[HPforGrownups] Punishing Draco (was:Re: Snape, Hagrid and Animals)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 143782

Betsy Hp:
See, this is the thing I *really* don't get.  Draco is the series' 
punching bag in, I believe, each and every book.  And the amount of 
pain he dishes out himself is practically negligable.  So much so 
quite a few people were ready to write him off as totally 
unimportant to the series until HBP.  He *annoys* Harry and friends, 
but I don't recall him ever actually hurting them.



Sherry now:

i think the problem is the overall attitude of Draco.  Even if he hasn't
physically hurt people, he's been nasty and insulting.  Making truly rotten
comments about the Weasley family's poverty, Mrs. Weasley's weight and all
the rest.  In any world, insulting someone's well loved mother is a bad
thing.  Even Harry doesn't stoop to that till Draco insulted Molly again in
GOF.  and even then, it's actually Draco he insults with his comment about
Narcissa with her nose in the air, if I remember correctly.  And that bugged
me at the time as well.  I didn't like Harry stooping to Draco's level, yet
I loved him defending the Weasleys at the same time.  Draco teases Neville
unkindly, in ways that are far too familiar to people who have been teased
for things beyond their control as children.  I certainly got teased plenty
for being blind and having arthritis.  He makes cracks about Harry having no
family to return to for the holidays.  not a very nice kid.  So, few readers
have much sympathy for the kid who is mean to everyone else.  It doesn't
always have to take physical bullying to get that reaction.  

Sherry