God in the WW/Draco as underdog/Alchemist Theory in Two Acts

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 132172

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
Alla:
> Geoff:
>  Even so, the fact is that they both engage in 
> > activity on occasions which is questionable - or downright rotten
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Questionable - absolutely. Downright rotten - I am not so sure 
about.
> 
> 
> Geoff:
> <SNIP>
> Harry joins in the attack 
> > on Draco after the Quidditch match; he looks into Snape's 
Pensieve; 
> > he smashes up Dumbledore's office. 
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> The key difference between  them to me is intent . Draco's bad 
> actions all come from desire to hurt  the other people . You know, 
> calling Hermione names, spitting death threats in GoF, etc.
> 
> Those actions of Harry you cited were caused by :
> 
> responding to what Draco did, 
> curiosity,
> and the fact that Harry was in pain.
> 
> 
> Now, again, I am not arguing that Harry is a saint, of course not, 
> but I cannot concede that they both have equal amount of flaws.

Geoff:
Nowhere have I implied that they have equal amounts of flaws.

In my previous message, I wrote:
"I can remember doing things in my teens, sometimes in anger and 
sometimes by calculation, which I much prefer to forget about in 
hindsight and consign to the dustbin of personal history. Both Harry 
and, possibly more so, Draco have had moments like this. Harry joins 
in the attack on Draco after the Quidditch match; he looks into 
Snape's Pensieve; he smashes up Dumbledore's office. But these 
balance out against the positive things he does as a relatively 
normal growing teenager.

With Draco, the balance is perhaps the other way some of it perhaps 
coming from the frustration of not being able to best Harry at 
situations where he wants to be top dog."

Which I think implies that Draco is worse.

The fact that Harry responded to Draco in the Quidditch incident in 
no way excuses his behaviour with the twins. He was on the receiving 
end of group bullying when he was still at school in Little Whinging 
and should know better than the others to avoid this sort of 
lamentable behaviour. It is very out of character with his normal 
view of things; he has had run-ins with Malfoy before and never 
descended this far.

I take a far more critical view of /Snape's/ attitudes to Harry; he 
is a responsible adult who picks on a pupil and, in so doing, sets a 
dreadful example for guys like Draco who use him as a role model.

Draco is impressionable. He could go either way - to the good or to 
the evil side. I just hope that other, better, influences might come 
to bear on him rather than those of Snape and his father.