Chapter one The Dark Lord Ascending, your thoughts?

[cagedcactus]

The very first thing that hit me was white peacock. Peacocks as generally been known as worst enemy of Snakes. Having them on the grounds of a wizard (Lucious Malfoy) whose blood line belongs to House of Serpents, was a little odd.
I wonder if JKR knew this fact.
She has told us before in book, chamber of secrets, that Snakes can hear. Snakes in reality dont have any ears. They have no hearing ability. They sense around their way, and their ability to sense things is great.

anyways, I think the first chapter give most of the true taste of Voldemort's intensions. He kills the muggle study teacher, and Draco realises what he has gotten himself into.
It also tells us that Lucious and his family has lost their respect, and most importantly it tells us that Snape could very well end up being Evil.

[Vold. E. Mort]

yeah, I was pretty sure we'd all gotten Snape wrong after reading that chapter.. But, the theme of "for the greater good" was playing even then. What's one teacher's life vs. ending Voldemort's threat? What's the life of one little boy with a scar vs. stopping the most powerful dark wizard of all time?

[George]

Yeah -
I think it was more to give a geographical location to Voldemort's HQ, and to actually SHOW Voldemort himself. Remember that he did not make a "live" appearance in HBP, and so we needed to see what he was up to these days.

And, as cagedcactus said, it was important to show the new standing of the Malfoy family (or, rather, lackthereof). This does, after all, play a role in the very end, where the Narcissa may not have been as eager to lie for Harry, had the Dark Lord treated her husband and son a little better.