Draco vs. Ron

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52632

Gwendolyn Grace wrote:

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

Yay!

> I think Ron and Draco do have a lot in common. 

<lots of good detail snipped>

which was rolling right along until the conclusion:

> So why do people like Draco and not Ron, or Ron but not Draco? 

and

> in reality, they have a lot more in 
> common than not. 

Well.  I can think of *lots* of pairs of people, both in real life 
and in fiction, in which the two have lots in common but I only like 
one and not the other.  I "like" Ron, as in, I think if he had been a 
real person of my own age when I was a teenager, I would have enjoyed 
his company.  I "dislike" Draco, as in, if *he* had been walking the 
halls of my high school, I'd have ducked into a classroom whenever I 
saw him coming.  Despite their similarities, they are two different 
people.  Many of the qualities I like about Ron are absent from 
Draco:  Ron, not Draco, is very funny, loyal and kind to his friends, 
and self-sacrificing.  Many of the qualities I dislike about Draco 
are absent from Ron:  Draco, not Ron, is a bigot (Ron has his 
moments, but they are very mild), is manipulative, and finds other 
people's suffering amusing.  The fact that they overlap in other 
characteristics doesn't erase these differences.
 
> It's simply a matter of what one is willing to forgive. 

Which is quite a big difference, is it not?

Amy Z