Draco and redemption potential (long)

[arcleveland]

No: HPFGUIDX 37894

I've been browsing the archives for a few weeks, but this is my
first post.  As a quick introduction, my name is Amanda, but I'll
probably go by Manda to reduce confusion.  I'm a big Snape fan, 
though there aren't any characters that I truly don't like. 
Reading the recent discussions, I decided it would be a good 
idea to start with some nice, soothing Draco-talk before introducing 
my more 
 interpretive 
 theory on Snape's cat.  I need
to do a bit more shopping at the local armory before that one 
will be quite presentable.  A bit of a warning, I tend to see 
things from lots of different angles.  Because of that, I tend to 
play Devil's Advocate against my own theories quite a bit.  I can 
also be a bit, um, verbose.

The first thing to remember about Draco is that we see him entirely 
through Harry's limited POV, perhaps more so than most of the
other characters.  We have a couple scenes where Draco isn't 
aware of Harry, but both are brief and occur when Draco's only 
twelve.  I am of the opinion that Draco has to have a large amount 
of depth that we haven't seen.  People are complicated, even if
they aren't good.  Since JKR apparently has constructed
backstories and personalities for even her minor characters, I 
think there has to be more to Draco than the little bit that he 
shows Harry, and that we thus see.  I would rather hope that 
people don't judge me by the perceptions of my worst enemies.  

That said, it remains to be seen whether Draco's unseen sides 
reveal him to be a really sweet, caring guy, who's just afraid 
to let the Gryffindors realize it, or whether his only concern in 
life is that so far, he hasn't gotten a chance to get out there 
and start ridding the world of Mudbloods himself.  I'd like to
see more depth to Draco's character, but I'm not real sure how
we'll see it, given the perspective.    

Melanie reasoned, 
"You don't put in sympathy for characters that you don't want the 
readers to like on some level. Thus, I think that Draco will turn 
good."

	That makes sense, but I don't think that making us like a 
character on some level necessarily implies that the character will 
be good.  After all, we were made to feel an awful lot of sympathy 
for Crouch, Jr, in the Pensieve scene as well as the conversation 
with Sirius.  In many ways, it would fit with the increasing moral 
complexity to see a character who is sympathetic or rather likeable, 
but who is ultimately on the side of evil.  Sort of the opposite of 
the picture we're given of Snape, so far.  I don't think we
have that with Draco yet, though.  He's still pretty flat and 
unlikable at this point, IMO.

	A number of people have, quite understandably, suggested 
that Draco's comment on the train shows that he's completely
serious about being evil.  Finwitch also interpreted that quote 
as a death threat aimed against the trio.

Rohit said:
"What he said about Hermione, Ron and then WHAT HE SAID ABOUT
CEDRIC was so cold-blooded, so atrocious, so disgusting, it made me 
lose any hope I had for his redemption and any sympathy for him at 
all."

	Well, let's take a look at this scenario.  First, when Malfoy 
enters their compartment, he and his buddies are described as 
looking "more pleased with themselves, more arrogant and more 
menacing, than Harry had ever seen them."  In the next paragraph,
it says that Malfoy has a smirk "quivering on his lips" (both
quotes GoF, US Edition, p 729). Perhaps it's just the word choice 
there, but I'm a bit confused as to how a "quivering"
smirk leads to the appearance initially described.  To me, 
quivering indicates a *lack* of confidence, not an excess of it.

	Then we get to Malfoy's actual distressing statements.
"'You've picked the losing side, Potter! 
 Too late now,
Potter!  [Ron and Hermione will] be the first to go, now the 
Dark Lord's back!  Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first!  Well – 
second – Diggory was the f –`"  (GoF, US, 729).

	Umm, yes.  Well, I certainly won't argue that they're 
disgusting things to say.  Chilling is the first word that comes to 
mind, personally.  It is not, however, a death threat.  A death 
threat would be saying that he would take action to see to it that 
one or more of them was killed.  This is, well, more of an 
observation, disturbing as it is.  The fact is, the statement about 
Cedric is literally true, and the one about Ron and Hermione is a 
valid prediction – they really are likely to be among the top 
targets.  That is true whether or not Draco is planning to take part 
in it.  In a way, it could almost be taken as an incredibly twisted 
warning.  I certainly don't believe that's Draco's
intention at *all*, but you could take it that way. 

