Draco in Potions (was Barty Crouch Jnr)

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 38120

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lupinesque" <lupinesque at y...> wrote:
> Is that like Oedipus in Colonus?  Iphigenia in Tauris?  Iphigenia 
> in Brooklyn?  
> 
> ::shakes head, returns to reality::

LOL!  I was just referring to Oedipus' father exposing him as a baby 
because of the prediction that the child would grow up to kill the 
father, but it was precisely because Oedipus grew up without knowing 
his real father that he didn't realize the identity of the man he 
was killing.  (Someone trying to circumvent their destiny 
inadvertently making things happen they're trying to avoid.)  It 
just seemed to me that Voldemort might have been told that Harry 
would be his downfall, and by trying to get him out of the way he 
makes the very thing happen he was trying to avoid.  It's a classic 
construct, not just present in the Oedipus myth but many other 
stories around the world.  (I'm really only referring to it because 
it's one example of that.)

> Barb wrote:
> 
> > Just because he's not too cautious or 
> > prudent doesn't mean anything; if anything, it's clear because 
> > of this that he's definitely no Ravenclaw (the only class in 
> > which we know he excels is Potions, making him a kind of one-
> > song-Sue)
> 
> =Does= he excel in Potions?  I don't think we even know that.

We do get multiple instances of Snape praising his work--he doesn't 
praise any other student, not even other Slytherins.  While Hermione 
probably does everything perfectly both in practice and theory 
(written tests and papers) I'm still guessing that Snape gives 
Malfoy the top marks in the class.  He may or may not deserve it or 
be as good as Hermione; that's another debate.  But in Potions, at 
least, he does seem to know what he's doing.  Snape would have to do 
a lot of backpedaling to justify praising someone who was 
incompetent or merely adequate.

I like the picture of a young David Spade as Malfoy; that actually 
seems about right.  Many of us who write fanfic in which Draco is 
better-looking than Spade (raises hand guiltily) recognize that in 
the future HP books Malfoy will probably NOT be even close to drop-
dead gorgeous, as he sometimes is in fanfic.  I wasn't aware of 
anyone suggesting that there's canon evidence of Draco Malfoy being 
a future sex god or anything.  I certainly don't see that in the 
books.  Just because he was able to get a date for the Yule Ball and 
Crabbe and Goyle didn't isn't saying much (espcially when you recall 
that his date, Pansy Parkinson, doesn't get a very complimentary 
description of her looks from JKR).

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Psych
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