Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. (But not sympathetic)

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 124660


> Betsy: 
> Draco does express the pure-blood ideology, but he's a child 
> parroting his parents' politics.  He does hate Hermione (and I can 
> understand why) and he uses his ideology to attack her, but it's a 
> mere tool in his arsenal.  He doesn't hate Hermione *because* 
> she's Muggle born.  Her blood just gives him a stone to throw.
>  
> Alla:
> Twelve year old Ron articulates quite well what "mudblood" means , 
> I think Draco knows what he stands for.
> And I think the fact that Hermione is muggle born is a very 
> important reason of why Draco hates her ( although could be not 
> the only one)
> 

Valky:
I read the down threads and I do lean again to agreeing with Betsy 
that Dracos main hatred for Hermione is circumstantial, and not 
ideological. 

It can be argued that Draco not mentioning any prejudice against 
Hermione's blood status before COS is merely a plot point in 
relation to the subject not being broached before then, but if 
that's the case I find it awkward to understand why Draco would drag 
Hermione Granger up in Borgin and Burkes as a defense of his failing 
grades. 

If he *did* have a personal alignment with the ideology then why 
would he think that his father would excuse him for being weaker at 
magic than Hermione. A child with a strong alignment to pureblood 
supremacy probably wouldn't dream of mentioning it for the pure 
shame of the fact.
 
Lucius forces the shame on Draco after he mentions that Hermione is 
doing better and is the *favourite*. He didn't presuppose his 
superiority to Hermione before that, Lucius instructed him to 
afterward.

Circumstantially Draco follows the prejudice ideology, he fell out 
of favour with his father for not embracing it before, so he does it 
now, and acts as though he has always done. 

The later circumstance in Hogwarts is the first time Hermione gets 
actively involved in the Harry v Draco battle IIRC, so again Draco 
throws the slander circumstantially, much rather than with 
ideological purpose. He doesn't seek out Muggleborns in order to do 
it. Draco brings the "mudblood" to a fight, not the fight to the 
mudblood.

 
> Betsy: 
> Harry et al think Draco is pure evil, but JKR shows us again and 
> again that they are wrong.  Just as Hagrid contention that all bad 
> wizards are Slytherin has been shown, time and again, to be wrong.
> 
> Alla:
>  
> Where did JKR show us that Harry was wrong about Draco? 
> (Except Draco being a Slytherin heir of course - sorry)
> 
> 
> I think she is showing us over again and again that Harry is 100% 
> correct in his assesment of Draco and even though I think that 
> Hagrid contention will definitely be proven wrong, it should by 
> the logic of the story, it was not so far.
> 

Valky:
hmmm... I think.... that JKR is showing us that Harry is 100% right 
about Draco too, but also at the same time we are shown that Harry 
is 100% wrong about what that means.

There are a couple of canons that come to mind here.
The first is Dumbledore at the end of PS/SS when he relates to Harry 
that his Fathers feud with Snape was *like Harry and Draco*.
This has been brought up in relation to the pensieve debate, a 
powerful argument against the contention that Severus just minded 
his own business, something from James mad Valky's personal box of 
favourites.... Well it goes both ways.

If Snape wasn't minding his own business and James wasn't minding 
his either, then we are probably going to find that what Dumbledore 
meant there was always going to take a profound twist. What I mean 
is that James was "at best", in the pensieve, imposing the will of 
his ideology onto Snape. He was painting Snape "All Slytherin" when 
since then we have all discovered "he's a little teensie bit Gryff 
and quite a bit Ravenclaw", Too Actually. 

Snape had other good qualities, and in time he managed to place a 
higher value on them than he once had. Snape's wit and his courage 
are what gets him through these days, though he still regards pure 
ambition highmost, Dumbledore has managed to see him through 
choosing some of his other less favoured qualities in defining 
himself. 

Like with James and Snape, possibly Dumbledore has seen that Harry 
is *missing* something with Draco, although he's quite right that 
Draco is not such a top bloke, neither Harry nor Draco can see past 
the big waving Green and Silver Banner to what else Draco is.

Hagrid, too, was 100% right, but 100% wrong about what that means. 

Slytherin House fosters comfortless shallow existence and wizard 
children who stay their are nurtured in that mould, but that doesn't 
mean that the Slytherin children are necessarily all bad to begin 
with. 

If choices define what we truly are then good wizards should come 
out of Slytherin house, but it would be extremely rare because they 
would be against the odds of the choice to be there in the first 
place.

If Slytherin nurtures and produces wizards with alignment to a Dark 
ontology then choosing it hence is choosing the path to darkness. 
And there is the problem with the House division. 

OTOH if that Slytherin then afterward chooses to back out of their 
first choice then they need to recognise the qualities in themselves 
that counterbalance the darkness of Slytherin House. Those qualities 
are defined by the other houses. Loyalty, Intelligence and Bravery. 

Intelligence is rather neutral so a Slytherin Ravenclaw type 
probably would have much hope unless they could drag some latent 
*other* quality out of the depths and work with it, which would be 
very difficult and painful. Hence we have Severus Snape, who finds 
the courage inside him though it's painful to value that when he 
*really* prefers intellect and ambition. Nonetheless he becomes a 
*good* Slytherin, through his once latent alignment with courage and 
loyalty (just in little bits).

Now, it's starting to become fairly obvious, to me anyway, that 
Draco chose Slytherin for wrong reasons and might find he would 
rather back out eventually. The first reason he gives in Madam 
Malkins, is that he *expects* to be put there. What he is really 
saying, though, is that his Father expects him to be put their and 
through some large amount of loyalty to, and admiration of, his 
father, rather than Slytherin itself, he agrees.

Further through the series we see Draco floating between a love of 
power and a dedication to impressing and pleasing his father. So in 
total we see Draco as more of a Slytherin-Hufflepuff type. 
*Pure* evil, probably not, but Slytherin Bad definitely yes.

The difference between Harry and Draco v James and Snape, is Lily.
Harry, like Lily, will eventually wonder why he sees Draco the same 
way James saw Snape, and because he exists just won't fix it for 
him. Harry will decide that it's not *funny* that Draco is a 
hopeless lost cause steeped in black ideology. He'll probably see 
the damage that it's done (Hagrid, Slytherin Heir, I.S. etc) for 
what it is, a gross exaggeration of the significance of two 
*childrens* first impressions. 

The prank, I think, could be a similar foreshadowing of things to 
come between Harry and Draco. If only we knew what really 
happened ....

Valky