(More on) Draco's path; Junior Death Eaters; Draco vs. Ron

[gwendolyngrace <gwendolyngrace@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52622

Oh, no! I'm being sucked back into the HPfGU vortex!

Ahem. Well, anyway, Jo Serenadust asked some questions and said some 
things, and I also have a reply to Tom, so here goes.

Jo said:
> Well, for me he has fallen off the precipice and unfortunately 
> crossed the line at the end of GoF.  

Ah. Good. I'm going to attempt to blow your mind, now, Jo, and tell 
you that if that's what you think, then Draco is actually much closer 
to redemption in your estimation at the moment than he is in mine. 

Crazy, you say? <evil laugh> But, no. Actually, it's quite simple. 
>From the perspective of character dynamics, Draco *must* fall in 
order to rise. That is, yes, he has to go over the edge and into the 
chasm - but the chasm need not be bottomless. In your estimation, he 
has surrendered already to evil. All right. Well, that's one part of 
the equation. Another factor, IMO, is that he must know what it is to 
be betrayed, and also to witness that evil, first-hand. 

I have always said that unless something intervenes, I see no 
redemption for Draco. But I do think that he must be brought very low 
indeed before there is any hope for him. How many people truly change 
without first hitting rock-bottom? Draco is no exception - he'll have 
to know the worst, and be shown the way out, before he can begin to 
walk a better path.


Tom asked:

>Do we have any evidence at all that Voldemort enlists students into 
>his ranks? 

Simply put, not really, we don't. However. Here are some factors to 
consider:

1. Tom Riddle was capable of killing both callously and calculatedly 
at the age of 16. Even given a certain tendency to consider himself a 
cut above average, it's conceivable that he might not think twice 
about asking teens who are now the same age as he was to kill.

2. The timeline from VWI is highly suggestive of attracting and/or 
recruiting kids in at least their final or next-to-final years at 
Hogwarts. Aside from Barty Crouch, Jr., we know that Snape had at 
least enough time to join the Death Eaters and spy for Dumbledore for 
more than a year before the Potters' deaths. Even allowing for the 
theory that he only ever joined the Death Eaters in order to be a 
spy, depending on whether you think that Snape is 36 in Goblet of 
Fire or 36 in PS/SS, he should have at least had initial contact 
while still a student.

3. It's unlikely that any of the kids would actually be initiated 
right away, although there are definite advantages to enlisting them 
for their value as zealots, as a distraction for Dumbledore, and any 
number of other reasons. Getting the kids to help the cause doesn't 
necessarily mean slapping the dark mark on their arms. Related to 
that, it's unlikely that Voldemort will have the strength to take 
direct action right away.

4. This is a meta-reason, but: the series has historically focused on 
Harry and specifically Harry at school, but the plots of the stories 
have increasingly moved outward from Harry's immediate world to the 
larger world around him. The upcoming war is an extension of this 
concentric circle effect. But how can JKR possibly keep the focus on 
Harry at school, if the events concerning Voldemort and the Death 
Eaters have no impact upon the students? Hence, involving the 
students in some way in the debate about muggle-borns, if not any 
direct action, makes sense from the perspective of keeping the 
conflict at Hogwarts.

5. It hasn't been a full generation since V's first defeat. Thus, 
those who are still with him were with him before; those who did not 
join him then probably won't this time. Where else would he obtain 
new blood (no pun intended)?



And lastly, back to Jo:
> I'm curious to hear your thoughts about why it's unfair to Draco 
and 
> Ron to dislike one but not the other.  

> I know you're very busy with the Convention and may not be able to 
> reply right away, but I really do look forward to your posting on 
> this when you can get to it :-).


Yes, I'm kinda busy, but I'll cheat and just reprint something here 
that I posted over on FA about a month ago. The thread topic was "Why 
do some people like Draco but hate Ron?"

I wrote:
I like Ron. I sympathize with Draco. I agree with Heidi up to a 
couple points: 1. I think Ron is young, foolish, and insensitive, and 
has a lot of growing up to do; 2. I think Draco is an odd combination 
of sheltered and neglected, a rich kid who has everything material 
and no emotional support from his father. I do think Lucius is 
somewhat abusive, but not physically and not to the extent that a 
child welfare professional would feel it necessary to remove Draco 
from the home. If anything, I think Lucius is simply very cold. I do 
believe he loves his son, but I think he's incapable of expressing it-
-and his disappointment in Draco gets in the way. 

