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

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 144509

festuco:
> It is the first conversation the two of them have. In this first
> conversation Draco wants to find out if Harry is the right kind of
> wizard. I don't really care when in this first conversation the
> subject is breached by him, but I do care that it is something he
> really wants to know about Harry. Draco is being a racist here.

Magpie:

I realize you don't care, and I already agreed that Draco is being bigoted 
there.


> Gerry:
> And of all the things he could have called her, he has to be a racist.

Magpie:

Well, yeah.  That's why I just explained why I think that's important, 
because I like the way it's linked to the earlier scene.

festuco:
> Which evidence? Draco's daddy bought amazing brooms for the Slythering
> team and suddenly dear little Draco is a seeker, just as Harry and on
> a better broom.... Where is the canon that he has not bought the
> position?

Magpie:

The canon of all of Draco's Quidditch games where he's a good player who 
gives Harry a run for his money.  Things could just as easily have been 
reversed: Draco becomes a seeker and his dear Daddy buys the team brooms as 
a reward.

Ron is a player that gets a nudge to put him onthe Quidditch team when he's 
not the best for the job and we see the results in his performance. I have a 
hard time believing the Slytherin team has stuck with a player who doesn't 
deserve his spot for so many years when so much rests on his position. 
Harry himself doesn't seem to think of that as a factor when he plays 
against him.


festuco:
> The only interesting thing here is that Daddy does not buy Draco's
> whining about Hermione being a teachers favourite, but actually
> acknowledges that she did better than him. Draco makes his own
> humiliation here, because he is the one who reminded his daddy that
> Hermione did better than him (CoS bloomsbury paperback edition p. 85-86).

Magpie:
I'm sorry if you don't find the scene as interesting as I do. But I do see 
those things in it, especially stuff like Lucius not buying Draco's whining 
about Hermione being the teacher's favorite--that's actually another reason 
I have a hard time believing Lucius suddenly decided to buy brooms to make 
sure Draco got a "fair" chance at the team.  He seems to expect Draco to 
succeed because he's good.  Draco does remind his father that Hermione does 
better than he did--he calls her "that Hermione Granger" and Lucius calls 
her "a Muggleborn girl."

festuco:
To me it seems that he is indeed very smug about his dad's gift. The
> whole scene is about the brooms. Nowhere do we see anyone remarking
> Draco's talent as a seeker, including Draco himself. Hermione's remark
> was spot on.

Magpie:
So if he's smug about it why is he stung when Hermione says what she says? 
Shouldn't he be proud of how well he pulled something off?  He's the one, as 
you said, who was bragging about the brooms his father bought for the team. 
Why bring that up to brag if you're not wanting to be reminded of it?

I think Draco was smug because he'd gotten onto the team and his father had 
bought the brooms for the team, making him a popular Seeker as well.  Then 
Hermione put those things together in the obvious way, suggested he had no 
talent, and he was furious.

Now, perhaps Rowling did want it to be that he bought his way onto the team, 
but then she should have written him as a player with no talent.  Hermione 
often says things she doesn't even believe to shut Draco up, especially when 
he's insulting Ron.  And Hermione specifically avoids saying exactly this 
sort of thing to Ron when he's on the team for something other than talent.

It just seems like with Draco we're supposed to have it both ways, and I 
don't see any reason to have to make that work.  In B&B his father seems to 
expect Draco to succeed on his own and won't buy him anything more than a 
racing broom as he agreed. If he did buy his way onto the team then it seems 
to me like a waste of money because he could have made it on his own. I 
think a situation where Malfoy is the no-talent who gets onto the team only 
because his father bribed the team would just have to result in different 
results.

-m