Evil is not something you can deal with lightly.

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51611

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "heiditandy" 
<heidit at n...> wrote:
(quoting JKR)
> "I am dealing with evil - I am trying to examine what happens to 
this community when a maniac tries to take over". 
> Her books also deal with the "reality of how evil it is to take a 
human life". "If you are going to write about those kinds of things 
you 
have a moral obligation to show what that involves, not to prettify 
it or to minimise it." 
<<<<< 

I think what is evil about Draco is precisely this: he's old enough 
to know that it's evil to let a maniac take over, he's old enough to 
know it's evil to take a human life, and he seems to be okay with 
Voldemort.   We can assert, as you do in your excellent fan fic,  
that he's not really okay with it, or that he wouldn't be okay with
it if he really understood what it meant, but we can't confirm that.

He's also okay with his own cruelty. It is no less cruel because it 
is childish. We adults sometimes forget how wounding a child's 
words can be to those who have not yet learned how to insulate 
themselves from their effects.

 There has been nothing in canon to show that Draco has 
experienced a change of heart since he made his feelings plain 
in CoS. There have been no signs of moral development. There 
is apparently nothing he thinks people should not do simply 
because  it would be wrong. 

It may not be his fault that he's evil, but in the Potterverse that's 
no excuse. It's hardly the Dementors' fault that they're evil, but
it's hard to argue that they're not. I am not arguing against the 
possibility of redeemed!Draco here, but I think it would contradict 
the theme of the work to say that Draco has nothing to be 
redeemed from. 

I do not think that JKR means Draco to be read as purely 
evil. The silver-blond hair recalls both Dumbledore and the 
unicorn. It is, I think, a symbolic indicator that, unlike the 
Dementors, Draco has the potential to be something other than 
what he is. But we are not told about this feature until Book 
Three, and interestingly enough, it is during an episode in which 
Harry is acting the bad child  and attacks Draco from behind.
***
SPLAT.
Malfoy's head jerked forward as the mud hit him; his silver-blond 
hair was suddenly dripping in muck.
****
PoA ch 14.

Harry's reaction here is appropriate to Malfoy's taunting, though it 
is unsporting to attack from behind and under the cover of the 
cloak. But Book Four is all about  *over*-reacting, a theme which 
was introduced at the end of  Book Three, where hardly anybody 
seemed to be acting rationally.  

In Book Four, the Twins over-react to Dudley's bullying, the 
Dursleys over-react to the TonTongue Toffees,  Hermione 
over-reacts to Draco's curse, and to Rita Skeeter's interference, 
Moody over reacts to everything,  Ron over-reacts both to 
Hermione's date with Krum and Harry's selection as champion, 
Harry over-reacts to the threat of the hostages in the second 
task, Molly over-reacts to Rita Skeeter's slanders, etc, etc, 
Finally we see Harry and co over-reacting to Draco's threats and 
insults, which are vile, but hardly  more harmful than the things 
he's been saying all along. Draco's ability to wound the Trio is 
actually less. They all seem a bit beyond Draco's taunting now. 
They're not really hurt by what he says, only outraged by his 
effrontery in saying it.

In addition, the train stomp seems worse because Book Four 
lacks much of the fairy tale aura of Book One.  In fairy tales 
there's a need for a decisive victory over an unambiguous evil. 
Such victories are the raison d'etre of the fairy tale form.

Many people dislike dwelling on the Books as fairy tales, either 
because they dislike the form, or because they think, mistakenly, 
that fairy tales are only for children. However, Voldemort is 
unmistakably a fairy tale figure. He is above all a monster who 
hates and kills *parents.*  

In fairy tale terms, he exists to resolve the emotional conflict 
which is born when a child first becomes angry at its parent. The 
child deals with the conflict by psychologically "splitting" the 
parent in two-- in the child's mind there is not a good parent who 
sometimes arouses  anger, but rather a good parent who is 
sometimes inexplicably replaced by  a bad one. The child would 
like the bad parent to go away, but what will happen to the good 
parent if that happens? The child deals with his own rebellious 
impulses in the same way, and this gives rise to the same 
anxiety...the child would like his bad self to go away, but what will 
become of his good self then?

In the fairy tale world, the world of the self, these conflicts can
be resolved, because all the diffferent selves take on an 
independent existence. It is easy to see how both Dudley and 
Draco symbolize the bad self. They are what we know we would 
become if we, or our parents, did indulge all our appetites and 
refused to limit our behavior. In fact, by saying that Draco makes 
Dudley look like a model child, the story adds a layer of meaning. 
Draco symbolizes Dudley's bad self as well. 

The fairy tale elements are very strong in Book One. Hogwarts is 
clearly in another world. Harry must pass not just one but three 
magical barriers to enter the Castle: the platform, the lake and 
the front door.  He receives a "transitional object," his father's 
cloak, which ties and protects him to his father, and he discovers 
that another sort of protection resides in his very skin. These 
objects are exactly like the security blankets and teddy bears that 
real children cling to, except that in the magical world their power 
is more than symbolic.

 The Cinderella beginning of Harry's story is matched by its 
Cinderella ending: Draco, like Cinderella's step-sisters, asserts 
a claim to the prize which Harry deserves. In a traditional story, 
Harry would produce a token establishing the truth of his claim, 
as Cinderella produces the other slipper. But Harry's token has 
been destroyed--though he had the moral strength to retrieve the 
Stone from the Mirror, he was not  strong enough to save it, for 
unlike Cinderella he is still a child.

In GoF, the fairy tale elements are weakened. Harry passes 
casually through the barrier at Platform 9 and 3/4.  His 
transitional objects, the cloak and the map,  give him little help in 
completing the tasks, and fail him altogether in confronting the 
villainous Crouch!Moody. Voldemort is able to defeat even  the 
protection in Harry's skin.

 In fact, it is somewhat jarring when the magic of the Potterverse 
finally reasserts itself in the graveyard scene.  Voldemort and 
Harry themselves are astounded by the sudden appearance of 
the mystical web of light which surrounds them. But Harry finds 
that even without a physical token of their presence, his parents' 
love can still protect him. As he now no longer needs an external 
token of his parents to remind him of their internal presence, he 
now no longer needs to externalize his connection to Voldemort. 
This connection, which he angrily rejected in Book Two, is now 
something he can accept, understand and even use. 

Expelling the Evil Trio from the compartment may symbolize a 
change in their roles in the Books. They are no longer needed as 
external representations of the heroes' conflicts. Harry has 
acknowledged his connection with the Heir of Slytherin and 
taken responsibility for it by reporting his visions to Dumbledore. 
Ron has recognized that he is responsible for his jealous 
feelings, not Draco. Hermione has come to see that the clash 
between the values of her native culture and her adopted one is 
real, and must be resolved within herself--it is not wholly the 
product of Malfoy prejudice. The Trio are not "tarnished" by this. 
These conflicts were always a part of them, and always will be. 

The Slytherins themselves  no longer uniformly echo  Draco. 
Harry sees that not all of them are willing to follow Draco's lead. 
The split which was between Harry and Draco is now between 
Draco's party and the other Slytherins, freeing Harry to relate to 
Draco as an individual instead of a symbol of Slytherin evil. 

The trouncing of evil which takes place at the end of the fairy tale 
symbolizes the resolution of the inner conflict. The self takes 
control of the troublesome feelings and relegates them to the 
inner world where they belong. Of course this victory is never 
permanent, which is why fairy tales are meant to be read over 
and over.  "Happily ever after" lasts only until the tale is told 
again. 

Pippin