Draco, the UV, and the First Time - The Overblown Vow

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 141635

Apologies to the List and Elves if this appears a short version of 
another response by me to the thread. I posted a response several 
hours ago which appears to have vanished into the bowels of Yahoomort.
 
bboyminn:
> Overal, I see the whole Unbreakable Vow process riddled with
> loopholes, and these specific Vows are certainly vague and 
uncertain.
> I think fandom has made far too much of these Vows. Although, I
> understand that if you accept my premise, then that doesn't really
> leave us much to talk about. None the less, I see this whole
> Unbreakable Vow thing as way overblown.

zgirnius:
I agree about the loopholes. I felt the 'seem to fail' was going to 
be the operative loophole. DD has a private talk with Draco and gets 
him into 'witness protection', so Draco never tries again, so he 
never seems to fail. It even seemed to be working, until the Death 
Eaters showed up.

You could be right about the UV being overblown. But I think we are 
*supposed* to believe the Vow is important. The visually impressive 
and portentous Vow-making process (the kneeling, the hand-clasping, 
the fiery bands, Bella's astounded reaction) suggest to the reader 
that this is the Plot Device of Doom. Also, the Vow has pride of 
place in the book. It forms the climax of one of the very rare Harry-
free chapters (and unlike Chapter 1, the only other such chapter in 
the book, Chapter 2 stars important recurring characters of the 
series.) Now, this could be JKR's way of leading us by the nose...or
it could be her saying to us, 'Wake up and take notice, folks!'