I think Ron and Draco do have a lot in common. Both have hot tempers, 
and neither deals well with being shown up. Also, they both try to 
make witty comments and sometimes don't succeed. As much as Draco is 
a foil for Harry, I think he's also a foil to Ron: rich instead of 
poor; enemy instead of friend; prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-
born wizards instead of open to them. But look at this: both jump to 
conclusions and make snap judgments about other people--for different 
reasons. For example, Draco makes an instant decision about Hagrid 
because he looks wild; Ron likes Hagrid initially (largely on Harry's 
recommendation), but cools to him when he learns of his giant 
heritage. Draco dislikes Lupin immediately because his robes are 
shabby and patched; Ron is impressed with Lupin because of the 
incident on the train, but later shrinks back from him upon being 
told he is a werewolf. Draco makes his choices based on appearance, 
surface, outward things (perhaps informed by additional knowledge, 
but perhaps not). Ron makes his choices based upon what he has been 
taught or absorbed about those who are "dangerous" as a class--
despite his initial reaction to those same individuals. 

We know next to nothing about Draco when Harry cannot see him. The 
only glimpse we get is in Borgin and Burkes with his father, when 
Harry is eavesdropping, and in the Slytherin common room, when Harry 
and Ron are polyjuiced into Crabbe and Goyle. However, as I'm sure 
Heidi would be eager to point out, those are still times when he is 
not entirely alone. He is with his father in one instance, ostensibly 
trying to curry favour or else impress his dad, and with "Crabbe and 
Goyle" in the other scene, and as their parents are tight with 
Lucius, there's no telling whether anything said before them is 
reported or no. In short, Draco is rather an empty page, because all 
we have seen so far is the surface--much as all he ever seems to 
judge is the surface. 

Ron's behaviour is much less of a mystery. We are intimately familiar 
with his jealousy, his resentment of his family's financial status, 
and his sinking self-worth in the face of brothers who have all made 
mammoth achievements at school. Bill was Head Boy (and apparently a 
hottie); Charlie was a Quidditch star, equivalent to the high school 
football quarterback; Percy another academic wunderkind; and Fred and 
George are both popular pranksters whose hijinks seem to enchant even 
their professors--except perhaps Snape (from whom they have obviously 
learned much, anyway). It's small wonder that Ron has self-esteem 
problems! Add to his mediocrity the fact that his best friend is The 
Famous Harry Potter, and I have a great deal of sympathy for the kid. 

But all that self-doubt can add up to a bitter and sometimes dark 
package. His treatment of Hermione, especially in Book IV, has been 
interpreted by many as cruel. Well, fourteen year old boys can be 
very cruel. And very insensitive. And clueless--oh, can they be 
clueless. He is cruel; he does ignore Hermione completely and assume 
she will be available for him when he needs her. And she's completely 
justified to be very upset with him. But his lashing out is as much 
because he is hurt. Is it reasonable for him to be hurt? No. Still, 
it happens. 

His fight with Harry? I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. If I 
were Ron, I'd be absolutely sick of being the "weak link" of the 
trio. I don't think he really is--he has his own strengths and he 
hasn't perhaps learned to apply them as best he might--but it could 
certainly feel like he continually gets the short end of the stick. 
And of course, there's the added complication in that case, that Ron 
clearly feels like Harry deliberately shut him out and left him 
behind - getting dumped, in a sense, reinforcing his feelings of 
worthlessness.

I think Ron's a good kid, overall, but still a kid. Again, it's not 
that he's not smart, it's that he's overwhelmingly immature at this 
stage. Actually one of my peeves with the celluloid that must not be 
named is that every single time Ron had an intelligent line in the 
books, it was snatched from his lips and given to Hermione. As if Ron 
is not allowed to say anything that isn't a wisecrack. But in the 
books, Ron is both smart occasionally and funny a lot. Ron is funny. 
He is more successful (IMO) than Draco at making cracks. Sometimes 
they're lame, but usually they are surprisingly zingy for a kid his 
age. And Draco too tries to make light of any situation that makes 
him uncomfortable--that is, when he's not being overconfident and 
cocky because he feels (or knows) he's out of his element. 

I really think what they both lack is a little confidence. Draco's is 
bravado, not true self-esteem. And Ron's is a tendency to brush off 
before he can be left behind. Many people feel Ron crossed the line 
irrevocably when he was so nasty to Hermione. Most people acknowledge 
that Draco was particularly despicable to them on the train at the 
end of GoF. (IMO, he was dealing with some amount of shock, but doing 
it in his lashing out, angry-young-man kind of way. Slap-worthy, yes, 
but not irretrievable.)

So why do people like Draco and not Ron, or Ron but not Draco? Well, 
there's another pairing in the fandom in a similar situation: Severus 
Snape and Sirius Black. There are many fans out there who vilify one 
while defending the other. But in reality, they have a lot more in 
common than not. 

It's simply a matter of what one is willing to forgive. 


Gwen