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

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52615

Jo Serenadust wrote:
If Rowling intended to have 
Malfoy move away from his father 
and Voldemort, it seems she should 
have shown at least *some* 
ambiguity in his nature by now.

I reply:
Don't you think that's a little 
much to ask, considering that the 
series is from Harry's perspective, 
and Harry loathes Draco so much? I 
mean, we get some hints to the 
effect that he's not *all* bad, 
right? Like after Moody transfigures him into a ferret, and when he 
just walks away after Hermione slaps him in PoA?

In other words, there are *times* when Malfoy shows us more than 
sarcasm - he sometimes shows hurt feeling, embarassment, sullenness, 
and even restraint.

I mean, I don't see why so many people assume that Draco's anything 
more than a little unpleasant. There's no evidence that he's actually 
*evil.* Sure, HHR and Draco are antagonistic, but they're 
antagonistic to each other... in other words, it's not always Malfoy 
that starts it. And remember, it is Harry who snubbed Malfoy day one, 
not vice versa. From Malfoy's perspective, he did try to befriend in 
his own awkward way, and was also snubbed by, the Boy-Who-Lived on 
his very first day at school.


Jo Serenadust wrote:
The notion that he doesn't really know how bad it is to be a DE, 
doesn't really hold for me either. Of all the children of the DEs, he 
seems to be the one most in the know. His dad has told him about the 
CoS, the stash of dark materials at the manor, brought him to 
Knockturn alley when he's selling off part of the collection, and 
wants him to go to Durmstrang to learn the Dark Arts.

I reply:
Well, his Dad *wouldn't* tell him as much as he wanted to know about 
the Chamber, right?

"And Father won't tell me *anything* about the last time the Chamber 
was opened, either."
(CoS, US paperback, Ch. 12, p223)

If Malfoy Manor has a secret trapdoor in the *living* room, don't you 
think that it'd be hard to conceal it's existence from an eleven-year 
old? Sure, if it was hidden off of the basement, that's not as 
difficult, but the living room, at the very center of family life? 
I'd say that even if he did try really hard to hide it from Draco, 
eventually the kid would find out about it.

We also know from canon that Lucius only `considered' sending Draco 
to Durmstrang, but that Narcissa actually won out on that one in the 
end, because: 

"But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away."
(GoF, US hardcover, Ch. 11, p165)


Jo Serenadust wrote:
It doesn't sound to me like he's particularly ignorant about 
what being a Voldemort supporter means.

I reply:
I'm not sure that I see why you'd assume that Draco would know 
anything about what it means to be a Death Eater. After all, since 
Draco is in the same year as Harry, he would have been about one-year 
old when Voldemort was destroyed, and so he's really never even had a 
real clue about what the Death Eaters were up to at all, because his 
father hasn't been, Death-Eating, as far as we know, since the 
destruction of Voldemort.

Is there any canon to support the notion that Draco actually knows 
anything about what goes on in the Death Eaters' inner councils? Or 
is it more likely that he's a big talker and that he really doesn't 
have any clue about that which he's talking?

-Tom