Draco's Warning (?) WAS: Austen and Parallels

[gwendolyngrace <gwendolyngrace@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52501

Hi, all.

(Oldbies may gasp in horror at Gwen's return. Don't worry, it shan't 
last long. Just taking a break from Nimbus - 2003-planning.)

Julie wrote:
> Warnings come in different packages and are not always
> straightforward. 
> 
> (snippage) 
> He may even be unaware he is actually giving a warning, as he
> disguises it so thoroughly with vitriol. *IF* Draco
> gave Harry a warning, I imagine it would be just like
> what he said on Hogwarts Express-so horrid, it would
> go largely unrecognized. 
> 

Bingo, Julie. That's what I was going to point out last night, except 
my connection died.


Also, I think it bears reminding people at this point that being 100% 
nice is a heckuva lot different than being even just a little bit 
good. Everyone, even those who adore Snape, as well as those who see 
parallels between Draco and Snape, should be able to admit that Snape 
is not nice. He is deliberately nasty, in fact. But he is on the side 
of good (at least, he appears to be). 

Draco is a nasty, disagreeable little brat. He desperately needs both 
a spanking and a hug. But that doesn't mean that underneath his 
snooty and at times downright cruel demeanour, he isn't also a young 
man (or boy) looking for acceptance and friendship.

For example, in the very first scene featuring Draco, at Madam 
Malkin's, Draco is the one making the overtures. He is the one 
attempting conversation, and by all the evidence in the books, it 
seems that he believes his chitchat to be both amiable and polite. He 
cannot be aware that a. Harry is embarrassed because he doesn't know 
what Draco's talking about; b. he (Draco) is a prejudiced, snobby, 
overbearing prat; or c. what he thinks will endear him to Harry and 
make a new friend is actually a huge turn-off. I'd even venture to 
say that he feels as excited and nervous as Harry does, which would 
be natural, only he _expresses his nerves in such a way as to hurt 
his chances with Harry, rather than help it. I'm sure there are lots 
of kids their age who would be impressed by Draco's diatribes.

I often get the feeling from Draco that he is attempting to pull off 
the kinds of things his father does, but isn't sophisticated or 
skilled enough to manage it yet without bungling. Not that Lucius is 
always as slick as he'd like to be, and certainly he can be just as 
mean as his son when his plans go awry, but Lucius seems at least to 
value his reputation enough to disentangle himself smoothly and save 
face where possible.

As far as Draco, he's too young to know how to do that gracefully. 
Consequently he puts his foot in his mouth a lot. 

Yes, he is a mean-spirited little thing. I think he doesn't really 
have a sense of the reality of causing others harm - that is, when 
he's 12 and complaining about the mudbloods in CoS, they're 
not "real" to him. They are at the most faces he's seen in the 
corridors, or people who have gotten on his wrong side once or twice. 
Unfortunately, there are loads of real kids who are unspeakably cruel 
to other children in school for far more trivial reasons than an 
instilled prejudice. There are also real kids who take real action - 
Draco is mostly talk. Unappetizing talk, but still, talk.

By the end of GoF, it's more difficult to "forgive" his insults and 
the bigoted remarks, because he is getting to that age where he 
should be beginning to think for himself. But I imagine that, again, 
Snape was probably just as disagreeable and just as horrible a little 
snot as Draco at the same age.

Which brings me to the whole "redemption" question. I don't believe 
that Draco will ever be "nice." As Julie said, and Heidi long before 
her, it's not in his nature to be altruistic and "nice." He's not the 
kind of person who puts others' interests ahead of his own. He's not 
a giving individual. But who says he must be in order to realize that 
he's also wrong?

Nice is not good. Again, there are plenty of people in this world who 
are pretty much not nice. They don't pull punches and they don't have 
any problem telling you exactly what they think - and usually they 
also accept that they'll be unpopular because they're not nice. But 
by the time most of them are adults, they also don't go out of their 
way to be hurtful. They can be "friendly," - that is, not in the 
sense of behaving like a friend, but as in, according to good old 
Merriam Webster "showing kindly interest and goodwill," "not 
hostile," "cheerful," and "amicable" - even if they are not "nice." I 
think Draco's first few interactions with Harry show that he may not 
be nice, but he's perfectly willing to be friendly.

Once Harry gets on his bad side, though, Draco develops a personal 
dislike and is incapable of dropping Harry off his radar. He lashes 
out rather than simply ignoring the people who snub him. Ironic, 
actually, that the one who snubs based on trivial reasons is the one 
who cannot stand to be snubbed for possessing important flaws.

Now, I mentioned that there are folks who see parallels between Draco 
and Snape. I'm one of them. I happen to think they have vastly 
different family backgrounds and that Snape's homelife was not nearly 
as comfortable as Draco's (emotional abuse aside). To me, one of the 
most compelling reasons for Dumbledore to entrust Snape as head of 
Slytherin house is so that he will be positioned between former or 
current Death Eaters and their children. He is placed to subtly 
intervene and surreptitiously influence them away from following in 
their parents' footsteps blindly. It's a highly dangerous and 
unenviable position, and it's unclear yet whether he will succeed. 
But one of the central themes of the books is that people can change 
what they are by virtue of the choices they make. If, as I believe, 
Rowling has set out to prove this thesis (and not disprove it), then 
at least one character in this generation should make such a choice, 
one that fundamentally changes what he is. Of all the characters we 
have met, Draco is simply in the best position to be that character.

Again, I don't think he will suddenly become nice. I don't even think 
that his choice need be entirely altruistic. It could easily be a 
choice made for the wrong reasons, such as to avoid being arrested. 
It could be a choice made in reaction to some other event, or a 
choice between the lesser of two undesirable outcomes.

I also don't think he'll be fully redeemed by the end of the series; 
I think the series will leave the promise of redemption. That is, he 
will be on the path, but not there yet.

Draco is absolutely on a precipice right now. He's on the cusp. He 
hasn't shown himself to be good, and in fact he has shown himself to 
be despicable at times, motivated by revenge or hate or ignorance. 
But IMO he has not yet crossed the line so far that he can't return 
to a neutral, if not neutral/good, position. 


I also think that it's unfair to both him and Ron to like one, but 
not the other, but that's a post for another time. Just like I like 
both Snape and Sirius, and I like both Hagrid and Lockhart, and I 
like both Hermione and Ginny. And I'll cheerfully argue in any of 
their favour.

Gwen