So Dumbledore's so-called plan was to use the news that Staky had been successfully killed last year, combined with this year's provocation, to lure Voldemort over and then lie in wait?
Come to think of it, simple and crude as it was... it really did have a high chance of succeeding.
There was no doubt that Bagnold was one of Dumbledore's people. Unlike Staky, who had been Dumbledore's classmate in the same year and had a largely equal relationship with him, Bagnold was more obedient toward Dumbledore.
Dumbledore was fully capable of ensuring that, throughout the year, Bagnold only appeared wherever he allowed her to appear, forcing Voldemort, who wanted to kill her, to go only to those places if he wanted to get at Bagnold.
That way, Dumbledore could arrange an ambush in advance.
Voldemort could naturally see through such an obvious plan, but his current prestige was no longer what it had been when the Death Eaters were lying low.
It was not that Voldemort's greater prestige was a bad thing, but the problem was that too much of it had been mixed with what outsiders subjectively inflated it to be. At first, the Death Eaters believed Voldemort could succeed because of his strength, but now that belief contained much more belief born simply from others believing.
The prestige built upon that portion of belief was false.
Now, when Death Eaters saw an Auror, their first reaction was no longer to run, but to fight first and talk later. At a time like this, if Voldemort showed weakness, it would deal a tremendous blow to that false prestige of his.
Granted, with Voldemort's strength, even after such a blow, he could still make the Death Eaters obey him whether they wanted to or not, but it would make