Malfoy's Redemption

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 25333

You know, one reason we don't like Draco Malfoy is because he speaks so
contemptuously of Muggle-born wizards and Muggles---and we're all Muggles
here.  _However,_ could there be reasons that a lot of people born into the
wizarding world don't care much for non-wizards that have to do with past
history of relations between the worlds, or prior Muggle behavior?  I know
people who still regret the outcome of the Battle of Bosworth, in 1485,
which is _before_ the big witch-hunting craze of the Renaissance and
Reformation days.  A lot of bad blood between mages and Muggles could date
back to that time. By the standards of historical feuds, it wouldn't be the
longest-lived by any means at all.  The Serbs haven't forgotten the Field of
Kosovo, which was in the 1300s; the Greeks haven't forgiven the Fourth
Crusade of 1204, and those are just the examples I can think of that are
least likely to set off flamewars on this list.

Also, another reason that wizard-born wizards may not trust Muggle-borns
could be because Muggle-borns have loyalties outside of the wizarding world,
and may betray the existence of wizards and the magical world while acting
on those loyalties.  I know that, for example, if I were a Muggle-born
medical wizard, and could cure one of my Muggle relatives of something that
would otherwise certainly kill him or her, I'd do it and worry about keeping
my secret secret later, if ever.

Finally---a lot of people on here are eager to see Draco Malfoy d*mned.
Keep in mind, people, he's only fifteen at the end of GoF, and although he's
a poisonous little pill, he's got a lot of growing up still to do---at
fifteen, as I've mentioned, even I hadn't attained the pinnacles and peaks
of human perfection that I since have scaled.  I did things back then that I
now regret pretty badly.

One thing that might very well end up bringing Draco around to the side of
the Good Guys (tm) could be finding out that both Voldemort and his own
father regard him, not as a potential colleague, but as a pawn---and an
expendable one at that.  Particularly if he idolizes his father, finding out
that to his father, he's not a son, but an expendable _thing_ would be a
dreadful shock---for an analogy, think of the feelings of a woman who finds
that the man she's been sleeping with, the man she loved, not only didn't
love her but didn't really care about her, but just used her because she was
there and available.  Lucius Malfoy's easily cold enough to consider his son
expendable---and we don't know if Draco has brothers, do we?  If there're
already several Malfoy sons, Lucius could cheerfully sacrifice Draco to some
scheme of the Dark Lord's without a second thought.

Just my two knuts---

Eric (Technomad) Oppen