Draco Redeemable How?

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 38851

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Pen Robinson <pen at p...> wrote:
 
> I don't say that a nasty and spiteful schoolboy can never deserve
> forgiveness, can never be reformed, but I don't so far see any 
evidence that underneath it all Malfoy has a basically worthwhile 
character.>

For me, it's not so much that I believe Draco will be redeemed (even 
though I do have hope for that), but that I have a hard time seeing 
him go down his father's path.  I just don't know if Draco has it in 
him to get his hands that dirty, so to speak.

To make a strange parallel, I see some of the things Draco has done to 
be somewhat similar to Sirius's behavior back when he was a student at 
Hogwarts.  Maybe Sirius wanted Snape dead, maybe not - but we know he 
thought he was playing one hell of a prank on Snape for being such a 
disagreeable classmate.  The real consequences of his actions may not 
have been thought out.  Draco seems to me to be very much like that 
now.  He is looking to get others in trouble, not necessarily to see 
them die.  In PoA, I think he really wanted to give Harry a good scare 
when he dressed as a Dementor, and he wanted Hagrid to get fired 
because Draco doesn't like him, particularly as a teacher (nor do I 
blame him there).  I don't think Draco was thinking far enough along 
to wonder what would really happen to Hagrid if he lost his job, or 
what it is really like for Harry - or anyone other than Draco - to 
suffer through the Dementors' effects.  We already know Draco is a 
tattletale; he runs to his professors whenever he has the opportunity 
(the dragon in SS, and the invisibility cloak in PoA).  He's a 
sniveling brat, yes, but a coldhearted and cruel Death Eater?  I have 
trouble with that.

As terrible as this may sound, it does take some sort of bravery to do 
the things the DEs have done.  I see them as (and I won't mention 
these words more than once!) as Nazi-terrorist types.  Terrorists may 
not, in our eyes have the kind of courage that we admire, but they 
have *no* fears.  Draco, OTOH, seems to be scared easily enough.  We 
all know he was terrified when he had to go into the Forbidden Forest, 
and when he was first scratched by Buckbeak, he moaned and groaned 
like he had had his intestines pulled out.  He is usually on the 
sidelines, not in the thick of it, and I think the thick of it will be 
hard for Draco Malfoy to take.  He's all talk, but not a lot of 
action, and it has been my experience that the ones who talk the 
loudest and the most are the ones who can perform the least.

Time will only tell if Draco will go the good or bad route, but I 
think he'll play it safe and stay right in the middle.  He may, at 
some point, do something to protect himself or to avenge his father or 
mother's suffering (because I can definitely see a scenario where he 
is a witness to his father's undoing), but to join the DEs and be a 
faceless, cloaked torturer?  Nah.  Or to, through whatever series of 
events, decide that "mudbloods" and Harry should be his very special 
friends?  I don't think so.  Or, if he does change sides the way Snape 
has, Draco will probably be as nasty as Snape, but won't be as brave.  
Like I said, I see Draco always standing on the sidelines, watching 
and snickering.

--jenny from ravenclaw **