Will Draco Come Back?

[Yahtzee63 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 81980

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "samnanya" <yswahl at s...> wrote:

>Time is running out for Good|Draco to emerge.
> Can anyone ferret out a sign of change in Malfoy?

And Sydney answers: 
>>Zip. Zero. Zilch. I'm REALLY curious to know where JKR is going
with Draco. 'Redemption Draco' seems totally unlikely to me; mostly
because amongst all his other charming qualities he's an abject
coward. It takes courage to change your mind and I haven't seen that
kind of inner strength from Draco at all.<<


ITA to this. I decided, way back in CoS, that either Snape or Draco would be redeemed during the series -- but not both, and it looks like Snape's the lucky winner. 

I do, however, think Draco will be developed more as a character, but as a villain as well. As opposed to Lord Voldemort, who is just flat evil, almost devoid of any need for motivation of context, Draco will IMHO come to represent the human face of evil -- vulnerable, not without emotion and with a social context, but evil nonetheless.  Harry will ultimately have to face down not just a Big Bad Naughty Person, but somebody whom he knows and understands, even if he dislikes him. In some ways, that's harder to do. 

Sydney adds: 

>>On the other hand it's weird of Rowling to keep the main nemesis
totally static, as Draco has been. It's hard to see his function in
the story. I mean, Draco's not even dangerous, which at least could
generate suspense; not one of his Evil Plans has ever worked out.
He's not a particularily interesting psychological study (yet,
anyways). He's not a warning of slippery slopes of any kind; he was
a vicious little racist at 11 just as he is at 15. He's just kind of
a moral punching bag.<<

My personal take on OOTP is that it's about all the student-aged characters leaving the concerns of childhood and entering the adult realm. For Harry, this happens with Cedric's death at the end of GoF; much of his frustration at the beginning of the book is that he is still being treated as a child, and that Ron and Hermione are still reacting to events like kids (willing to be led, trusting their elder's judgment.) Throughout OOTP, the students are introduced to greater danger and larger risks, and they mature to the tasks at hand. 

The main exception is Draco, who remains a childhood bully -- and increasingly one with less power. In the early novels, he's taunting Ron about his Mom being fat, and this incenses Ron; by the end of OOTP, that kind of thing just doesn't matter any more. The kids all have bigger concerns on their minds than Draco's snarkiness.

But I think that, at the end of the book, when Lucius Malfoy is imprisoned, that all changes. Draco has finally, personally, been forced to suffer the consequences of his family's actions, and he now has a true grudge against Harry -- a genuine cause for the dislike he's harbored all these years. I think Draco is the last of the kids to "grow up" in that sense, but he does so at the very end. The stakes are higher for Draco now, and his behavior will change accordingly.

That said, I don't think Draco will change for the better, nor am I sure that would be the best outcome. I am a big believer in showing people's changing and improving over time, step by step. JKR has accomplished this quite beautifully with Snape, unfolding the better dimensions of his personality slowly while not losing focus on his still-strong bitterness and pettiness. I am not sure that Draco could be believably transformed from a two-dimensional baddie to a three-dimensional hero in just two books. He could, however, go from a two-dimensional baddie to a three-dimensional baddie. I think Draco will remain on the wrong side of things, but that we will see him make active choice, and even come to pity the tragedy of his making those choices, to be on the wrong side. 


JMO --

Yahtzee