Draco's Choice (was:Re: The Twins are bad, Harry is bad, but Draco is good...)

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 136983

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

> Betsy Hp:
> Did Draco freely choose to become Voldemort's assassin?  This is 
> important because by the morality of the books Draco's choice tells 
> us a great deal about the make-up of his character and the direction 
> he'll most likely be taking in book 7.

When we first see Draco on the train he shows great pride in his task.
While some of it may be bravado and show off and mostly immaturity, I
think he felt very honored by his choice. This fits well with
Voldemort's ability to make his DE's feel very grateful and honored
when given the most horrible and demeaning tasks...

Malfoy later finds out that what seemed easy is not so at all. But his
last action was a choice - run away with the DE's. He may not like his
choice and likely will die for it either at the hand of the good side
or at the hand of Voldemort (or his DE's), but he did stick with the
DE's in the end.

> Draco, himself, doesn't act like he's got a choice in the matter.
> 
> "No one can help me," [...] "...and unless I do it soon...he say's 
> he'll kill me..." (522)

But nowhere does Draco say "It's the wrong thing to do". He is scared
and ashamed but equally ashamed of not measuring up to the Voldemort's
standards as he is of not measuring up to Dumbledore's.

> And Draco, with the freedom to choose finally returned to him, 
> lowers his wand.

Lowers slightly, not all the way. This shows he is torn and hasn't
made a choice.

> Even with the temptation of the four Death Eaters, 
> who five times by my count try to turn Draco into a killer, Draco 
> shows us (and Harry) who he truly is: he is not a killer; he is an 
> innocent.

No, he is incapable of making a decision. Yet. There is no evidence
one way or another which way he'd have gone if given full time to
consider. Draco is not a strong person morally, he wavers here. That
is to his credit but just because Dumbledore thinks that he is not a
killer (semantic since he nearly killed two people), does not make it
so. Dumbledore can make mistakes due to his ever optimistic nature.
Witness his misjudgement of Snape.

> Betsy Hp:
> I would say not killing Dumbledore showed a great deal of 
> compassion.

Compassion? He realized that going through with it in cold blood is
not as easy as it seems. It shows he is not completely lost, but there
was no hint of compassion in his behaviour, only fear.

> And in a round about sort of way, keeping his friends 
> out of his tangles with Voldemort showed a form of compassion too.

Did he? He used Crabbe and Goyle as lookouts (and they did not seem to
like it). He did not like it that Grayback was brought in, but did
nothing to prevent him attacking people (e.g. he could have stunned
him, I don't think Grayback was a wizard).
  
> I think the true measure of Draco's worth will be found in book 7.  
> Thanks to Dumbledore, Draco will finally be allowed to make the 
> choices that will show us who he is.  Based on his first major 
> choice, I think Draco will turn out well.

I think that Draco avoided making the choice and thus forced Snape to
make it for him. But no matter. Draco then ran back to Voldemort with
Snape. He made a choice in the end.

In my opinion Draco pretty much sealed his death warrant one way or
another. In a war like this you either choose one side or the other or
you get crashed between them. He can't do what Voldemort wants him to
do, so he is useless to Voldemort. He also can't change sides anymore.
 I suspect he'll meet a fate similar to Regulus.

Salit