Draco an underdog?

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 132063


> Betsy Hp:
> When Draco and Harry go head to head in their quidditch matches 
*no 
> one* has "picked a fight".  It's an athletic contest, in which 
Draco 
> is (for the most part) the underdog.

Untrue. IIRC, the Slytherin Quiddich team is known for dirty, 
underhanded, and overly vicious tactics. The Gryffindors are 
handicapped by their honor, with Harry's broom and skills making up 
the deficit. Neither boy is the underdog in Quiddich. Harry has his 
talent and broom and Draco has his cheating, rules breaking team. In 
any sports movie ever made, the Gryffindors would be the underdog.
 
> The times the boys engage in fisticuffs Draco has usually been 
> saying something he shouldn't, but rarely does he attempt to take 
> Harry on physically. 

Wasn't he about to shoot Harry in the back when Moody turns him into 
a ferret?


> Betsy Hp:
> Oh, I agree that Draco is no blushing innocent. He's quite the 
> little trash talker, and he generally reaps what he sows. 
(Sometimes 
> a bit more than he sows, IMO.)  The interesting thing to me, 
though, 
> is that JKR deliberately gives Harry such huge advantages in his 
> conflicts with Draco.  Why?  Why not have just Harry beat on Draco 
> in OotP, instead of Harry and George?  Or why not have just Harry 
> and Hermione and Ron take down Draco and Crabbe and Goyle in the 
end 
> of GoF?  

Because I think what Rowling is trying to show is Draco's 
pathetically poor judgement more than anything else.  I think its 
foreshadowing many other, much more serious decisons that Draco is 
going to make poorly.

 
> And then, at the end of OotP, when Draco is acting with a more 
noble 
> purpose than usual (avenging his father) why does she have *twice* 
> as many members of the DA turn Draco and Crabbe and Goyle into 
snail 
> sludge?  Why have Ernie *relish* seeing the look on Draco's mom's 
> face when she sees what they've done to her son? 

I would take issue with Draco acting with a noble purpose. His 
father is an evil terrorist, there is nothing noble in defending him 
or what passes for Malfoy honor. And the reason why so many DA 
members leapt to Harry's defense was to show just how high a regard 
and level of personal loyalty Harry commanded. Ernie relishes the 
look on Narcissa's face because everyone likes it when bad things 
happen to bad people.

Phoenixgod2000