Wherefore Art Thou Draco

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 37949

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "marinafrants" <rusalka at i...> wrote:

> I know they're true.  That, IMO, is precisely what makes Draco's 
> behavior in that scene so atrocious.  If he was simply engaging in 
> empty posturing, I'd be more willing to dismiss it.  But Cedric 
> really is dead; Ron and Hermione really are targets for future 
> killings.  And Draco *gloats* about it.  I find it nauseating, and 
> the truth of what he's saying is what makes it nauseating.

Marina, you're spot on. It's the fact that they're true which shows 
Draco has (permanently or temporarily) gone over the edge. I never 
understood HRHFG's response at first, until September 13th, 2001. On 
that day, my 16 year old brother got into a fist fight with some jerk 
who said, "Stupid Americans deserved it!" Now, I don't think my 
brother should have reacted like that (I'm a very non-violent person 
myself), and I don't think the trio, Fred, and George should have 
either. It only makes more problems in the end. But, suddenly I could 
understand why they did it, just as I could understand what made my 
brother snap. It had been a heart-wrenching few days, as you all 
remember, made worse by hours of uncertainty in our case as to whether 
some friends of mine were among the dead (thank God they weren't! 
September 12th they were going to be in the building on business, as 
it turned out), and then to have some idiot talk like that.... It's 
the fact that there has been death and suffering, that makes it 
unbearable. Never mind the origins of terrorism, your opinion of 
foreign policy, your like for the U.S. (my bro. was a bit 
anti-American at the time, actually), but to gloat over death is too 
much.

Eileen, whose brother has become the house's resident American 
non-American, wraps himself in the Stars and Stripes, and pretends 
he's not a citizen of the country that we actually do live in (my Mom 
calls it a stage)