[HPforGrownups] Does JKR want us to hate Draco? (was: Re: Admonishing Snape)

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 129675

She certainly doesn't intend for us to like him.  

Draco's problem is that he's basically a wuss - up until the end of
OOTP.  He can't move without Crabbe and Goyle protecting him, he's
always careful to check for teachers before starting up with Harry,
there's no real sense that he appreciates what the DE/Voldemort
situation really is (I'm sure he has a hazy idea that Lucius and
Voldemort are "bestest mates" and that it's some kind of peer
relationship).  The biggest sun on his horizon is his father, whose
status and abilities he sees as second to no one on earth.

There is no internal fortitude to Draco.  He's never prepared for
Plan B because he never assumes Plan A will go wrong - even though it
almost always does.  (Nailing Harry, Hermione and Neville with
Norbert was just about the last time something went according to
plan.)  His first response to any adversity is to yell for Daddy and
he is completely incapable of keeping his mouth shut, always blurting
out heavy-handed hints of what his father is going to do, or what is
going to happen and giving Harry et al advance notice so they can
prepare.

The only important thing about Draco, plot-wise, is that I can see
him as the main reason Lucius might be having second thoughts about
this whole immortal-Voldemort thing.  Lucius seems to have a pretty
clear-eyed view of his son and heir, and the thought of Draco being
head of the family and dealing with Voldemort probably gives Lucius
nightmares.  In that way I can see Draco's existence giving Snape
some negotiating space if he's trying to talk Lucius into pulling
back from Voldemort at a critical moment.  

But Draco is just too small and petty a character for me to take him
seriously as a major character.

Magda

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