SS/PS Chapter 06 Summary

[Zarleycat at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27884

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., themoondoggirl at h... wrote:
> 
> EVERY time I read SS, I always wonder why Harry didn't become 
friends 
> with Draco, and why Draco wanted to become friends with Harry in 
the 
> first place. Harry first meets Draco in Ch. 5, and their first 
> converstation is actually friendly. Draco sounds somewhat snobby, 
but 
> he certainly doesn't sound evil. 

And then on the train (here's when 
> Ch. 6 comes in), Draco still attempts to be Harry's friend. Harry 
> could have taken Draco's side as easily as he took Ron's. ) So 
what, ultimately, made 
> Harry choose Ron as a friend? And why did Draco want to be friends 
> with Harry?

Several reasons.  In that first conversation, when Draco talks about 
how he plans to try to manipulate his parents into getting him a 
racing broom, he reminds Harry of Dudley.  So, the first impression 
Draco makes is a negative one in Harry's mind.  And later in the same 
conversation, Draco makes disparaging remarks about Hagrid, which 
definitely rubs Harry the wrong way.

I don't know that Draco wanted to be friends as much as he wanted to 
try to get Harry to be part of his entourage, if for no other reason 
than that Harry is famous in his own right.  Draco makes the mistake 
of immediately bad-mouthing the Weasleys and then launching into the 
typical Malfoy elitist "our family is better than yours" nonsense. 

Now that I think about it, Harry get points for not even attempting 
to be polite to Draco, even though he's still very unsure of himself 
and how he fits into the wizarding world, and Draco could certainly 
provide him with an entry to a certain class of wizard family.  Harry 
has an innate sense of what's right and wrong and he knows that Draco 
is wrong.  

> Selena, who feels very strange identifying herself as such to a 
bunch of strangers when she's used to using the alias "moon-dog" 

Marianne, alias "zarleycat"