Draco / the Black Sisters

[Jee H. Lee]

No: HPFGUIDX 84473

> Personally, even though Draco is turning out to be
an evil little
> demon, I think he's doing it to try to get some sort
of approval from
> his cold parents, and for that, I feel at least a
LITTLE sorry for
> Draco.  (Not much, but a little.)

Like just about everything else in the fandom this
must have been said a million times, but in Book 4
where Harry asks Draco if his mother always looked
like she had dung under her nose or only around him, I
always thought Draco might have been so angry because
the comment cut too close to home. He does seem to
flaunt the affections of his parents a little too
much(handing out sweets, bragging how he didn't go to
Durmstrang because his mother wanted him close).
Overcompensation, perhaps? 


Catlady:
> I hope Sirius *meant* he hadn't *spoken* with her,
because I very 
> much want Bellatrix and everyone else in Severus's
little friendship
> group of Slytherin schoolmates to be the same age as
Severus and 
> Sirius.

The fun thing about arguing small details in canon is
that no one can be any more "right" than anyone else.
The available evidence presents a myriad of possible
and equally valid interpretations. In other words,
your guess is as good as mine, or anyone's. We could
say Sirius meant that he didn't speak to her since
then, possibly as a result of his leaving home at
sixteen(still close enough to be considered Harry's
age). Still, I believe that by "see" Sirius meant
seeing, not speaking to Bellatrix, because he mentions
seeing a glimpse of her coming to Azkaban in the same
context. 

Besides, I think we see entirely too much of the
Marauder year people--class of '77?--as it is. 


Catlady: 
> IIRC other posters have placed Tonks at 22 or 23 ...
<snip>
> With the adjustment in Tonks's age, that makes
[Andromeda] 43 to 45.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. That seems a more
reasonable way of seeing things. You Westerners' way
of having people age on their birthdays confuses the
hell out of me. :) Why can't you have everyone gain a
year on New Year's Day like sensible people do? ;)


Catlady: 
> I would rather have Narcissa be 41, the same age as
Lucius (stated in
> OoP). I like to think they made a love-match, based
on a friendship
> they formed during all those years together in
Slytherin House, based
> on their shared beliefs and values.

Sure, why not? As others have said, maybe we're just
too used to seeing Lucius and Narcissa, and all
Slytherins, as Evil Incarnate. On the other hand, they
could still be Evil Incarnate *and* be deeply in love.
It's too easy to think of evil as something other than
human, just to distance ourselves from the unsavory.
In the same vein, it's unsettling to think villains
are human enough to truly fall in love. Unfortunately
that's real life because bad people are, well, people,
too. 


Catlady: 
> Perhaps one of the evil deeds of the Dark Wizards is
that 
> they list siblings on family trees in a random order
instead of a
> chronological or alphabetical order.

The fiends! :D 

Family trees are very important for Koreans, we have
whole books of them. (My own dates back to 1083 or
so.) In these books siblings are absolutely listed in
order of age, because older and younger is very
important in establishing pecking order. Also, the
eldest son always inherited everything in the old
days, making order of birth even more crucial. 

As I understand, Britain used to have eldest-son
inheritance, too. I imagine that would make order of
birth pretty important and in turn, have sons listed
in that order on their family trees. This is likely to
spill over to the daughters as well. I remember when I
read Jane Austen's works, only the eldest daughter was
called by her family name(e.g. Miss Bertram), while
the younger daughters were called by their first
names(e.g. Miss Julia). So that, again, seems to
evidence the importance of seniority, something that's
likely to find expression in the form of family trees.



Catlady:
> I like for Narcissa to be the youngest, because
> then she could be the offspring of a second wife who
refused to go
> along with astronomical name nonsense.

Heh, I thought that was a little odd, too. While
flower names seem to be a staple among wizarding folk,
the Black family seemed to have such an affinity for
constellations, at least for their latest generation. 

Jee H. Lee