Is Draco worse than James Was? (was: Does SSthink of DMas the son he never had)

[princesspeaette]

No: HPFGUIDX 77637

 
> Marika wrote:
>I'm not sure I agree that Draco is that much worse than James 
>Potter. Draco makes rude comments, he is spiteful towards Harry and 
>his friends and he sniggers a lot. A few times he has done some 
>really bad things, but it's not like his favourite sport is to 
>attack an unprepared and lonely student and humiliate this person in 
>front of all his class mates. 
  <snip>

Some replies snipped out here, as I don't want to cover the same 
ground twice in one thread.

> Marika again:
>But when it comes to Harry and his friends, I believe that Draco 
>feels justified in acting the way he does. I'm not saying he is - 
>but in his mind he is just getting even. Harry humiliated him the 
>first day at school when he turned down his offer of friendship. 
>Harry reacted like every decent person would have done, but since 
>Draco is raised to believe that your family history is important, he 
>can't see what's so upsetting about his offer. 
 
>Harry, Ron and Hermione stand up for each other. They are not 
>lonely outsiders. When Potter and Black on the other hand attacked 
>Snape, it seemed like they did it just for fun and that Snape didn't 
>have any real friends. This might not be true, but for now, that's 
>all we know.
 
>I'm not trying to say that Draco is a nice guy. He isn't. But from 
>what I have seen of him so far, I don't think he is a hundred times 
>worse than James Potter. But he might be very soon, unless 
>something happens to change his view of the world.


Margaret (me):

The last part first:  I don't see Draco coming to any great spiritual 
epiphany, he seems to have pretty firmly chosen the dark side at the 
end of OoP.  Maybe he will, I'm not saying it's impossible. Maybe 
Pansy Parkinson will get killed and he'll realize Voldemort is evil 
(and not in the warm fuzzy way).  He seems to have been raised to 
follow the Dark Arts, and he doesn't seem to be rebelling like Sirius 
did.  James was a basically good person who's ego was the size of 
Cleveland.

I don't see 'justification due to humiliation' as being Draco's 
reasoning here.  The only people present when Harry turned down 
Draco's offer of friendship were Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle.  Ron 
obviously doesn't count in Draco's opinion, as we've seen numerous 
times.  C&G are too stupid to do any independent resoning of their 
own, they just do what they're told.  I think it might have been 
Harry's holier than thou attitude, saying Draco was the "wrong sort" 
of wizard, someone like Draco won't take kindly to someone who 
doesn't think he's wonderful. 

About Snape: He may not have had the kind supportive friends that HRH 
provide for each other, but he did have some friends.  Either Lupin 
or Sirius said in PoA that Snape was part of a gang of Slytherins 
that all became Death Eaters.  It was after their O.W.L. exams, so it 
was their 5th year.   If he was going to have a gang, he probably had 
some of them by then.  

Compare SS/JP to HP/DM

Sirius said Snape never missed an opportunity to curse/hex/jinx 
James, then implied that James was just faster so Snape didn't get 
many opportunities.  James retaliates in kind, partly because he 
doesn't like Snape personally, and partly because "What ever kind of 
idiot your father was, James always hated the Dark Arts."  And no 
matter how awful he was to a kid who was obsessed with the DAs (he 
became a DE after all) I don't think James would have tormented 
someone like Neville. (I have a soft spot for Neville, which may be 
part of why I'm so anti-Malfoy.) Sirius also said Snape was always 
following MWPP around trying to get them in trouble, even expelled.  
Makes Snape sound more like the bully than the victim, doesn't it? 
(yes I know it's a very biased source, but it's canon that's never 
been contradicted.)

Harry would never curse/hex/jinx someone without provocation of some 
kind.  Draco is perfectly willing to hit Harry when his back is 
turned (the infamous 'bouncing ferret'), gang up on him with C&G 
every time they're on the Hogwarts Express to and from school.  Draco 
abuses his position, both as prefect and as a member of Umbridge's 
Inquisitorial Squad. ("nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" 
Sorry, had to throw that in ;-) JRK has even said she's a Monty 
Python fan.) Basically, Draco torments everyone who isn't a Slytherin 
(except maybe the Ravenclaws, I don't remember him doing anything to 
them) and they can't ALL have humiliated him at some point!


~Margaret, still a member of the Pro-Snape movement