Draco's culpability (Was: My doubts about Snape being Evil)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 139299

Jazmyn wrote:
> Something people seem to refuse to consider that in fact, it is 
Draco that is resposible for Dumbledore's death. 
> Draco decided to join the Death Eater. 
> Draco took the job of attempting to kill Dumbledore.> 
> Draco obviously let his mother know.. His mother got Snape involved
through an unbreakable curse.  The last part of which was promising to
complete Draco's assignment if Draco failed.  If he doesn't do so, he
DIES. 
> If Draco had been able to kill Dumbledore, Snape would not have had
to. <snip>
> Draco of course failed in Voldemort's task, then Snape had no 
> choice, Dumbledore begged him, not for his life, but for Snape to 
> save his own life and Draco's.  Dumbledore would NEVER beg for his
own life.
> 
> So... Its Draco's fault.  Yet everyone wants to blame Snape.


Carol responds:
Without getting into the complex question of Snape's "culpability" and
motives, which I've already explored in countless posts, I partially
agree with you about Draco (though if we're placing blame, much of it
goes back as usual to Voldemort).

I agree that Draco joined the Death Eaters of his own accord, probably
bent on avenging his father's arrest (which he regards as Harry's
fault) and taking Lucius's place as the DE in the family. He certainly
bragged to Voldemort about knowing a secret way into Hogwarts via the
broken vanishing cabinets. At that point, he was caught in his own
trap. Voldemort ordered him to fix the cabinet, bring Death Eaters
into Hogwarts, and kill Dumbledore. Perhaps Draco had the option of
killing Dumbledore in some other way, or perhaps those other attempts
were desperation measures. If he failed, the penalty was his own death
and his family's.

At the beginning of HBP, Draco is full of his own importance,
threatening Borgin and bragging to his friends, apparently in no fear
for his own life and his mother's. By Christmas, however, he's
desperate enough to try the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead.
These contingency plans involve another crime, Imperioing Madam
Rosmerta. (Meanwhile Draco is avoiding Snape, who has put his
accomplices in detention, and blocks Snape's attempts to find out what
he's really up to--aside from recklessly trying to kill Dumbledore
using methods which, as Snape reminds him, are likely to get him
expelled. Clearly Snape knows nothing about the vanishing cabinet, and
because he doesn't know this, neither does Dumbledore.)

Draco and Draco alone fixes the vanishing cabinet and allows the Death
Eaters to enter Hogwarts, using the Hand of Glory (an aid to
criminals!) and Peruvian Darkness powder. He disarms Dumbledore and
leads the DEs up to the tower. They're delayed slightly by the Order
members, giving Dumbledore a chance to talk Draco out of killing him
personally. Nevertheless, once Dumbledore, ill and physically
helpless, has been disarmed and the DEs have entered the room, his
death is inevitable. Draco must be given his chance to "do the deed"
(Voldemort's orders), but if he fails, the brutal-faced death Eater or
Fenrir Grayback or the Carrows(?) will be happy to do it themselves.
Enter Snape, with the stage set so that he can't back out of his vow.
Draco has failed to kill Dumbledore, forcing Snape to make a terrible
choice. He casts the curse, grabs Draco, and runs. Regardless of
Snape's motives, you are again correct that he would not have killed
Dumbledore if Draco had not brought in the Death Eaters and forced
Snape's hand by activating the Unbreakable Vow. (Snape has mentioned
the first two provisions of the vow to Draco, who casually dismisses
them as Snape's problem.)

So where does Draco stand? He's a Death Eater by his own choice. He
has twice attempted murder (via the necklace and the mead) and nearly
killed two fellow students in the process (directly or indirectly,
it's Snape who saves them). He has performed an Imperius Curse on
Madam Rosmerta, itself enough to send him to Azkaban. He has allowed
Death Eaters, including Fenrir Grayback, into the school, making him
partially responsible for Bill Weasley's injuries. He has endangered
his schoolmates, who would have been at the DE's mercy had Snape not
ordered them off the grounds and Dumbledore not stationed the Order as
guards.

Draco did, admittedly, lower his wand. He did fail to cast an AK
(though he would have been quite happy to kill Dumbledore with a
cursed necklace or poisoned mead). But had it not been for his boast
about the linked vanishing cabinets and his successful completion of
the task assigned him (letting the DEs into Hogwarts), Dumbledore
would not be dead. Draco is "innocent" only in the technical sense
that he did not cast the spell that killed Dumbledore. He is not a
pure-souled child who intended Dumbledore no harm. He is at best an
accessory to murder, and it was his plan (and Voldemort's) that led to
Dumbledore's death.

Dumbledore must have known even as he spoke to Draco that his death
was at hand and that it would be Draco's doing regardless of who cas
the spell. Yet he could say to the terrified and guilty boy, "It is my
mercy, not yours, that matters now." Mercy is not justice. It is
neither earned nor deserved. Draco has just turned seventeen or is
about to turn seventeen (on June 5); he is a man by WW standards. His
crimes are enough to send him to Azkaban for life, and given the WW's
justice system (and Rufus Scrimgeour), that may well be his fate. Yet
Dumbledore offered him mercy, in effect, a second chance, a chance for
redemption.

It will be interesting to see what Draco will do once he realizes that
his "glory" is really infamy and that he is no more free than Snape to
wander about the WW. Will he take responsibility for what he's done or
will he blame it all on Snape? Will Snape continue to protect him or
will he be a wanted criminal at large in a hostile world at seventeen?

Carol