[HPforGrownups] Draco as leader and bigot (was:Re: Scapegoating Slytherin - The Moral Majority)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 144492

festuco:
> When he meets Harry at Madam Malkins he immediately wants to find out
> if Harry's parents were the right kind and thinks that they should not
> let the other sort go to Hogwarts.

Magpie:

Actually, he first wants to know what house he'll be in and if he plays 
Quidditch.  Asking who his parents are comes pretty late--after Harry has 
"coldly" said he thinks Hagrid is brilliant.  I'm not trying to say that 
Draco isn't intentionally acting just like Lucius there in saying 
non-wizards shouldn't be admitted, but that the scene is not so simple as 
Draco walking in, being a bigot and Harry being righteously angry.  I think 
the scene is more subtle with more going on.

festuco:
>
> It is far easier to pick on Neville then on Hermione. Before the troll
> incident it is clear that she is cleverer than he is, and after that
> she has friends too which makes her even less attractive as a target.

Magpie:

Draco has basically no interaction with Hermione at all in the first book. 
There's no reason to think he considered her or not as a target.  It's a 
non-issue.  He picks on Harry Potter, so I doubt little Hermione Granger is 
someone he's going to avoid because she's so clever. He starts going after 
her after she draws first blood.  That's all we really know.

festuco:
>
> He picks on Hermione in CoS because she comments that he bought his
> position as the Slytherin seeker, which ofcourse is true

Magpie:

I don't think it's true at all.  The evidence in canon points against it, 
imo.

festuco:

but nothing
> he wants to be reminded of. He snaps out and that the insult which
> comes to him naturally is mudblood makes it clear to me that he is
> quite the little racist. I don't see much change in him either.

Magpie:

Again, I think you're making it flatter than it is--there's more interesting 
stuff going on there, imo.  In B&B Lucius is chastizing him about his 
grades, and Draco sulkily tries to claim things aren't fair at school.  He 
brings up Hermione as a teacher's favorite.  Lucius responds by saying he'd 
think Draco would be ashamed at having a Muggleborn beat him in every exam. 
Lucius uses her being a Muggleborn to shame Draco further.

The Quidditch Pitch scene is, imo, a continuation of that.  Hermione does 
humiliate him on the Pitch by suggesting he doesn't deserve his place on the 
team, which I think he certainly does, and if he bought his way on the team 
he'd be far more smug about it.  Draco strikes back with all the frustration 
he has about his position by attacking her racially.

I think those scenes in CoS are the only time Rowling has actually 
dramatized the kinds of emotions that lead to racism.  No, Draco has not 
changed in HBP, but I think Betsy's point (and I agree) is that just as he's 
the one character whose racism has been personalized he's the one character 
who's been primed to change on this subject.  He hasn't yet, but I, too, 
consider Dumbledore's words about not using the word Mudblood something that 
might have been intentionally planted to have some effect.  And no, Draco's 
using Hermione's ideas doesn't mean he's thrown off his racism, but there 
is, imo, a set up with Draco since book 2 to see a disconnect between what 
Hermione is supposed to be (Muggleborn and so inferior to Draco, especially 
magically) and what she is (smart with good ideas).   Lucius set this up 
back in Book 2 when he unintentionally highlighted the fallacy of his own 
teachings.  Up until now Draco has responded to that by trying to insist the 
world is the way it's supposed to be or make it fit--it's possible he won't 
be able to do that in future.

-m