Malfoy's Redemption

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 25343

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Eric Oppen" <oppen at c...> wrote:

> 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.

Yes, the wizardfolk dislike of Muggles results from wizardfolk's fear 
of Muggles which results from historical experience. Experience that 
goes back farther than the Rennaissance: Professor Binns tells us 
that when Hogwarts was founded over one thousand years, it was "far 
from prying Muggle eyes" becauser "it was an age when magic was 
feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much 
persecution." And Salazar's objection to Muggle-born students was not 
ascribed to thinking them inferior (lacking in ability, lacking in 
taste, or smelling bad) but to FEAR: "He disliked taking students of 
Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy."

[Which I have claimed offers the possibility that once the talented 
and sneaky Muggle-born students are, over Salazar's objections, 
admitted to Hogwarts, he might want them for his House -- he doesn't 
think them inferior, just dangerous, and the danger is not lessened 
by putting them in some other House.]

But it would be one thing if the Malfoys and Fudges taught their 
children to beware of Muggle-born wizards because they have the 
Muggle characteristics of being vicious, murderous, dangerous, 
back-stabbers on whom we should be revenged for terrible things they 
did in the past (just like Malfoys!), and it is quite another thing 
that they teach their children that Muggles are stupid and weak and 
contemptible and that Muggle-born wizards have dirty blood.

Both are racism, but the latter is a flat out deliberate lie for the 
purpose of inflating wizarding egos. The idea that the law of keeping 
wizardry secret from Muggles is for the purpose of keeping wizards 
from being bothered by Muggles seeking favors (as Hagrid explained in 
Book 1) is another part of that lie.  

> 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.

Surely that problem could be solved by Memory Charms all around. 
Maybe it is why there are 'spontaneous remissions' and 'miracle 
cures'.

> Finally---a lot of people on here are eager to see Draco Malfoy 
> d*mned.

I've noticed that a LOT of people on here are EAGER not only to see 
Draco redeemed, but to argue that he isn't REALLY *that* bad even 
now. My emotions side with them -- I'm one of those people writing 
one of those 'Draco redeemed by love' fanfics that were complained of 
(I can't imagine that the hypothetical canon-Draco in hyperspace 
really MINDS all the sex he gets in fanfic), but my intellect 
discovered, while reading with canon with an eye to how to redeem it, 
just how bad canon Draco is: not merely a cruel bigot, but STUPID 
or at least *severely* lacking in COMMON SENSE.

On the other tentacle, I am very much bothered by the assertions that 
Draco cannot be redeemed (related but not identical PREDICTIONS that 
JKR will keep him as a cardboard villain strike me as sadly true). 
Not just because he is still a young-un, but SURELY pretty much 
everyone CAN be redeemed. CAN is not the same as WILL, it seems very 
unlikely to actually happen, but don't the Christians among us 
believe that their Christ came to Earth to preach that it is never 
too late to repent? I'm not a Christian, but I am a liberal, and 
therefore believe in the improvability (sometimes called 
'perfectibility') of human beings.