Coddling

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 51665

Stickbook wrote:

> I can't imagine that Lucius was coddled in his 
> youth the way he coddles Draco.  As a result, Lucius comes away with 
> a much thicker skin, and Draco knows of no other method of exerting 
> power than tantrum-throwing.
> 

Coddled? Where? 

To make this more than a one liner, I'm actually going to go through all
the interaction we see in canon between Draco and Lucius and try and
find evidence of coddling:

Malfoy, who had reached for the glass eye, said, "I thought you were
going to buy me a present." 

"I said I would buy you a racing broom," said his father, drumming his
fingers on the counter. 

"What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" said Malfoy,
looking sulky and bad-tempered. "Harry Potter got a Nimbus Two Thousand
last year. Special permission from Dumbledore so he could play for
Gryffindor. He's not even that good, it's just because he's famous ...
famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead . . . ." 

Malfoy bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls. ". . . everyone
thinks he's so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick
-" 

"You have told me this at least a dozen times already," said Mr. Malfoy,
with a quelling look at his son. "And I would remind you that it is not
- prudent - to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of
our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear - ah,
Mr. Borgin." 

I guess there could be some in the offer to purchase a racing broom, but
then again, that purchase could also be made for a half dozen other
reasons, most prominently the benefit to Slytherin if they have a player
with an excellent broom who could help them win the house cup. Now, I'm
not denying that Draco has his full share of material trappings, but I
don't see how this is the equivilent of coddling, which demands at least
a smidge of emotional concern and/or interest. 

Or is it the bit in GoF, where we see Draco saying *nothing* in the Top
Box? Or also in CoS, in the bookstore, where, once Lucius shows up,
Draco doesn't say another word? In fact, Lucius doesn't say a word to
his son in the shop at all - he puts his hand on Draco's shoulder, and
he beckons to him to leave, but there's no exchange of dialogue at all. 

We don't know that he visits Draco when he comes up to Hogwarts on those
two occasions in CoS. We don't know if he comes to see him in the
hospital when he's been injured by Buckbeak (and I want to point out, as
an aside, that we don't have any evidence that injuries to muscle and
nerves, like the gash to Draco's shoulder, heal as quikly as a simple
fracture; even in the Muggle world, a broken bone can heal within weeks,
while an injury to flesh takes much longer before it's back to normal).
We don't even know if he's the one sending those sweets. 

We do know that Draco stays at school during CoS's Christmas break,
which can certainly be read as evidence of *lack* of coddling. 

So while I think it's not unreasonable to conclude that Draco is
"spoiled" from the perspective of having material posessions (although
we don't hear of any other than the brooms for the team and his fancy
clothing for the Yule Ball) I don't see how that translates into
coddling. I just don't see any love from Lucius to Draco. None at all.

heidi