A (long) Draco musing

[lipglossusa]

No: HPFGUIDX 31990

jennyandraul wrote:
> > > I think JKR already has very subtly set up the possibility for 
Draco redemption.  She has shown us times when Draco just may not be 
DE material.  The best and most used example is when Draco runs 
> screaming from the "thing" drinking the unicorn blood in SS.  
Also, he took the coward's way out in shirking the wizard's duel 
> with Harry in book 1.  This has puzzled me for some time, because 
in the wizard's duel the following year, he proves himself more than 
 capable of fighting, and even produces a snake from his wand, 
something I  doubt most 2nd years could do so easily. I suggest that 
one reason Draco might have had no intention to participate in the 
wizard's duel with Harry the previous year is because he *knew* he 
would have more experience than Harry, and didn't want to run the 
risk of being expelled after harming him in some way. >>


Sigh.  I've been reluctant to post this, because there has been such 
dedicated analysis of Draco on the message boards lately! (Penny's 
post included) ...but I recently read an online interview with JKR 
where she stated (in answer to a question) that, no, Harry and Draco 
would not be teaming up to fight evil together in future books.  I 
took this to mean that Draco is not going to be redeemed any time 
soon.  Unfortunately I don't have an exact quote for you, but I 
promise I will do some research and post a link if anyone wants to 
find the interview and read it.

Regarding the unicorn blood/evil "thing" in the Forbidden Forest 
incident, I don't think that Draco running away screaming like a girl 
(though very amusing) is necessarily an indicator of whether he's cut 
out to be a DE.  After all, he is only 11 years old in that book-- 
anyone that age would be scared.  (The only reason Harry didn't run 
away was because he was writhing with pain on the ground.)
In answer to the question about the "shirked" dueling match in SS and 
the Dueling Club incident, I doubt that Draco cared much whether 
Harry got hurt, he's got his dad on the governor's board to 
threaten/convince everyone that it was all an accident, etc.  I don't 
think it's even occurred to Draco that he could be expelled for 
something, he's too hung up on his family name and seems to be 
convinced that he receives-- or should receive-- special treatment.  

I think Draco, while not necessarily a full fledged dastardly evil 
character, is definitely a mean kid who hasn't shown any signs of 
renouncing his evil ways, and judging by JKR's response, he will 
probably stay that way.

Marina 
(who hopes she hasn't crushed too many Nice Draco dream bubbles)