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

[RP]

No: HPFGUIDX 77846

 RB said: 

> I read the scene where Draco meets Harry on the train in 2 
different 
> ways:
> 1. Harry is the one who defeated Voldemort. As a Death Eater, he 
> might have told Draco to make friends with him to get his "power" 
on 
> their side.  Think of how people would react if "The Boy Who Lived" 
> became buddy-buddy with one of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's followers.
> 2. Draco knew that Harry had been away from the wizarding world and 
> wouldn't know how to get around in it.  He might have planned to 
> become Harry's mentor and gain some of Harry's notoriety.  And I 
> don't mean in the sharing-kind of way that Ron does.  Remember the 
> Slytherins are known for their cunning and ambition.

I've read quite a number of posts proposing that 11-year-old little 
Draco was being *strategic* when trying to befriend Harry, that he 
was trying to *recruit* Harry to the dark side, because he knew 
Voldermort would uprise again when the rest of the WW, his father 
likely included, did not have such "faith"? I find this truly 
absurd.. for the 100% canon reason of Draco's attempt to befriend 
Harry, I quote JKR's words in an interview she gave in 1999:

<Why does Malfoy dislike Harry so much in the first book?>

Yes

<Well, if you notice the very first time that Malfoy meets Harry and 
knows that it's Harry, he makes an effort to be his friend. He does 
actually want to be associated with Harry because he knows that it 
would be cool to turn up at the school being Harry Potter's friend 
because Harry is so famous. Well Harry rebuffs him because Malfoy is 
being so rude about Hagrid and about Ron who Harry likes so much and 
it's at that point that Malfoy turns against him. Because Malfoy 
is, ------- yet again this is so frustrating, I can't tell you 
everything I could tell you because it would ruin future books for 
you. But Malfoy comes from a family who has strong associations with 
dark magic as you know and you are going to find out more about that 
in Book 4. So Malfoy is kind of --- he wanted to be Harry's friend, 
Harry didn¡¦t want him as a friend and that made him bitter. That's 
the starting point.>

It was as simple as that! Draco wanted to be Harry's friend MERELY 
because "it would be cool to turn up at the school being Harry 
Potter¡¦s friend because Harry's so famous".

RP