Draco Draco Draco

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 34012

>      Speaking of hyperbole, characterizing
> Moody/Crouch's treatment of
> Malfoy as torture is quite a stretch.  The fact of
> the matter is that
> Malfoy attacked Harry, with the intent to injure,
> when Harry's back
> was turned, thus able to inflict the most disabling
> injury.
> Moody/Crouch's treatment did not injure Malfoy, just
> embarrassed
> him.  
IIRC, he did injure him. Draco, at that point, was about a foot tall, 
and was hurled at least 8-9 feet in the air - for all we know, the 
ceiling might've been 12 feet - then slammed back into the ground. 
And was dragged off by Moody!Crouch holding his arm. How could it not 
hurt him? Turning him into a ferret and suspending him in midair 
would've been less-than-torture, but what Crouch did was assault. 
However, it has no bearing on Moody.  And as a side note, many don't 
agree that Draco deserved it, pointing to his reasonably good 
performance at the 2nd year Dueling Club and again his aim where the 
curse bounced off Harry's outside Potions later in 4th year as 
evidene that He Missed On Purpose and was trying to get Harry's 
attention rather than actually curse him. 

A Barkeep wrote:
> - The braggadocio about the Slytherin brooms, when he himself is a 
> lousy Seeker

Lousy? LOUSY!?!?
Not a bit. Third year, the only seeker who catches the Snitch before 
him is Harry. He beats Cedric, he beats Cho, and it's possible that 
if Harry's broom hadn't been better than his, he would've been able 
to get the Snitch in that match-for-the-cup. 

Why do people get this impression? Isn't it possible that he got on 
the team because he actually *is* a good enough seeker, and the 
brooms were an attempt by Lucius to make the team all faster - and 
thus, more likely to win? In other words, the purpose of the broom 
purchase was Glory To Slytherin House, not for Draco as an individual?

And I agree with the person who said that Draco (or, to be precise, 
Hermione or Draco) would have to go through a sea change before 
finding the other to be intriguing on a romantic level. 

But that's happened in literature before...

``There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some 
particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education 
can overcome.''

``And your defect is a propensity to hate every body.''

``And yours,'' he replied with a smile, ``is wilfully to 
misunderstand them.''
--Pride & Prejudice, Chapter XI of Volume I 

And of course...
``I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your 
retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the 
contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much 
better, of innocence. But with me, it is not so. Painful 
recollections will intrude which cannot, which ought not, to be 
repelled. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, 
though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but 
I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, 
but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only 
son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, 
though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was 
benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be 
selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family 
circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at 
least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. 
Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still 
have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not 
owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most 
advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a 
doubt of my reception. You shewed me how insufficient were all my 
pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.''
--Pride & Prejudice, Chapter XVI of Volume III 

In other words, there's three books left. There are at least 2 and a 
half books in which Draco has the opportunity to face some demons, 
fight some battles, and see for himself if he wants to capitulate and 
become a wothless fingerpuppet of evil, or if he wants to, even for 
completely selfish reasons, choose otherwise. And as part of that 
choice-making process, I hope he takes a look at his prejudices, the 
way we've sort of seen Ron doing (at least re: Hagrid and Giants) and 
grows beyond them the way Mr Draco, I mean Mr Darcy did... (spelling 
mistake left intentionally).

heidi
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