Is Draco Evil & a true enamy of Harrys'?

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25072

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cassandraclaire at m... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Alyeskakc at a... wrote:
> 
> 
> I'm still in the camp that thinks redemption is certainly possible, 
> if not inevitable, for D. Malfoy. We have an already-presented 
> redemption paradigm with Snape, who probably did much worse things 
> as a Death Eater before he turned spy for Dumbledore than Draco has 
> ever done. I don't like what Draco said to Harry and co on the 
> train, but even if he's spitting out hateful words, he still hasn't 
> *done* anything that would make him unreedeemable via a trial by 
> fire.

While this was mostly true for the first and second books, he does 
manage to make some trouble in the third and fourth books.  He gets 
Buckbeak sentenced to death because of overplaying the 
hippogriff "attack."  This causes Hagrid a great deal of grief. (I 
think Malfoy and Hagrid will have a confrontation before Malfoy and 
Harry--and if something happens to Hagrid, as I think it will, it may 
very well be at the hands of Draco Malfoy, screaming self-defense or 
some such thing.)  

Then, in the fourth book, he plays informant to Rita Skeeter.  This 
causes a LOT of trouble!  He's also not too bright sometimes (or 
politic); at the beginning of CoS, Harry overhears Lucius telling his 
son (in the shop in Knockturn Alley) that he can't afford for people 
to hear him saying bad things about Harry Potter, who is regarded as 
a hero by most wizards (paraphrase).  You'd think Draco Malfoy would 
understand that the same thing would surely apply to the late Cedric 
Diggory.  He also doesn't have the sense to stand at the leaving 
feast and toast Harry with the others.  His father would have done 
it; he's a PR man all the way.    

Thus, he's more of a troublemaker than evil so far, but with the 
comments he made on the train, he seems to be getting worse, not 
better.

--Barb