All Malfoy, All The Time

[virtualworldofhp]

No: HPFGUIDX 31902

<Heidi wrote:> 
> 
> One of the things I think is useful about Draco is that he *has the 
> potential* to be the character who changes his attitudes the most. I 
> think that if JKR makes him evil and keeps him that way, it will be 
> troubling, at least for me, to see a character who we've "known" 
> since he was 10 or 11 move lockstep towards Evil and Darkness just 
> because his parents are - in a series where an underlying theme has 
> been "choices" I see Draco, at present in canon, as a character who's 
> never had to make one - and possibly never really been in a position 
> where he could. He's been indoctrinated and given the fact that we 
> know that Lucius is a homicidal (to Draco's classmates, in giving the 
> book to Ginny) abusive (to Dobby) git (to Hagrid and Dumbledore), it 
> may not even be safe for him to break out of his programming yet. 
> 
> But I hope he will - even if it's not safe, even if it's dangerous - 
> even if he has to give up every little bit of his to-date sheltered 
> upbringing. Because it will make an impression on the readers, and I, 
> for one, am really hoping it will happen.

How I see JKR as setting us up for a possible Draco redemption: she
hasn't already set any hints ahead, so if she's going to do it subtly,
it's going to have to work very fast, since there are only three books
remaining (two if you want to assume Malfoy's "transformation" will be
completely by Seven); if she's going to work it in a kind of
sudden-decision thing, then some sort of dramatic event is going to
have to happen to impace Draco enough to influence his conversion.  

Somehow, I see her doing it the subtle way.  Just /once/, we will see
something flicker in Malfoy--maybe just a slight hesitation in speech
or action, or a stutter in conviction.  It will be extremely
subtle--possibly almost undectable to the average reader--this is
difficult considering how much closer HP readers are nowadays than
your average Joe.  (A scene from Left Behind books comes to
mind...Carpathia wants someone to pretend they have doubts about his
power--this is demonstrated by one single hesitation in speech)  If
JKR is going to do this slow, building up process, she's not going to
have much room to make it a "mystery".  What I mean is if she's going
to make it something like how Ginny's ownership of the diary was
revealed--through tiny, thorough details almost impossible to detect
until it all comes out in one crashing finale.  So, if she's setting
us up for a "shocker", then there's got to be evidence in place
*soon*.  It's either that or some kind of tramatic event knocks
Malfoy's moral compass into correct position & he suddely realizes
what a nasty git he's been all along.

-Megan (knowing this made very little sense outside of her own mind)