[HPforGrownups] Draco's motivation, The Map Yet Again, The Weasleys' Good Name, Voldemort's Naming Conventions, and Tuition

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 36372

Oh, dear.  I get swamped for a week, and you all have such 
interesting conversations without me!  Fortunately, it's now Spring 
Break - the stack of papers to grade can wait . . .

At 1:21 PM -0400 3/6/02, voicelady wrote:
>
>However, according to Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter 
>*does* come from the wrong sort!

Does he?  I wonder.  Draco explicitly asks him in PS/SS whether his 
parents were "our kind" - and seems satisfied by the response that 
they were both wizards.  In fact, his response suggests that, while 
he doesn't like (or trust) Muggle-borns, his objection to them is 
that they haven't been brought up in wizarding ways.  His bit about 
the "old families" seems tacked on.

I suspect that there's no such thing as half-blood to Draco, just as 
there's no such thing as a mixed-race person to some Muggles.  If 
you're born of wizards, you're a wizard.  If you're born of a Muggle, 
even one, you're a Muggle, too.  And Harry Potter, as a Potter, 
qualifies as a wizard, despite the fact that everyone knows his 
mother was Muggle-born.

I suspect if Draco knew Voldemort's ancestry, he'd be quite shocked. 
I also suspect his attitude, being about how one was raised (and 
thus, where one's loyalties can be expected to lie) rather than blood 
purity per se, is closer to Salazar Slytherin's than Voldemort's is.

>My question is:  Why?  The Malfoys alligned with Voldemort while he 
>was in power.  Voldemort wanted to *kill* Harry.  At the very least, 
>Draco's presumed friendship with Harry would enrage his father.  So 
>why would Draco want Harry's friendship?  What was his motivation?

I think Lucius would be quite happy to know that Harry Potter was his 
son's friend, if only because it might give him a way to betray him. 
Ditto Voldemort.

Aside from this, I think in the robe shop, Draco merely sees Harry as 
someone to talk to; he seems to be feeling him out a bit, to see 
where his place in the pecking order might be.  On the train, Draco 
sees Harry as someone powerful.  Being Ambitious - Slytherin, after 
all - he tries to ally himself with that power.  When that doesn't 
work, he keeps measuring himself next to that power, trying to prove 
that he doesn't need it.

Not to say he might not also have more personal motives . . . but 
this isn't a SHIP post.



At 10:16 AM -0500 3/7/02, Edblanning at aol.com wrote:
>(The biggest potential plot hole, is that in PS/SS, it should have shown Lord
>Voldemort everywhere that Quirrel went.)

While I wonder about this too, the suggestion that it wouldn't show 
him _as Voldemort_ is intriguing.

Fred: "Quick, get back in the broom closet!  Quirrell's coming down 
the charms corridor!"

George: "Who's this Tom Riddle he's got with him?  Is he that 
Hufflepuff fifth-year?"



At 10:39 PM -0800 3/10/02, Susanne wrote:
>Reading about all the possible meanings of characters names,
>what about the Weasley family?
>
>Is that a "good" name to have in JKR's books?
>
>Where I grew up (Germany) it wasn't exactly a compliment to be
>compared to a weasel.

It's not exactly a compliment, no - but it makes sense given the 
fisticuffs they get into.  Traditionally, weasels are the deadly 
enemy of snakes, here represented by House Slytherin in general and 
the Malfoys specifically.



At 10:34 AM -0500 3/11/02, Edblanning at aol.com wrote:
>Secondly, have you noticed that Voldemort calls Lucius Malfoy by his *first*
>name? IIRC, he's the only person he does, bar Harry ( and calling Pettigrew
>by his nickname, which is somewhat derisory, anyway). Rather creepily
>familiar, don't you think?

I read it as paternalistic.  The other Death Eaters are treated as 
employees, or worse, servants.  Lucius is treated as the 
son-surrogate, the heir apparent to Voldemort's role.  He is the one 
to whom much is given, and for whom much is forgiven - but from whom 
much will be expected.  What were we saying about Draco earlier?



At 4:21 PM +0000 3/11/02, abigail_draconi wrote:
>Which brought up a question in my mind. Where does Hogwarts get its
>funds to continue running at all, let alone at the level of decadence
>that it apparently does?

It seems ambiguous in the books; there are a couple of things Harry 
says about the pile of Galleons in Gringott's that suggest he's 
paying tuition, although it's also possible to read them as being 
about the cost of books and supplies.  It doesn't seem too strange to 
me to think that the Four Founders might well have left Hogwarts 
enough of an endowment that it can remain self-sufficient.  The House 
Elves do all the cafeteria, maintenance, and custodial work without 
pay; a fair ammount of the food seems to be grown on the grounds; 
Hagrid tends grounds wfor what seems to be pretty much just room, 
board, and mead money; and the students provide their own supplies, 
so the expenses shouldn't be too great - the largest part would be 
teachers' salaries, and none of them look too rich.



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