Draco and Lucius

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 110465

Geoff:
I was most impressed with psyche's detailed look at the Malfoy 
family. I have been intending to post in this thread about the 
relationship between Draco and Lucius. I have always felt that Lucius 
looks down on Draco and,even when Draco is involved - as with the 
Buckbeak incident - he is working to a different agenda to that of 
protecting his son, more like doing his utmost to undermine Hogwrats, 
Dumbledore and maybe bring them both down.

We had a long discussion on this last year and I took the trouble to 
look some of the comments out and re-post them here:

====================================================================

83661            

Geoff:
I have very mixed feelings about Draco. Once, I considered him to be
an absolute pain in the backside but I sometimes find myself
harbouring more then a little bit of sympathy for him; who couldn't,
with a father like Lucius?! He obviously wanted, for some reason or
another, to befriend Harry right at the beginning but managed to mess
this up in no uncertain terms because of his arrogant approach and
that has coloured their relationship ever since. (Perhaps I have read
too much fanfic lately in which he manages to reach a rapprochement
with Harry, Ron and Hermione in one way or another.)

I've known people who have wanted to make friends with someone who
hasn't responded and it can produce all sorts of mixed reactions
which leads me to my next thought..

Interestingly, I seem to have been writing a number of posts
comparing people lately – Wormtail v Wormtongue and Wormtail v Gollum
for example. Arising out of reading Louis's excellent notes, the
thought crossed my mind that Peter Pettigrew always wanted to be with 
the "big shots" and, as Sirius Black said in POA, he wouldn't come
back unless he knew that Voldemort was the biggest bully in the
playground. I wonder whether Draco might be tempted into that sort of
scenario? He wants to be equal or better than Harry. Might he be led
into some sort of betraying situation? Could he become a second
Wormtail? I'd like to see him acknowledging the error of his ways and
improving but I ha' ma doots; but, putting on my hat as a Christian
in the real world, I've seen stranger things happen. Roll on, Book 6.

84477

Geoff wrote:

> One might also start drawing hints from the Hogwarts motto: Draco
> dormiens nunquam titillandus = "Never tickle a sleeping dragon".
>
> OK - now who's going to translate that as "Never tickle a sleeping
> Draco" and start a new Slytherin thread?
> :-)

Me: (Berit)

I don't know if the topic is interesting enough to start a new
thread, but I would like to comment on the very interesting question
you raise about the Hogwarts motto. Because I have got a distinct
impression that is actually what Harry did at the end of
OoP, "tickled a sleeping Draco"... On pages 749-751 (British Version)
Harry bumps into Draco in the Entrance Hall. To me this little
incident describes a "new" Draco, a much more dangerous Draco. Up
till now Draco has just been "having fun" acting out the bad kid.
Harry landing his father in prison (and ridiculing him in front of
Draco) has however turned him into a potential Death Eater. Just read
those pages, and you see a Draco angrier than Harry had ever seen
him, his pale face "contorted with rage". And his voice is quiet,
whispering, no more of the loud, boisterous drawling. But the most
significant sign of Draco's change of attitude is the way he talks
about his father. In the previous books he has always referred to him
using the more formal "Father", but now he even calls him "Dad". Now,
that's significant if you ask me :-)

My two knuts: Harry's in deep trouble. Draco dormiens nunquam
titillandus...

84482

Geoff:
That's interesting. I hadn't noticed the use of "Dad" - it's right at
the end of the line in my edition and I was following through the
comment onto the next line. The strange thing is that he only does it
once. He refers to "father" twice before in this scene. Curiously,
just before DM's comment, Harry refers to "your dad" and I don't 
think he does that regularly.

====================================================================

Interestingly, my father was rather reserevd and not very 
demonstrative with his feelings and I always called him "father" 
unitl the last couple of years of his life when I think he began to 
loosen up a little. But, as with Berit's comments months ago, I 
wonder if the Ministry incident has started some sort of sea change 
with Draco?