Draco, Wizarding Gentry, and Harriet

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 14898

Interesting discussions!  

Count me in the "Draco is potentially redeemable" crowd.  This debate 
is really one of determinism (Draco choose his future path of his own 
free will) vs. fatalism (Draco is doomed to be a Death Eater like 
Dear Old Dad).  At this point in canon, Draco could actually go 
either way.  

I've posted before about this, about a month or two ago... I do find 
canon Draco very offensive and do not sympathize with him at all.  He 
reminds me of every bigot or racist I've ever personally or 
vicariously encountered.  

But he can be redeemed, under several scenarios.  There's the 
Abraham/Isaac one mentioned earlier... the one I thought of is "what 
if Draco were exiled from the wizarding world and forced to live 
amongst Muggles?"  He'd either sink or swim, and I daresay his 
perceptions would be changed.  

It's easy to hate what you do not understand.

Margaret wrote:

"I also can't help wondering if we're ever going to encounter any
wizarding-world aristocrats who truly =are= gentlewizards and
-witches."

Ooh, what a cool idea.  Be nice, wouldn't it?  ;-)  The Malfoys seem 
to be the closest we've gotten to the gentry in canon... although 
perhaps once we find out more about the Potters, we'll see that they 
fit the bill as well.

Sara Metz wrote:
"OK, slightly bizarre question... if Harry was a girl, and the books 
were just as big as they really are, and we were all on this list 
(only with a slightly modified title) do you think we would be having 
long tortuous discussions over who deserved to date Ron more, Girl-
Harry or Hermione?"

Of course.  Because then you'd have the Ron/Harriet shippers, the 
Ron/Hermione shippers, and the Harriet/Hermione shippers.  And, all 
things being equal in canon... you think Xena/Gabrielle has a lot of 
fan support?  ;-)  The more conservative of my shipmates, I think, 
would just lament the fact that Harriet wasn't a boy.  

I'm intrigued.  Someone should try to write HP fanfic with Harry-As-
Girl.  I couldn't.  The Trio's genders are fixed in my mind... yes, I 
know this is 2001 and there are most likely all sorts of non-
operative spells for these people if they don't like the equipment 
nature or heaven provided them with, but as I said, this is in *my* 
mind.  

Many parallel universes are possible with HP as with everything else. 
The cosmologists argue that a Master Observer/Manipulator (read:  
God) can only inhabit one, and so the existence of an infinite number 
of outcomes cancels out the existence of a Master.  The HP fan's 
application of this principle is that we can speculate as wildly as 
we want.

Fortunately, no matter how many "parallel universes" we come up with 
in fanon... JKR is still in charge of the Authorized Version of 
events.  And thank goodness.  

--Ebony