OoP: Has Anyone Seen Redeemable Draco???

[dracodemoiselle]

No: HPFGUIDX 67372

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, the firey chasm from whence it 
came <explodingstar at a...> wrote:
> At 12:16 AM 7/2/2003 +0000, you wrote:
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_______Quoted________
I have a theory as to why so many people like him, but frankly it 
isn't a pleasant one. Let's face it, we've all known a Draco 
in our lives. Probably more than one. He has a common personality, 
the typical snobbish bully. How many people reading HP right now were 
like Draco as a child? I think it's safe to assume that probably at 
least a reasonable number of them were, seeing as how this isn't a 
rare personality type. Well, they're bound to see a character that 
reflects their past selves in a more positive light than a person who 
was never like Draco would. We tend to relate to characters and like 
best characters that we have something in common with, or can see 
ourselves in. Like I can really relate to Hermione for example 
because I was a "smart" kid and I have more than a passing interest 
in social justice. I totally can't relate to Draco because I wasn't 
ever a bully, I was always the kid who got picked on. But 
someone who had been like Draco in their youth is probably more 
likely to like and relate to him now, and also see his flaws in a 
more redeeming light, perhaps focusing on his relationship to his 
father and excusing him on the basis of that. 
_______________

I reply:

As a kid, I was Hermione Granger without the friends for backup. I 
can honestly say that I spent every year from 7 to 18 miserable. I 
was subject to all varieties of bullies, some as bad as Draco Malfoy. 
I was so miserable by these kids, that for some years I was 
physically ill every morning before going to school. 

And I want a Redeemable!Draco. I desperately want one. Not because I 
was like him, but because I knew so many shades of Malfoy. These are 
people who I left behind in my life, and I wonder about today. One of 
these bullies, who spent nearly 4 years making my life hell, 
approached me when we were 15 and apologized for everything she'd 
ever done to me, said it was wrong, and apologized and swore never to 
do it again. Now, at 23, she is one of my few remaining friends from 
High School. (It took me until middle of college to really get over 
what she'd done, though!).

I just worked with a 11 year old child who has all the markings of an 
unredeemable child. A Draco. A bully. A liar. Manipulative, screwed 
up, almost impossible to help. I spent three months working with her 
daily, and I would look at her, and want to cry. She was, after all, 
eleven years old, and I couldn't reach her. Who can work with a child 
like that, and not want there to be some hope? 

I am a fan of Redeemable!Draco not because I was a bully, but because 
I knew sad, hurting, messed up children like him when I was a child. 
I was a victim. And now as an adult, I have worked close to a child 
like that, and wanted to help, and was not able to. Draco Malfoy is 
not lovable, but he's recognizable, and through wanting him to have 
some hope to be a decent person, I can have hope for many people I 
have known, who made me suffer, and who I have forgiven in my life.

You don't have to be a bully or a bad person to feel for a bully or a 
bad person.

DracoDemoiselle