OoP - Who had the worse childhood? WAS Redeemable Draco?

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 67028

I personally think Draco needs to get in line behind several other 
characters in the conversation about who had the worse upbringing.

Number one is Harry, without a doubt. A cupboard under the stairs 
with spiders? Meals of two slices of bread and cheese? Beaten up by 
Dudley and his gang. (and we get hints of Vernon landing some blows 
too.)

I'd actually put Tom Riddle at second. Mother died, father abandoned 
him. Living in an orphanage. We don't know what kind of orphanage it 
was, whether it was one run by kindly nuns or a kind of Dickensian 
nightmare, but we know he hated it.

>From there, we leave the realm of lack of physical comforts and 
physical abuse to more psychological trauma.

Neville is raised by a woman who is, by all accounts, sharp with him 
AND goes through a large part of his young life thinking he's a 
Squib. His parents are vegetables and his total lack of confidence is 
entirely indicative of a kid always picked last and having few 
friends.

(Incidentally, had V-Mort did what Harry suggested and waited a few 
years to see which was the bigger threat, he'd still likely have gone 
for Harry. Me? If I'm an evil dictator with this prophecy, I kill 
them both just to be sure.)

Dudley is spoiled rotten, entirely moreso than Draco. Perhaps this is 
just meant to be for cartoonish effect, but he's an 11-year-old that 
can't add two to 36 in the beginning of SS/PS and literally outgrows 
his school uniform. Speaking as someone who lost a ton of weight in 
high school and still battles it, I can tell you that feeding a kid 
is NOT loving a kid. Dudley is a messed-up little boy.

Sirius and Severus both had troubled environments growing up, it 
appears, although in Sirius' case, it's hard to tell when that 
manifested. Perhaps he was a good little pureblood promoter until age 
10 or 11 (When he broadened his world by going to Hogwarts.)

(It just struck me how SIMILAR those names are, kind of like my aunt 
naming my twin cousins Carol and Cheryl...nah, couldn't be.)

As for Draco, yeah, he might be getting some mixed messages. He might 
be getting the Petinua-type "He's such an angel" from Narcissa, but 
then gets the harsher "Why are you humiliating the family name?" 
routine -- like Mr. Black might have done to Sirius -- from Lucius.

But I look at the other kids who have overcome these disadvantages
(Even Riddle grew to do great things and Dudley might be on the way 
to being quite the athlete) and I just kinda want Draco to stop 
whining and get on with it.

And thought I painfully agree that, if we're going to get a Redeemed!
Slyth, it'll likely be someone we know already, and Draco is the 
logical choice (unless anyone wants to start a Goodly!Goyle theory)

But, I continue to harp that a Draco who out-evils his dad would be 
more interesting and, darn it, more fun.

Darrin
-- Here's a professional wrestling analogy to support Redeemable!
Draco. When I was a kid, watching wrestling, you could always tell 
which "bad" guy was going to be turned "good" because they had the 
bad guy just totally getting his ass kicked for a while. He turns 
good and starts kicking ass again.