JKR on the Harry & Draco teaming up rumor

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 31991

Hi --

lipglossusa wrote:


> 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.

Here's the link to the transcript of the October 2000 Barnes & Noble 
chat, as housed on HPGalleries:

http://www.hpgalleries.com/c103.htm

The exact bit that you were thinking of is:

Q: Hello, Ms. Rowling. I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books. My name 
is Katherine Emily Rose, and I am 11. Is it true that Harry and Draco 
will have to get together and fight evil?

A: Don't believe everything you read on the Net! I saw that rumor too, 
but it is just a rumor.

I don't think that necessarily negates a possible Draco redemption.  It 
just more or less rules out a scenario wherein Draco's participation 
with Harry is required to extinguish evil.  I don't think we can take 
these chat responses as great sweeping evidence of much of anything.  If 
the question was worded: "Will Draco remain a cardboard stereotype of 
the evil Slytherin through the entire series?" and JKR answered, "yes," 
then we might have something.  But with the way the questions are 
typically worded & the way that JKR's responses are almost *always* 
worded, it's really hard to come away with definite answers for future 
plot points or characterization directions.  IMO.

If you're interested in finding what JKR has said about various things 
though, here's a handy resource compiled by member Mike (aka Aberforth's 
Goat):

http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/

The search for the above info on Draco & Harry teaming up or not took 
approximately 20 seconds.  :--)

Penny

> 
> 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)
> 
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