Lucius-Voldemort / Draco-Death Eaters (was Re: Draco)

[chthonia9]

No: HPFGUIDX 47800

Way back on Monday, Steve/bboy_mn said:
> jenny from ravenclaw said:
>> There is definitely "a deeper character" to Draco, 
>> IMO. I'd like to see him stray from his father. 
>> How might he react to seeing Lucius kissing the 
>> hems of Voldemort? What if he decides to disagree
>> with his father?

and bboy_mn replied:
 > there will come a day of reckoning when Draco will
> have to think for himself, then I think he will see 
> things in a different light.

I do hope so!  It would be so boring if Draco rode out the rest of 
the series as a cardboard-cutout evil/spoilt brat, especially after 
he's been so prominently in our faces so far.

bboy_mn continued:
>My own belief is that the first time Draco sees what
>it truly means to be a Death Eater; Kowtowing to
>Voldemort, grovelling on the floor, kissing V's 
>robe,I don't think it will look that appealing. I 
>think right now, Draco has this image of his father
>being very powerful, a man who bows to no one, and
>I think that's who Draco sees himself. Draco is
>lord, in his own mind; Draco is not lorded over.
>So when he discovers that being a Death Eater means
>kissing V's (sorry) butt, his attitude will change.

Hmmm. That depends on the exact nature of his father's
relationship 
to Voldemort.  All we know at the moment is that Lucius hates the 
Muggle-born (which straight away makes me wonder what he thinks of 
Voldemort, given that he knew at least enough about Tom Riddle to 
have the diary), and that his first response to being challenged by 
Voldemort was to try to smooth-talk his way out of it, rather than 
[literally] grovelling on the floor.  I'd be surprised if he
worships 
V – more likely IMO that he found his reputation as an ex-DE
useful 
in intimidating people, much as Draco does at school by bandying 
about his father's name.  We don't have much idea of how
Lucius 
speaks about Voldemort at home (though given Draco's loose tongue 
it's unlikely to be what he really thinks); assuming that Draco 
doesn't show up at a DE meeting there's no reason for him to
know 
about the amount of kowtowing required.

I don't think there's enough in canon to call this one either
way – 
hopefully it will become clearer in the next book.

I saw a post elsewhere (can't remember where, but if the poster 
happens to be reading this, thanks – it started off my thinking
on 
the Malfoys...though OTOH maybe that's not such a good
thing...she 
says, surveying the ruins of her social life ;-) which postulated 
that Voldemort was using Lucius to bankroll the operation, that 
Lucius was in the DE purely as an outlet for his racism (rather than 
for power, which he already had), and that Voldemort would eventually 
kill him when he became more of a threat than a tool. I'm not
sure it 
would come to that – given the Malfoy modus operandi I'm sure
Lucius 
would be quite happy to wield influence indirectly, and would be 
unlikely to pose much threat to Voldemort as long as their aims
don't 
diverge too much.  But if that did happen, it would be very 
interesting to see how Draco reacted...

bboy_mn concluded:
>The next great revelation will be when he discovers
>what murder, and torture really mean. When he hears
>his victum scream and see real death for the first
>time, he will suddenly realize that being a Death
>Eater is not party, party, party.

Two points:
1) Is there any indication so far that Draco *wants* to be a Death 
Eater?  I think it's just as likely that he's mouthing off
when he 
talks about the Dark Arts. If he was really into it, might he not 
have been in the merrie DE throng at the QWC, eager to prove 
himself?  Sounds like there were plenty of others joining in, masks 
or no. And it's easy to say he could have gone to Durmstrang
(GoF-UK 
p147) when he's sitting safely on the Hogwarts Express, and his 
mother would never have let him go anyway.  He doesn't seem to
have 
any actual appreciation of the Dark (as you imply).

2) Erm.  I hesitate to say this, but we don't actually know that
much 
about what the DEs really got up to. Bouncing people around in the 
air was described by the Dark Lord himself as `torture'...and
while 
it was very traumatic for those concerned, it's not quite having
your 
entrails pulled out, is it? (I'm sure a lot of Muggles would
*love* 
to be levitated 60ft high, under more controlled conditions ;^) That 
incident read to me as being more analogous to a rather sick school-
boy prank, especially as the place was crawling with Ministry wizards 
meaning it was unlikely to end really nastily.

Yes, we hear a lot about murder and torture, but that doesn't
mean it 
was a requirement for *all* DE's to partake.  Some of them could
have 
been sitting quietly in the background (brewing potions, say ;-) Even 
if it *was* required of every DE, there's nothing to say that
they 
all had to revel in it. While some may have done (though from a 
strategic point of view might not Voldemort have regarded such people 
as a bit of a liability?), it's just as likely that they had a
clear 
goal in mind and were very ruthless about how they got there – if 
people had to die or be tortured for information, so be it. That IMO 
is a rather disturbing manifestation of evil, as it can so easily 
evolve out of qualities we are taught to admire – ambition, goal 
setting, tenacity...

Either way, they *all* end up being seen in the worst light – a 
victim of the Cruciatus Curse isn't going to care much if the
curser 
is enjoying it or not, and the guy who's been betrayed into
letting 
his best friends die and spending 13 years in a living hell isn't 
likely to differentiate between cowardice and sadism.

But then, history IS always written by the winners...

Just to make it completely clear, I am not, repeat, **not** 
suggesting that differing intent makes a cruel act less bad (well, 
not when it comes to torture and murder, anyway) – I wouldn't
care to 
meet a cold psychopath any more than a raving sadist down Fate Alley 
[ta, Morrighan]. Nor am I suggesting that the Death Eaters were 
really misunderstood fluffy bunnies – but some variation in the
entry 
requirements and job description would allow for more permutations on 
theories of why someone might be tempted to join (or choose to 
defect).

Chthonia