Does JKR want us to hate Draco?/ Snape v Draco

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 129793

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:

bboyminn:
> I can envision a scenario in which Draco must finally face what it
> truly means to serve Voldemort, and what being a Death Eater truly
> entails. I can see him, at that point, bulking and stepping away. In
> the metaphorical sense, that will be Draco's redemption, but not
> necessarily in the literal sense. Just because Draco is too big a
> coward to face the realities of being a Death Eater, doesn't mean he
> instantly becomes a saint, and stepping away from the Dark Side
> doesn't necessarily mean joining the good side. Not working /for/
> Voldemort doesn't automatically mean working /against/ him and by
> extension, working for the good side. 
> 
> So, there is plenty of middle ground for Draco. He can be redeemed
> without becoming either good or nice. Again, the question of Draco's
> redemption is not whether he joins the good side, or whether he
> becomes a saint, it's whether, in that last critical dark and
> dangerous moment, he turns away from the Dark Side.
> 
> Snape, it seems, has both turned away from the dark side and joined
> the good side, but Draco doesn't necessarily have to follow that 
same
> path.

Geoff:
Thanks, Steve, for a very thought-provoking post.

In some ways, this underlines my comment about double standards.

Snape has turned away from the gates of hell and walked back. But, to 
echo your post, it doesn't mean he instantly became a saint. Far from 
it! This is a parallel of the real world where Christians 
figuratively walk to the gates of hell before they turn back along 
the road to salvation; and yet we are not saints in the secular sense 
of the word. We all have baggage to shed and spend a lifetime 
learning how to live the life we should be living.

So, Draco may find himself at the gates and may turn back. Thus may 
we see another Snape in the making for I see the latter as a possible 
Draco but several years further down the road. 

In such a scenario, we could post pictures of Draco and Snape 
labelled "Before" and "After".
:-)