Insights into Draco and Lucius (maybe)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 115064


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "gelite67" <gelite67 at y...> 
wrote:

Angie:
> I know there have been numerous posts about Draco's "character arc" 
> or whatever it's called, but even if Draco doesn't develop a heart, 
> then I'd like to know more about he didn't develop a spine -- that 
> is, why he chose to act the way his father does.  He didn't have 
to --
> some kids rebel.

Geoff:
Can I start by quoting something I wrote long ago in message 83661...

"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."

I then made one or two more comments about him in messages 110442 and 
110465 at which folk might like to glance.

LPicking up on Angie's comment about him rebelling, I wonder whether 
he's had the experience to prompt him. 

Young people tend to rebel against their parents or mentors because 
they have a different template with which to compare experiences at 
home. For example, Harry realises that the Dursleys don't love him 
and that his environment is not the same as others because he went to 
a real world school and, although the glimpse of school we have in PS 
is of Dudley and his gang of hangers-on - Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and 
Gordon - bullying him, there must have been other pupils to whom he 
spoke whose families were a little more normal than Harry's.

On the other hand, I get the vibe that Draco is essentially a lonely 
boy; he has no siblings and his only associates seem to be Crabbe and 
Goyle, whose intellectual input is not much higher than that of a 
troll. I wonder why Lucius and Narcissa had him in the first place. 
Perhaps it was a case of ensuring the "succession".

He has only had Lucius' input throughout his life and so has had 
nothing against which he can compare the pro-pure blood 
indoctrination plus Lucius' niggling put-downs which have only 
heightened his dislike of Harry and friends. Lucius falls i to the 
trap of thinking that the only way to get Draco to improve is to 
belittle what he has done. A few words of encouragement might have 
made him more personable.

To be honest, I would greatly like to see Draco have some sort 
of "Damascus Road" experience but he reminds me very much of some 
friends I have who, because life has dealt them a bad hand, have 
become bitter, morose and with their prejudices set in stone.

Geoff
Enjoy views of Exmoor and preserved 
West Somerset Railway steam at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com