Draco won't be a DE/You so sure about that?

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 41648

Nicole: 

> Or, a Draco who has to live a Life Without Mother... I would LOVE to
> see Draco really blossom (is that the right metaphor?) into an evil
> guy-- but so far he's come off as a mama's boy who would completely
> freak out if anything ever happened to her. Which IMO disqualifies 
him from being truly evil. Unless it's in a disturbing Oedipal sort of
> way... Not ruling that out, though.

Draco does really get riled when Harry insults his mother, doesn't 
he? Of course, Draco is also a hypocrite little punk, because he'd 
just made fun of Ron's mother. 

I really, really want Draco to get a spine. He's a lousy Quidditch 
player. He gets knocked around like a punching bag by Moody and then 
the gang at the end, or gets protected by bigger Slytherins. JKR 
needs to take better care of this character, or else he's going to be 
a Neville for the Other Side. 

And Neville has already shut Draco's mouth, hasn't he?

 
> I got the impression in (CoS) that Draco has never been good enough
> for his father.  Lucius puts Draco down in public and then won't 
tell
> him anything about Riddle's diary. What if right along with Crabbe 
and
> Goyle, Snape is helping Draco too? That would make Hermione's top
> student status all the more galling to Lucius-- Even with extra 
help,
> Draco is still beaten by a mudblood. After all, Narissa was the one
> who refused to let her baby go all the way out to Durmstrang where
> muggle-born children are not admitted.

Narcissa might have correctly pointed out to Lucius that Draco 
wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes at Durmstrang, which seems like a 
harder crowd than the Hogwarts crew. Lucius had to agree, but didn't 
like it.

It IS interesting that Lucius insults Draco in front of Mr. Borgin 
the storekeeper in CoS. My reading of the Malfoys' type of 
aristocracy is that they keep disputes away from lower creatures like 
storekeepers. For Lucius to allow an inferior (in his eyes) to 
witness this means he is REALLY aggravated with Draco.

I would love it if Lucius was the one who worked to earn all their 
money (I doubt it though -- my guess is that Draco's grandfather or 
great-grandfather did) and is just disgusted with how Draco turned 
out.

Draco is actually a very underdeveloped character. Right now, he's 
only a step above Lockhart and Rita Skeeter on the joke meeter.

> BTW, I think there's a connection between the Malfoys and Snape 
that JKR hasn't shown us yet. Snape sort of tried to warn Harry about 
accusing Mr. Malfoy in front of Fudge (GoF).
> 

YES! I want to know what that was about. At first glance, I thought 
Snape was afraid Harry was going to mention his name, but here's 
another theory:

What if Snape, for some reason, didn't believe Lucius would go back 
to Voldemort? Maybe he has confided in Lucius over the years because 
he thought Lucius wanted out of Voldemort's circle as well. Maybe 
Lucius, eternally playing both sides, was the one who encouraged 
Snape to leave Voldemort.

And to hear Harry name Lucius first just made Snape realize that he 
has been played for a fool by someone he thought was a friend. Lucius 
and Snape being friends would explain a lot about his attitude toward 
Draco. 

And now we've got lighter fluid. ;)

Darrin
-- What? You expect a funny tag line EVERY TIME?