Sirius and Draco; was James and Snape.

[Alex Boyd]

No: HPFGUIDX 113790


Alla wrote :
> 
> Very true, Nora. I don't see Draco, especially after OOP, ever 
> defying Lucius and leaving Malfoys' nest. I don't think that he 
> cannot, but I think that JKR wrote him in the corner.

I've heard this contention before, so I'm not putting you on the spot
here, but I'm a little unclear on *why* Draco was considered up for
grabs evil-wise up to book four but book five puts the nail in the
coffin.  He is runing out of time to see the Light if he's going to,
but he doesn't really seem any *worse* in book five than he is in the
previous books.  So, for Alla and everyone else who thinks
Redeemed!Draco is foreclosed by book five, why?  

Another thing about Draco's Nastiness: whenever we see him being mean
to Harry et al., he's always surrounded by a group of laughing
Slytherins.  Now, it's possible that they're just sucking up, but it
seems equally possible that his Housemates regard him as a bit of a
class clown. In his head (which we don't have access to in the books),
it could be that he isn't *trying* to be cruel to Harry, Neville,
etc., he's trying to be *funny* to his Housemates, and simply doesn't
care (or notice) whether he's *also* being mean or not.  

When Sirius and James are mean to Snape, they do it *mainly* to amuse
each other.  (There's textev for this, but I can't remember where the
actual passage is.  Sirius says that he was mean to Snape mainly to
give James a laugh, or maybe the other way around.)  

Now, of course, I've come down very hard on James and Sirius for being
mean to Snape, even if they didn't mean to cause him permanent
psychological trauma (which I'd say they have, though I'm also sure
they had no idea, and perhaps if someone in authority had sat them
down and told them it *really wasn't funny* in strong enough terms for
the message to get through, they'd have stopped).  So it would be
hypocritical of me to say that it's OK for Draco to pick on Harry and
his friends if he's just trying to be funny.  But I've also said that
doing bad things doesn't make James bad, provided he repents and
changes his ways later (which apparently he did).  I don't see Draco
as having necessarilly crossed the line between being an "arrogant
berk" and being ESE!  He doesn't *have* to change--plenty of people
are arrogant berks in school and continue being arrogant berks for the
rest of their lives.  But some grow out of it.  Draco is still only
15--I for one am *substantially* less obnoxious than I was when I was
that age.  

Now, there is the last major Malfoy scene in OoP (p. 851 in the US
hardback).  He says "You're dead, Potter," (Which, I want to
emphasize, Harry considers insufficiently threatening to respond with
 a joke: "Funny, you'd think I'd have stopped walking around.")  And,
"I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my father."  I think
reading this scene depends on whether we see Draco at this point as a
child or as an adult.  If we read him as an adult, he is choosing up
sides--he's going to follow in his father's footsteps and exact
revenge on Harry for ruining his life.  When he says "I'm going to
make you pay" he means he's going to kill him or take away someone he
loves so that Harry will feel the way he feels.  (Of course, Harry
already *has* just lost someone he loves...)  In this reading, while
Redeemed!Draco is not *entirely* foreclosed, non-ESE!Draco would
require a one-hundred-eighty-degree reversal.  

However, if we read Draco as a child, then his reaction is
psychologically realistic but doesn't necessarilly mean that he's
going to "make Harry pay" in the potentially lethal way we would
expect if we're reading him as an adult.  When a parent is arrested,
it's normal for a child to respond with rage against authority figures
or anyone else the child sees as responsible for the parent's arrest
(including victims or witnesses), in order to avoid the
psychologically unbearable realization that the parent chose to break
the law and is responsible for his/her own arrest.  It doesn't matter
that Malfoy Sr. is a Bad Guy-- child!Draco would be *compelled* to
absolve him of responsibility and hold Harry (Lucius's victim)
responsible instead.  One even sees this dynamic when a child's father
goes to jail for beating his mother--the child might say "I hate you,
I'm going to kill you for making Dad go to jail."  So Draco could just
be expressing his (entirely normal, if misdirected) anger, rather than
declaring a serious intent to "make Harry pay."

*If* Draco's response is childish rather than adult, he *could*
realize (perhaps over the summer) that Lucius did, after all, try to
kill Harry, so perhaps Harry oughtn't to be blamed for his going to
jail.  On the other hand, as we've seen in this very series, it's
possible for grudges born out of childish thinking to be carried into
adulthood, where they have real consequences.  

I'm not at all sure which of these readings is correct.  At age 15,
Draco's thinking could be childish or adult.  I will note, however,
that we've no evidence that Draco is particularly mature for his age.
 Rather the contrary, I'd say.  

Alex