed.

It took the whole school
year, but Draco nearly did it. He created an entrance into Hogwarts with vanishing
cabinets, and managed to corner Dumbledore and disarm him. Dumbledore knew Draco
was no murderer, though, and convinced him to lower his wand, at which point
Snape arrived and fulfilled his vow. What Voldemort didn’t know was that before
he died Dumbledore had learned about the Horcruxes, shared the information with
Harry, and that the ring Horcrux had already been destroyed. (Voldemort already
knew about the diary.)

With Dumbledore out of
the way, Voldemort finally had the freedom he needed to take over the Ministry
and Hogwarts, and to try once and for all to kill Harry. First, he freed Lucius
Malfoy and the others from Azkaban. He then set up a base of operations in
the Malfoy mansion, and organized the infiltration and silent coup of the
Ministry; Severus Snape, ascendant in his Master’s eyes for the murder of
Dumbledore, was made the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Snape had also brought
crucial information about when the Order of the Phoenix was going to move Harry
from safety at 4 Privet Drive. On the given day, Voldemort and his Death Eaters
were ready and waiting, but instead of one Harry and a heavy guard, there were
seven guarded look-alikes, and Voldemort was thwarted again.