Draco Must Fall (LONG) WAS: Draco's path; Junior Death Eaters; Draco vs. Ron

[Julie Holmes]

No: HPFGUIDX 52704

--- "gwendolyngrace <gwendolyngrace at yahoo.com>" 
in response to Jo saying:
> Jo said:Well, for me he has fallen off the precipice
> and unfortunately crossed the line at the end of 
> GoF.  

 Gwen said:
 
> 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. 

I agree. I don't think Draco's fallen at all. Not yet,
anyway. His comments on the Hogwarts Express after the
Triwizard events just let us know he's graduated to a
new, and slimier, level of personal odiousness ;) I
think the greatest danger in Draco is yet to come,
perhaps years away. But part of me thinks Draco will
never be more than an irritation. I can see it going
both ways.

For Draco to choose a different path (to redeem
himself, that is) he would have to fall VERY far and
have a VERY rude and personally painful landing. He's
had *neither* of those things thus far. He's a fifteen
year old boy, spouting all the things he's heard his
parents (at least ONE of his parents, I should say)
going on about *his entire life*-is it reasonable to
expect him to be any different than he is now? I don't
think so.

> 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.

Draco is not the kind of character who will be able to
rise from an already elevated position- as Harry would
be, and as Harry does. Yes, I agree with what you're
saying Gwen. His profound self-centeredness disallows
him from weighing his choices in a balanced way and
choosing accordingly. As well, someone like Draco
likely has very poor intuitive skills, as he has
cultivated himself to operate on rote. Harry, upon
meeting Draco for the first few times, was protected
by his intuition. He intrinsically knew that Draco
would be dangerous (and a git...a total git...)and he
allowed his instinct to guide his choices. Draco, on
the other hand, even if he *did* have moments of
insight or instinct that would guide him on a
different path, would ignore those inner messages in
favor of personal preservation or just plain pleasure.


And, frankly, it's easier to be a bully than to make
difficult and more morally significant choices. Being
a bully is a fall-back-it's a weakness. This, to me,
is what makes Draco particularly dangerous; we don't
know if he will ever have the gumption to rise above
what by now are his basic instincts. Yes, he'd have to
have a profoundly significant negative experience to
even begin to alter his addled brain!

> That is, yes, he has to go over the
> edge and into the 
> chasm - but the chasm need not be bottomless.

No, it need not be. But it would have to be pretty
deep I think. 

> 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 think Draco is already being betrayed. He's being
betrayed by his parents who are not raising him to be
a functional, decent human being. And he is also being
betrayed, IMO, by *Snape*, who weakens him slowly over
time by continuing to coddle him for his own (Snape's)
petty vindictiveness. Draco betrays *himself* by the
way he acts and the choices he makes. All things
considered- what kind of Death Eater would Draco even
make? A piss-poor one, IMO. A coddled, petulant, and
spoilt boy would be a *weakness* in the DE circle, not
an advantage. As I see it, the only advantage Draco
might have to the Death Eaters, currently or in the
relatively near future, would be his money- and even
that is controlled by Lucius, who certainly doesn't
treat Draco as a particularly prized possession.
Remember how Draco ran screaming like a woman ;)
through the forest when Voldemort reared himself at
Harry during their first year? I think that was a
profoundly insightful look into Draco's true
character. I'm not saying fear is a character flaw-
because fear is a gift, and a necessary one at that-
but in the case of Draco, it is an insight for us
readers into his true self. Basically, at this point,
Draco is rendered not unlike a Mandrake-kept in a
dirty pot, only to be pulled out at the whim of his
father or Snape to scream and harangue every once and
a while. When I think about Mandrake!Draco, I react
quite viscerally, and so want him to FIGHT, dammit,
FIGHT. 

Tom Riddle and Draco are as opposite,
characteristically speaking, to me as can be. I don't
see the parallels many people like to make between the
two. Draco, to me, is a puppet right now. Riddle was
definitely *dangerous* as a youth. COS demonstrates
that, brutally. So I don't yet buy the Draco=automatic
DE. I think he would be more of a liability to the
DEs, and to Lucius as well. 

> I have always said that unless something intervenes,
> I see no 
> redemption for Draco.

I agree, but we must keep the faith (no pun intended)
for young Mr. Malfoy :) Intervention comes in
interesting ways- and unexpected ones at that.
Canonically speaking, although I wish it were
different, I, too, tend to error on the side of Draco
continuing to be Harry's foil throughout the series.
However, JKR has surprised me many, many times, and I
will be ecstatic if she does it again with Draco. 

> But I do think that he must be
> brought very low 
> indeed before there is any hope for him. 

Draco is already much, much lower than he knows. 

> 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.

This might be off-topic, but I wonder how many of us
relate to Draco (or any literary characters like him)
because we've walked a similar path? I believe this is
true for me. Why do we love the character in HP that
we do? I mean, I love them all, of course, and I
accept them for who they are, but why do certain
characters pull us in so much more than others? Is
there an existing thread on this subject that I could
refer to? Point me, if so! 

> 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.

OTOH, Riddle has an elevated sense of himself. I
wonder if he would never consider any other teen to be
as worthy of his work/plans/plot, because nobody would
ever rise to his expectations. And if they did, would
he not kill them- possibly - as a potential rival? I
can totally see Tom Riddle doing this. Or Voldemort,
as it were. 
 
> 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. 

Right. I have a feeling that the Dark Mark is
something to be earned somehow. That perhaps a
potential DE has to do something quite extraordinary
in order to be initiated. 

> Related to 
> that, it's unlikely that Voldemort will have the
> strength to take 
> direct action right away.

As I touched on above, I can totally see Voldemort
foiling his own goals through his grandiosity, and
through his refusal to allow anyone with potential to
possibly take on a leadership role equal to or above
his own. This could be a weakness. 
 
> 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.
 
This is a very important point. 
 
~Julie

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