Draco (was re: Horrible to Write?]

[yr awen]

No: HPFGUIDX 41534

Ahhhh, yes... Draco <g>

Greg wrote in re: Draco's 'salvageability':

<<<<<<<<< Well, I don't.  Here are my main reasons, number one, he hasn't done 
a single redeemable thing in 4 years at Hogwarts.  Every single 
oppertunity he's ever had to be a horrible, wrotten little brat he's 
jumped on.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

That's very true. He's an obnoxious, manipulative, egotistical, elitist, parroting-of-his father brat. The worst kind there is. But does that logically lead to...

<<<<<<<<<  Number 2, someone's gotta be evil in order for there to 
be a story of good vs. evil.  If everyone's friends and everyone 
helps the little old lady across the street, the action rapidly dies 
out.<<<<<<<<<<<<

I'm not sure if being a 'rotten little brat' (which he is, I do not dispute that) necessarily leads to 'evil.' I would suggest instead that evil is a completely different category from conniving brattiness. Most of Draco's bad behavior is passive -- he taunts, challenges, makes objectionable comments, et cetera; on the occasions when he actually does something, it's nothing more than stupid, nasty tricks, like threatening to toss Neville's Remembrall into a tree or casting tooth-growing hexes. Icky and definitely immature, I grant you, but hardly evil.

You probably think that I'm splitting hairs on semantics, but a brat does not necesarily an evil lackey make. Draco so far seems to have very little experience with what he glorifies (Voldemort), and seems capable only of discussing him in either the abstract or through the ravings of his father. When he actually deals with Voldemort (PS/SS), he runs away screaming -- one would assume that Draco, if he is naturally given to evil, would do something along the lines of "Oh, how *cool*" rather than run away. Of course, there's always the possibility that Draco will finally go all the way 'round the bend and join up with the DEs -- after all, Voldemort's brand of power, dodgy as it is, naturally attracts the icky and immature who are governed exclusively by appetite rather than knowledge or compassion, two things Draco seems to be short on.

I, however, hold out hope that JKR will bring Draco 'round, just as Snape has been given the opportunity to reform. We've been discussing the issue of blood vs. self-determination, and it'll be interesting to see whether or not Draco decides to forge his own way through the next three books, rather than cling to his father's robes.

<<<<<<<<<< Greg
-Who hates all just about every Draco/anyone fan fic ever written. <<<<<<<<<<<

HF.
-Who's kinda starting to like them <veg>


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