Draco and Daddy (was: Why did Draco do it?)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 125426


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:

> SSSusan:
> To me they sound like episodes of *bragging.*  As in, "MY father 
> [who is better than your father, of course] said X or Y, and it's 
> IMPORTANT, which is why I'm pronouncing it as if he were a king."
> 
> I don't think the family is close in the sense of 3 people who just 
> love spending all their free time together or who sit and have 
heart-
> to-heart talks all the time.  I think Lucius is likely stern with 
> Draco on occasion.  So I'm with you that far.  But I don't get the 
> sense that Draco is ignored.  
> 
> Again, when he said he needed to go bully his dad, I believe he 
knew 
> he could say this because he *had* done so successfully before.  
> Kind of like how Dudley could have bragged to his friends that he 
> bullied his parents into giving him two additional birthday 
> presents.  Now, I do not picture Lucius going to the extreme that 
> Petunia & Vernon did in that situation, but I do think Draco is 
used 
> to often getting his way.

Geoff:
I am reminded of some students I sometimes met when I was teaching. 
They would come from a family where there was not a lot of deep 
family feeling between members and sometimes the parents gave little 
real, quality time to their children.

As a compensation, they would indulge the child with lavish presents. 
Whatever the child craved was obtained. We usually recognised them 
because they interacted badly with other pupils and with staff; if 
their attitude or behaviour was questioned or they were expected to 
do something which didn't interest them, all hell would break loose. 
They were spoiled and often unpleasant. And if you did cross them and 
the parents became involved.... wow....

This is how Draco comes across in the first meetings with Harry. He 
boasts about his possessions, he is discourteous and sneering to 
people he feels are inferiors and expects everyone to realise that 
they are meeting with a fine, superior memebr of wizarding society. 
It is not surprising that Harry cannot find any common ground with 
him.

And yet, I can still feel sympathy for him. He has missed out on so 
much on other levels.