	However, I don't believe that this quote makes Draco 
hopeless.  It could make him a teenaged kid who has never had to come 
to terms with death and doesn't grasp the hard reality of the 
situation.  He's glad to see the Dark Lord back because he's
always been told that the Dark Lord was good, and so far he's 
never seen anything to make him question that.  He's excited
about the possible results in relation to Ron and Hermione because
they're his enemies and, again, he doesn't really understand
death yet. He just thinks it would be them getting theirs, so 
to speak.  

I firmly believe that Draco, whatever else you think 
about his upbringing, has been brought up to hate all Mudbloods 
and the Weasleys in particular and hasn't questioned this.  
IIRC, he never calls *Harry* a Muggle-lover, despite the fact that 
Harry would fit the description as well as Ron.  Anyway, that 
interpretation of the situation would make Draco sincere, and 
therefore really disturbing, but wouldn't put him beyond hope.

	Another possibility, based on my memories of being a 
teenager, is that nearly everyone I knew was putting on a front of 
some sort.  Perhaps the "quivering" gets to me, or maybe
it's the sheer bravado that goes into those statements and their 
extremity, but I wonder if we can be sure that he's completely 
sincere.  I don't mean, necessarily, that he believes the
opposite of what he's saying, or even doesn't believe it. 

More, I wonder about the level of confidence.  In my experience, 
people who showed the most confidence were often trying to cover 
up insecurity.  Maybe he's somewhat confused or not really sure 
what to think.  He certainly doesn't want anyone else to know
about it, though, and might overcompensate by acting as confident 
and gleeful as possible.  Again, this doesn't excuse the 
statements, but it would suggest that there's more to Draco, and 
that we can have hope for some of it. (I wrote a very short 
fanfic a couple days ago that explores this possibility – it was
a bit disturbing how easily I could put myself in those shoes.)  

	Then, of course, there's the completely valid possibility 
that he knows and understands death just fine, and is perfectly 
sincere in what he's saying.  He could care less that Diggory is 
dead, genuinely want to see Ron and Hermione dead, and is off home to 
sign up at the next Death Eater recruitment drive.  In that case, 
well, there's not a whole lot of hope unless something changes. 
And, of course, something *could* change.  Look at Snape.

And from Uncmark:
"Any discussion of Draco's redemption (which I think would be a
great twist) MUST include consuderation of Draco's relationship with 
Daddy Lucius."

<snip good analysis of Draco and Lucius's relative wrongs>

"Draco, for all his badness, seems to be following his Dad's
example and trying to satisfy what he has been taught was the 
qualities of a great wizard."

The post goes on to illustrate a possible scenario in which LV and 
Lucius, between them, make Draco question his opinions of them.

	I do agree that if Draco is to be redeemed in the sense that 
we're looking for, it will probably have to involve a separation
from his father.  Moreover, I don't particularly believe that
Draco is abused or hates his father – if he did, then I don't
know why he would so strongly espouse his father's beliefs, at 
least publicly, even when his father isn't around.  The scenarios 
that interest me would be in Lucius is caught doing something 
atrocious, while clearly not under Imperius, and goes to jail or is 
killed while at a Death Eater raid, preferably in self-defense by an 
intended victim than an Auror, which could merely send Draco on a 
vendetta.  

Another possibility is that Draco sees or otherwise learns of Lucius 
killing a friend of Draco's – or for that matter, a friend of 
Lucius's – or doing something else that drives home to Draco
what the Death Eaters, and his father in particular, are really 
about.  The possibility in which LV kills Lucius or forces him to 
kill Narcissa seems interesting to me, but unlikely, given that LV 
doesn't seem quite hasty enough to kill his left-hand man (my 
presumption) or drive him to the other side.

	Personally, I don't know which of these possibilities I 
believe.  Mostly, I hope that we see added depth to Draco, though I 
doubt we'll ever get full passage into what's going on in his
head.  I would really like to see Draco realize the seriousness of 
the Death Eaters and take some time to examine himself and question 
his beliefs, to see if that's something he really wants to be
involved in.  Of course, that could potentially be even more 
interesting if he does all that and then decides that he really does 
want to be a Death Eater.  Deeply disturbing, but certainly 
interesting.

	Well, I was going to include some opinions on Crabbe and 
Goyle, Snape, and Slytherin House as a whole, but this is a lot 
longer than I intended, so I'll put them off for a while.

	Manda (who wants to finish shopping for canons for her 
Snape's cat theory – the poor thing's really not a kitten
anymore – but ought to study her P. Chem.)