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

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 125474


> > >>Betsy wrote:
> > >The sweets from home could be from Narcissa (out of love, out 
of  appearances?), they could be from a house-elf.  We don't know.<
> > 
> > >>Hannah replied:
> > >I doubt the packages are from a house elf.  Dobby was the 
> > Malfoy's house-elf and at no point has he ever shown any 
interest 
> > in or affection for Draco. 
> 
> Valky replied:
> I had been thinking about this very thing not long ago. Does 
anyone  recall if Dobby and Draco *have* bumped into each other in 
Hogwarts?
> Because I was wondering if Dobby did have a parental role in 
Draco's  younger days, perhaps there is an affection between them 
that we  have yet to see.
> 
> Imagine Dobby talking to Harry in a corridor one day and Draco 
> chancing upon them. What would happen, would Draco be quietly 
> thrilled to see his former carer, and then appalled to discover 
that  he's befriended Harry Potter.

Hannah now: We've never seen Draco and Dobby meet or interact.  But 
I don't think Dobby has any love for Draco, and that's one of the 
arguments I use against a secretly-nice!Draco.  Dobby refers to his 
family as 'bad dark wizards.'  As far as we know, he's shown no 
interest in Draco at Hogwarts, nor has he ever asked after him to 
Harry.  Of course, that *is* only as far as we know from canon, but 
I just think if Dobby liked Draco, then he would have said as much 
at some point.  When Harry treats Dobby politely and kindly, the elf 
is shocked and has clearly never been treated so well before.  I 
would say that goes against the idea that Draco and Dobby got 
along.  Also, would Dobby long to be set free from the Malfoys if he 
knew it meant abandoning the child he had brought up and who needed 
him? And how would Dobby feel about Draco's very obvious dislike of 
Harry, Dobby's hero?

> Hannah originally:
> > I don't think that it's a case of poor-little-
> > Draco being looked after by the kindly elves.  Even if the elves 
> > make the packages themselves, it would be at the instruction of 
> > Narcissa, so she must have some interest in her son.<
> 
> Valky wrote:
> Actually I kind of do think that there could be a poor little 
Draco,  raised by Dobby, scenario, but there's nothing to base that 
on until  we can find out more about Narcissa. So it's really 
speculative  territory.

Hannah now:  But if Dobby had raised Draco, how could Draco have 
turned out as he has?  Maybe Dobby did the dirty jobs, I can 
certainly believe that, but I can't imagine the Malfoys wanting 
their only son and heir endoctrinated with the beleifs (and 
grammar!) of a house elf.  I think someone raised by a house elf 
would behave differently to Draco.  Of course, as you say, it is 
very speculative.  All Draco debate is, because we see so little, 
and such a one-sided view.

> Valky wrote:
> How about they left Draco at Hogwarts over Christmas because they 
> wer *to busy* buttering up the bureaucratic elite and getting 
Lucius  the support he needed to get Dumbledore out of Hogwarts?
> Too busy climbing the political and social ladder to spend 
christmas with their son, sounds about right to me.

Hannah:  Possibly.  But Draco went home the following year, when his 
father was presumably just as busy, given that he seems to have 
fingers in every wizarding pie by early GoF.  I'm not trying to say 
the Malfoys are parents of the year here, by any means.  But I just 
don't buy the theories that Draco is treated that badly.  I think he 
stayed at Hogwarts because he wanted to, in order to try and find 
out more about the 'heir of Slytherin.'  Probably if Draco had gone 
home, he'd have spent a significant amount of time on his own, while 
his parents went off to parties without him, but I don't think that 
they actually forced him to stay in school.  

Hannah