[HPforGrownups] First meetings HP/DM, JP/SS was Re: Always bothered me

[Kelly Grosskreutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 71298


> Talisha Shepherd wrote:
> Why did Malfoy want to befriend Harry? Why, given Harry's history and
> Lucious' history of being a DE, would Draco want to befriend him?

Remember, in the book, Harry and Draco first meet in Madam Malkin's.  Draco
is the one that strikes up the conversation and is being friendly.  But it
is also obvious he has no idea who he is talking to.  He asks Harry about
his parentage, his Quidditch team, they talk about Hagrid, and right before
Harry leaves, he asks Harry's surname but doesn't get an answer.  Harry's
scar must be covered in this scene since there is no indication that Draco
saw it at all.  Therefore, Draco is being friendly to this dark-haired boy
with glasses who says he's from a wizarding family.  He has no idea it's
Harry Potter, but he still seems to be interested in befriending him.  It is
this scene I have always found interesting when it comes to Draco, and that
is a lot of the reason.  The other part is because he is willing to talk an
awful lot about his views and opinions to this boy he's never seen before.

It's after he leaves Madam Malkin's that Draco finds out who the boy was.
He probably asks his dad, and somehow Lucius was able to figure out that the
boy was Harry Potter.  Before he found out the boy's identity, Draco may
have wanted to befriend Harry because he actually wanted a friend.  Can one
really blame him if the only two boys he could call friends before were
Crabbe and Goyle?  Maybe he wanted a boy he could consider more of an equal.
I'm sure Lucius also told Draco it would be a great thing if he could
befriend Harry Potter.  I don't think Lucius would've gone into why it would
be so wonderful for Harry and Draco to be best friends, but Draco will have
no problems with this because he'd already decided he wanted to be Harry's
friend.

Then they meet again on the train, and he sees that Harry and Ron Weasley
are getting along fine.  I still think that Draco truly did want to be
Harry's friend, but might not have known how to actually do so.  He treats
Harry like he sees his father treat people.  As we all know, Harry spurns
his hand and Draco as a person.  Draco appears to be angry, but I also think
he was hurt by this rejection.  Draco is not the type of person to set
himself to be rejected more than once, so he resolves to treat Harry like
crap from that moment on.  Over the years, other reasons have been layered
into his treatment of Harry, but I believe at the heart of it all is Draco
being hurt and angry over being rejected by Harry Potter.

In some ways, I can see how this could have been paralleled years ago.  I
have always wondered what caused James and Snape to hate each other at first
sight.  Maybe Snape tried to be friendly to James but was rebuffed.  I
mentioned above that Draco might have been using his father as a model when
it came to relating to other people.  I wouldn't say that Snape was doing
the same, but we have quite a bit of evidence that points to Snape not
having a lot of people skills.  It could have even started with Snape having
a discussion with James (and perhaps Sirius as well) and referring to
Muggle-borns as Mudbloods, figuring that these two pureblooded boys wouldn't
have a problem with it since that's how he's always heard them referred to
in his house (pure speculation here, of course).  James and Sirius are not
impressed, and the great rivalry/hatred is born.

Kelly Grosskreutz
http://www.idcnet.com/~ivanova