[HPforGrownups] Re: Draco won't be a DE/You so sure about that?

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 41726

At 3:15 PM +0000 7/24/02, darrin_burnett wrote:
>
>I really, really want Draco to get a spine.

Oh, but then he'd be taking a step towards Gryffindor.  Goodness, 
isn't that the *last* thing we'd expect from someone the Sorting Hat 
didn't even have to think about before slotting into Slytherin?

>He's a lousy Quidditch
>player.

I don't think this is what canon tells us, at least in PoA and later. 
(He doesn't seem very good in CoS, but then he hasn't had much 
experience.)  Slytherin is poised to win the Quidditch Cup (again) if 
they can defeat Gryffindor at the end of PoA.  We are told that 
Slytherin beats Ravenclaw "narrowly" (PoA US hardcover, p. 243), and 
Cho is not a pushover.  (Gryffindor's crushing defeat of Ravenclaw is 
largely because they also have a superb all-around team, including 
the Chasers and Wood.)  Slytherin is leading by 200 points going into 
the final (ibid, p. 300), which means that Malfoy must have gotten 
the Snitch over Cedric.  Even if we want to assume that Cho got the 
Snitch in the Ravenclaw game, Malfoy at least put her off until the 
Slytherin Chasers could rack up the score.  He plays dirty with Harry 
in the final game, certainly, but there's no suggestion that Harry 
thinks he's a pushover; he's about to catch the Snitch at the end, 
and only Harry's advantage in speed saves him.

He may not be pro quality, and he's not as good as Harry, to be sure 
- but who is?  The evidence suggests he's at least as good as Cho, 
and probably better than Cedric - and he's less experienced than 
either of them.  Hardly "lousy".


>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.

If this is true, then Dumbledore has not explained what happened at 
the end of CoS to Snape.  I find this unlikely.



At 5:53 PM +0000 7/24/02, blue_and_bronze17 wrote:
>Darrin hit it right on the nose.  Loyalty may be a good trait, just
>be sure it's for the right side.

Sure.  This is true of all of the House traits.  Loyalty and Hard 
Work are good things, but Igor was loyal and worked hard for a mad 
scientist.  Wisdom and the pursuit of knowledge are good things, but 
one can pursue knowledge for all the wrong reasons - how many 
Ravenclaws have studied the Dark Arts in the name of the pursuit of 
knowledge?  Bravery is a powerful thing - but stormtroopers and 
kamikaze bombers are brave, too.  Ambition can be harmful - but those 
who seek power to liberate the oppressed are still ambitious.  All of 
the House traits are virtues that can be badly misused.


It is precisely because Draco is proud, cowardly, and ambitious that 
I think he either won't become a Death Eater or he'll leave them 
shortly after joining.  He has no stomach for the serious work of 
torture and murder, and he won't find it easy to grovel for 
Voldemort.  (That is, if Lucius doesn't kill him for disloyalty 
first.)

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
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