Draco; Owls; The Politics of Predation;Bad News

[A. Vulgarweed]

No: HPFGUIDX 37869


>   From: "uncmark" <uncmark at yahoo.com>
>Ok Compare Lucius and Draco through the four books. Draco, though a
>bully and instigator has done little that cannot be forgiven. For the
>most part, his actions were limited to 'words', insulting mudbloods,
>teasing Harry, and making racist comments. (Agreed, his comments
>about Cedric were bad, but not unforgiveable yet, after all, Darth
>Vader came back in the last movie)

See, I had a problem with that. Darth Vader was a magical strongman for a
genocidal Empire for _how many years?_ How many deaths was he directly or
indirectly responsible for? He ordered an entire _planet_ blasted to
pieces, to break the resistance of a political prisoner he'd just wiled
away a nice afternoon torturing (who was, as it happened, HIS DAUGHTER). So
just because he decides to save part of his own genetic legacy (while,
meanwhile, his henchmen were still doing everything in their power to whack
said daughter and all her pals) and pitch the shriveled old sorcerer he was
hoping to replace all along anyway down a pit, all of a sudden he gets to
join the saints? Nope, didn't buy it. I agree that what Draco has "done" so
far is the smallest of potatoes in the great bloody scheme of things, but
there's got to be more to redemption than just _changing one's mind_. Does
"whoops, sorry I participated in the slaughter of your people (or wanted
to), but that was all a big mistake, I wanna be a good guy now" cut the
mustard? Nope. I better see some ANGST. And more important than that, I
wanna see some -results-.

Leading on to excellent discussion about what Draco's catalyst might turn
out to be--since I think we seem to think that redemption usually requires
one--

uncmark again:
>Oh? Consider his devotion of his mother. In GOF Ch.13, we see Draco
>get angry enough to attack Harry from behind and away from Snape.
>This is unusal because every other duel seemed to have been planned
>to be near Snape so Draco would be safe from any repercussions. What
>got Draco angry? Harry mentioned his mother...


Yup, an excellent point. However, he's not capable of having any empathy
about this sentiment in anyone else--he'd been cracking on the Weasleys,
Hermione's parents, and even a bit of Harry's, all along. He's been using
it to raise hackles since Book One, and what this suggests to me is that he
likes to dish it out, but doesn't like to take it. Whether he actually
cares about his mother as a person or just reacts violently to any sort of
aspersion on his noble lineage is, IMO, yet to be seen.
>
Abigail says:
>I don't happen to be one of the people who believe that Snape secretly
>hates Draco or that he's trying to weaken the next generation of DE by
>being soft on the Slytherins.  I think Snape is a proud Slytherin, and that
>he'd like to see his house come out from under the cloud of suspicion
>cast by all those DE members.  Ironically, his very attempts to atone for
>some of that shame might help to lead a new generation of Slytherins
>astray, for lack of a positive Slytherin role model.

I too think Snape is a proud Slytherin, and I wouldn't put it past him to
think that it's currently so bad-apple-ridden the best thing is to let them
show their true colors and Darwinize themselves, thereby eventually
restoring Slytherin to its proud heritage of generating sublime
politicians, film stars, activists, muckraking journalists (take the good
and the bad with that one....), military strategists (don't take Voldemort
as an example...what an embarrassment HE turned out to be with that weak
Evil Overlord crap), spies, and creators of business empires. (Some would
list the number of successful motivational speakers Slytherin has produced,
but Snape of course hates them). Think of the long tradition of Slytherin
pride: "Yes, Ravenclaws have made some fine scientific discoveries--but
let's see them do it without the funding only we can get them!" I think he
favors his house because, well, he favors his house. Probably all the Heads
do to some extent, but he is the most egregious, because Slytherin is the
most egregious house.

I am inclined to think the catalyst for Draco's alleged redemption (which I
am skeptical about) will involve him in some way. But I also agree with
Porphyria (great name, BTW! but I hope your hair isn't too long...) that
the redemption of some OTHER Slytherin, who will then have to come out of
the shadows of toadydom and/or obscurity and duke it out with the powerful
rich boy s/he once idolized, might make an even better story.
>
   From: "Sandi Steinberg" <sandirs at hotmail.com>

>I'm very fond of owls, but I had never heard of an eagle owl.  I researched
>them online and found that they are a European bird not found in North
>America.  Just as Sirius warned harry not to use Hedwig to messenger their
>correspondence because she would attract too much attention, not being of a
>species native  to Britain, so the eagle owl is really unknown here.

Just had to inject here that not only are snowy owls not native to Britain,
they are Arctic and Sub-arctic birds. (Also that the "actor" who played
Hedwig in the Celluloid Thing must have been a male, like the "actors" who
played Lassie, as female snowys have more dark barring and are not pure
white like that.) But what is Pigwidgeon, then? I always thought he was an
elf owl, as those are tiny and adorable enough--but I don't think those are
native to Europe either. Does it matter for domesticated owls, though?

>It does, however, resemble our very commmon  great horned owl, which is
>slightly smaller, but belongs to the same genus, Bubo, as the eagle (aka the
>Eurasian owl. This includes the largest owls in the world.
>
>Of course Malfoy would have to have the biggest of anything, wouldn't he,
>and the eagle owl, by size alone, would be easily noticed and recognized.

You know what they say about guys with big owls.....;)


and Melody wrote:
>Eagle owls could also just be an aristocratic pet to have, the kind of owl
>all the old pureblood families own.

That's my theory. They probably are the most aristocratic kind.
>
>On the other hand, it's not hard to see a connection between Eagle owls and
>Death Eaters if you're looking for one, (but then, it's easy to see
>connections between anything if you're looking for them) I don't know much
>about owls, but eagles are predators -- as are owls -- and it makes sense
>that the villain would have a very predatory pet.

welll.....nah, doesn't work for me. All owls are predators, eagle owls no
more so than any others (though bigger owls can kill bigger prey). Members
of the cat and dog families are predators too, and I don't think we're
meant to be suspicious of every character with a canine or feline pet or
form. I think domesticated owls must be fed specially anyway, or be magical
enough to watch those instincts, or both, otherwise Mr. Pettigrew's crunchy
rat bones would've been part of a pellet years ago, thereby rendering PoA a
_much_ shorter book.

>
>Melody
>
>   From: "Kelly Shiflet" <birdy739 at hotmail.com>
<snip> I pulled a few strings and got in contact with a publisher,
>asking them, of course, *WHEN'S THE NEXT HP BOOK COMING OUT?!?*. Well, their
>reply was that it probably wouldn't even be out until 2003 (though I don't
>know any specific dates). <ducts the hexs sent my way>
>
sigh.
I would like to pretend I didn't read that.
Thanks for the info anyway....and since you're in the US: HAPPY TAX DAY TO
YOU TOO.

luv
AV