Not a Dark Mark ?

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 139303

Well, I had already posted thrice (maybe the word will come back into
common usage because of the HP Prophecy, heh) yesterday when Valky
replied, and since I had enough to iron my hands for already, I
decided to wait for a new day and maybe also some other responses. But
since it's Thursday afternoon, and no one else has jumped in (at
least according to the thread and what I can glean from 40 or so new
message subject lines), I shall continue.

Sandy:
<<And then it hit me, why IMO this is nonsensical. The cases we know
of where children have been bitten by Fenrir, Lupin and a five
year-old child who died, their families angered Fenrir. There was no
"family friend" connection. Having a child bitten is punative.>>

Valky:
<Oh, I hate to wet blanket you Sandy here, but that five year old boy
was bitten because his parents refused to follow DE orders. The
Montgomery Sisters little brother, died because Voldemort sicked
Fenrir on him to punish his parents. Sound familiar?>

I knew I should have looked up the canon; my hat's off to you, Valky.
:-) But really, for the sake of this debate I don't think (and didn't)
that the difference between haing "angered Fenrir" and having "refused
to follow DE orders" is relevant; having a child bitten is punitive
(which I misspelled as "punative," having mixed it up in my head with
"putative"--much like Hermione with "ehwaz" and "eihwaz" on her
Ancient Runes exam and for which I did iron my hands); it is something
the family has happen to them as a *punishment*, regardless of who
puts in the work order for "one werewolf bite, child." It is not
something that happens to families who happen to have a werewolf
family friend. I thought Borgin would know this; it seemed incongruous
to me that Draco would flash a werewolf bite at him and say, "Look,
I/my family know a werewolf and I can send him after you." (I might
have expected Malfoy to grin toothily and drool over Borgin's arm
himself; if Draco is a werewolf with evidence to prove it, why (as I
believe someone else already asked) does he need to threaten to send a
bigger and badder one to check up on Borgin?)

Sandy:
<<The next reason this doesn't work for me is that I think it has yet
 to happen. More specifically, I don't think we'd be seeing the same
old swaggering Draco on the train to Hogwarts if he'd been bitten
already.>>

Valky:
<Well we kind of don't actually. During GOF and OOtP Draco as rather
more nonchalant about affection from his Slytherin admirers. I found
it odd that he laid on Pansy's lap throughout the whole train ride,
having his hair stroked, almost like he needed the comfort. It would
make sene if he did need the comfort. But it makes less sense if he is
proud of wearing the mark of an adult DE, above the ranks of the puny
schoolchildren around him.>

So, are you saying Draco was a werewolf as far back as GoF? I chalked
up some difference in his behavior as the years progress just to
getting older, like Harry. But Draco on the train with his head in
Pansy's lap feigning or forcing nonchalance, saying he might not be
back next year because he's moved/moving up (*down*?) in the world, is
the same insufferable little git who nearly got Buckbeak killed in
PoA, IMO. He is still capable of that same patrician cool and supreme
sense of entitlement in front of his peers; if he'd been inducted
into the ranks of lycanthropy, considering that his fear of werewolves
was well established in the very first book, I think the Draco
we'd see afterwards (whenever that was) would be almost completely
withdrawn. Or utterly manic; *something*: we'd see a profound,
utter, *abrupt* change in him (like Harry in OoP), and we don't.
What changes we do see can easily be chalked up to having a father
recently jailed, an insane aunt recently added to the family dynamic
(not just returned, as he can't really remember her from before)
in place of his father, a much better, gut level, sense of what the
return of Voldemort actually means (be afraid; be very afraid), and
some emerging maturity.

> Sandy:
> > I think he'd be hiding in St. Mungos, having a nervous breakdown
in the room next to Lockhart.>> 

> Valky:
<I don't think the nervous breakdown is missing, either. "No one can
help me," said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. and later--Harry
realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that
Malfoy was crying - actually crying - tears streaming down his pale
face into the grimy basin. Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a
great shudder, looked up into the cracked mirror and saw Harry...and
Tears streaming, whole body shaking, gasping gulping and shuddering,
talking to Myrtle!?>

But we see Malfoy become more and more gray and ragged, desperate, and
emotional *over the course of the book* as he takes up his tasks and
discovers just how hard it is going to be to succeed, with the
alternative being death. We don't see the dramatic, sudden shift I
think would *have* to occur, say, after his first lycanthropic full
moon.
 
<Theres definitely a nervous breakdown there, Myrtle even says it's
not the first time that he's cried.>

I don't see this as a nervous breakdown at all. If Malfoy had
one, the attempt would have come to a halt; a person who has a
"breakdown" stops functioning. (At least the ones I've seen
the edges of and read about were much more dramatic than Draco's
meltdown/s; he kept getting up, drying his face, and going on.)

And I thought of yet another reason this doesn't work for
me—there's no hint of it in "Spinner's End."
Narcissa is there solely in an effort to get help from Snape for her
son, and there is no hint that she has any concern with his state of
being aside from or beyond trying to get him through the demands
Voldemort is making of him. There would have been some mention of that
same potion Snape made for Lupin in PoA, wouldn't there, if Snape
had been supplying it? And wouldn't Narcissa have made *some* sort of
reference to something that had *already* happened to Draco?

Not to mention that the foreshadowing we got about Lupin in PoA seemed
to be to be utterly absent for Malfoy in HBP: the moon boggart,
Lupin's sick days out of class, Snape's setting of the
werewolf essay.

Okay, I think I'm done. Except...the other thing I had to iron my
hands for was just jumping in (total wet blanket, IMO) and busily
deconstructing this without thanking you for finding it and bringing
John Granger and his website to my/our attention. It was very
interesting. I really enjoyed it, even the Alchemy parts which I
don't understand at all, and I recommend that everyone go back
upthread and check it out anyway, regardless of what they think about
Werewolf!Draco. Thanks, Valky.

Sandy aka msbeadsley