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

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 137196

> >>vmonte:
> Narcissa is right that Draco is a kid and that he does not know   
> what he is getting himself into. But the fact is that Draco was   
> excited to join the DEs--he did out of his own free will. 

Betsy Hp:
I'm going to need canon here.  Please prove that Draco *chose* to 
take on the task of killing Dumbledore, and please prove that he 
*chose* to become a Death Eater.  (Actually, prove Draco is a Death 
Eater, period.)  My request is a little tongue in cheek because I 
poured through canon (and even quoted bits and pieces of it <g>) to 
prove the opposite, so I'm relatively confident you'll find no proof 
at all. (Though I have been wrong before.  Once.  Twice? <g>)

> >>Betsy Hp:
> >Draco didn't have a choice here at all. JKR makes that very clear,
> >IMO.
> ><snip>

> >>vmonte:
> I disagree. JKR makes it very clear that WE are responsible for   
> our own actions.   

Betsy Hp:
I had to go up-thread to see what the heck I was talking about, and 
I was referring to the moment where Snape grabs Draco and drags him 
from the tower. (That was in the part snipped.)  To my mind it was 
fairly clear that Draco (the one "seized" and "forced") was, erm...  
being seized and forced.  IOW, he didn't choose for Snape to 
manhandle him from the tower.

Now, maybe you're suggesting that any action a character is forced 
into is the responsibility of that character, but then I would 
expect you to place full blame for Voldemort's rebirth on Harry.  
After all, it was Harry who gave his blood to complete the potion 
that enabled Voldemort to take human form.
 
> >>Betsy:
> <snip>
> >Third, he makes sure that Dumbledore realizes that he *did not* 
> >invite Fenrir to the school (which implies to me that Draco, for 
> >the first time in his life quite possibly, is looking for        
> >Dumbledore's approval).

> >>vmonte:
> Draco is a racist pureblood. To Draco it doesn't matter whether it 
> is Lupin or Fenrir..a werewolf is a werewolf is a werewolf...

Betsy Hp:
It matters to Dumbledore though.  He makes it clear that he is most 
displeased at Fenrir's presence in his school.  And Draco takes 
pains to tell Dumbledore that he did not invite Fenrir into the 
school.  Since Lupin is not mentioned I think it's pretty safe to 
say that Draco was answering Dumbledore's query and not making a 
general comment on werewolves. 

 
> >>Betsy Hp:
> ><snip>
> >But Dumbledore said it, and if you think about how Draco         
> >parallels Harry...
> ><snip>

> vmonte:
> Draco does not parallel Harry, he parallels Snape. 

Betsy Hp:
In a piece of literature of any sort of depth, characters generally 
have more than one parallel.  Since JKR has managed to create 
characters of reasonable complexity they tend to fit into different 
parallels.  You snipped the ways I was paralleling Draco to Harry 
using canon.  But the fact that I was using canon means (to me 
anyway) that it's not something that can be so easily brushed 
aside.  It's hard to prove a negative, so I won't ask you to cite 
canon to show that Draco doesn't parallel Harry, but I would suggest 
you tackle the canon I raised if you want to show that I was mad-dog 
crazy to suggest there was any parallelism between the two boys at 
all.

I do agree, however, that Draco parallels Snape.  I think he also 
parallels James Potter, Regulus Black and Ron Weasley.  It's part of 
the fun of Draco being a three-dimensional character. :)

Betsy Hp