Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too.

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 124452


>>Alla:
<snip>
>I cannot help but nod my head in agreement as to general idea of 
hurt/comfort and why I love certain characters . :o)
<snip>
>But  I cannot see any of it, or almost any of it in Malfoy 
character. I cannot see any "dignified' suffering after he has his 
encounter with Buckbeak - I only see pathetic lying in the Potions 
class to make Ron do his work for him.
>I  just don't feel Draco's pain at all.<

Betsy:
I was a little nervous about answering this post, because I could 
*so* blather on about Draco.  But, what the heck. :)

I started feeling sympathy for Draco as soon as PS/SS.  He's so 
awkward and desperate.  He's a lot like Hermione in his interest in 
becoming Harry's friend and his total cluelessness on how to go about 
doing it.  And the poor boy doesn't get a helpful troll to interfere 
on his behalf.  I got the impression from the Norbert incident that 
this was a prime opportunity for Draco to become friends with the 
Trio (Draco doesn't involve a professor, and he doesn't involve 
Crabbe or Goyle) but instead of jumping Harry and Hermione, he jumps 
McGonagall.  (I wonder who was more surprised?)

But I definitely agree with Elkins that Draco gets hurt.  A lot.  
When he's slashed by the hippogriff, JKR describes the grass 
as "splattered with blood."  Which sounds fairly serious to me.  I 
know Harry and co. are certain Draco is faking - and I don't think 
Draco is above milking his injury for all it's worth (after all, he's 
a performer, and I get the sense he has to try for every bit of 
attention he gets at home), but I stopped trusting the Trio's 
decisions on Draco when Hermione accused him of buying his way onto 
the Slytherin Quidditch team.  

I also felt a great deal of sympathy for Draco during the 
Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch final in PoA.  Even Harry notices that 
Draco is paler than usual at breakfast that morning.  It's obvious 
Draco is as nervous as Harry is.  And then, during the game itself, 
Draco so noticably gives the game his all.  And when Harry inevitably 
wins, it's almost a cheat.  Harry has screwed up; he abandons his 
post as Seeker to help Angelina score.  Draco is the one to spot the 
Snitch, Draco is the one who first goes for it, and Harry beats him 
to it, not out of any flying skill but on sheer speed that has 
everything to do with his Firebolt.  Draco is defeated because he 
doesn't have the top of the line broom.  I love Harry, I do.  But it 
was an empty win to me.  I never like it when equipment beats skill.  
Not that Harry isn't an excellent Seeker, but that's not what won 
that match.

There's also the scene in OotP when Harry gets thrown off the 
Quidditch team.  He really beats the crap out of Draco -- with George 
Weasley's assistence.  (And how heroic is it to go two on one?  
Especially when one of the two is a Beater, naturally more burley 
than a slim Seeker? And then there's the whole 17 year old beating up 
a 15 year old.  Huge muscle mass difference with boys.)  Draco is 
left bloody and curled up on the ground, Harry is untouched, George 
has a split lip (a hit from Draco or a wild elbow of Harry's?).  
Plus, Harry hits Draco with a Snitch in his fist, and that's fairly 
dirty fighting.  I know it wasn't calculated on Harry's part, but 
still -- poor Draco. 

And the thing is, I don't think I'm reading into these scenes too 
deeply.  JKR is the one providing the language, the set-up, the 
outcome.  For someone who's always putting Draco down in her 
interviews, she really writes him awfully sympathetically.  And I 
agree with Elkins that JKR knows what she's doing.  It's for these 
reasons that I really hope Draco turns out to be the "good" Slytherin 
(I'm sure there has to be one for Voldemort to be defeated).  He's 
always struck me as a lonely boy and he is such an underdog.  It 
would be nice if he finally had his day.

Betsy, who really hopes there's more of Draco in the next book.