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

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 139308

> >>Jazmyn:
> > Something people seem to refuse to consider that in fact, it is 
> > Draco that is resposible for Dumbledore's death. 
 
> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> I agree that Draco joined the Death Eaters of his own accord...
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I completely disagree.  For one thing, we don't know if Draco 
actually *is* a Death Eater.  But for another, we know that Draco 
was selected for a suicide mission he was expected to fail.  Draco 
was being used to punish his father's failures.  Draco did *not* 
volunteer for this.  Bellatrix makes that very clear, IMO.

"Draco should be proud," said Bellatrix indifferently.  "The Dark 
Lord is granting him a great honor.  And I will say this for Draco: 
He isn't shrinking away from his duty, he seems glad of a chance to 
prove himself, excited at the prospect --" (HBP Scholastic p.33)

The words used here ("granted" "duty" "chance") speak to an 
assignment, IMO.

Narcissa speaks of Voldemort choosing Draco, not Draco choosing 
Voldemort.  It is Voldemort's will that matters in this 
conversation.  Draco is spoken of (and I think accurately) as a mere 
pawn.  That he appears excited by this opportunity only speaks to 
Voldemort's power of persuasion, not Draco's free will. 

> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
Hmmm.  It looks like you're saying *Draco* came up with the idea of 
being Voldemort's tool.  That seems like a *really* big assumption, 
IMO.  Here's what we know for sure: After the events of OotP, Lucius 
is in the doghouse with Voldemort and the Aurors know that Lucius is 
a Death Eater.  And yet we're to suppose Voldemort was dropping by 
the Malfoy house for tea and conversation, willing to listen to a 
sixteen year old prattle on about Vanishing Cabinets?

We know that Draco's task is given at the beginning of the summer.  
And we also know that Draco doesn't approach Borgin about his 
Vanishing Cabinet until the end of the summer.  Two months is an 
awfully long time to wait to secure something that could very well 
be sold in the interim.

Instead, I'd suggest that Voldemort assigns Draco the task of 
killing Dumbledore and leaves Aunt Bellatrix in charge of Draco's 
training.  At some point Draco must have visited Montague in order 
to hear his Vanishing Cabinet story.  (It had to be after the end of 
OotP because Montague needed to be whisked off to St. Mungo's at the 
end of the school year and he didn't sound up for conversation 
before then.)  Draco has a brain wave.  He shares his thoughts with 
his aunt but not his mother.  (It's interesting to me that Draco is 
cut off from those who really care for him: his mother and Snape.  
Isn't this a common M.O. for training up RL suicide bombers?)

> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> 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. 

Betsy Hp:
I think Draco buys the party line at first.  After all, he follows 
what I believe were his aunt's orders and cuts himself off from his 
mother and Snape.  But what's interesting to me is Draco's twitchy-
ness when we first meet him in HBP.  He's all nerves and excess 
energy.  As excited as he no doubt is to finally be in the game, I 
suspect a part of him is worried that the game might not be all it's 
cracked up to be.

> >>Carol:
> By Christmas, however, he's desperate enough to try the cursed    
> necklace and the poisoned mead.

Betsy Hp:
I'm betting there was a deadline.  I think he was expected to have 
acted by Christmas.  That's why he starts to skip class assignments 
and quidditch games and sneaks out after curfew.  The necklace was 
truely desperate.  He *had* to know it would never make it past 
Filch.  The whole thing smacks of a Hail Mary pass. I can understand 
why Dumbledore sees this as an example of Draco's lack of heart for 
the task. (The poisoned mead seems a bit more likely to work, but 
since Dumbledore lumps them together I guess he felt that the poison 
had little chance of working on him.) 

> >>Carol:
> These contingency plans involve another crime, Imperioing Madam
> Rosmerta. 

Betsy Hp:
This is more of an aside, but was Draco *really* the one to Imperio 
Madam Rosmerta?  Because if he was he's incredibly good at it.  He 
has her under his control for almost the entire school year and yet 
*no one* including Dumbledore (who is noted for his perception) had 
any idea that Rosmerta was acting differently at all.

> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> [Draco] disarms Dumbledore and leads the DEs up to the tower.

Betsy Hp:
I'd put this differently.  Draco is *sent* up to the tower, where he 
manages to disarm Dumbledore.

"I was supposed to be waiting up here when you got back..." (ibid 
p.590)

Draco's use of the word "supposed" sounds like he was told to go up 
to the Tower and wait, not that he told the others, this is how 
it'll be.  Also, he doesn't appear to be in charge at all when the 
other Death Eaters arrive on the Tower.

> >>Carol:
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
I'm pretty darn sure there was a time limit.  Otherwise Draco would 
have been free to dance around his assigned task a bit more and I 
doubt he'd have been crying in the boys room, terrified that he and 
his family were going to die.  

If, by the end of the school year, Draco had failed to kill 
Dumbledore, Draco would have failed in his task.  The Death Eaters 
being in the school had nothing to do with it.  His task was to kill 
Dumbledore.  "if it seems Draco will fail" (ibid p.36) is the 
wording of the final part of the Vow.  A mere running down of the 
clock would have activated the Vow for Snape, and I'm quite sure 
Snape and Dumbledore knew this.

> >>Carol:
> <snip> 
> So where does Draco stand? He's a Death Eater by his own choice.

Betsy Hp:
It was *never* Draco's choice, if he's even a Death Eater at all.  
There were also several comments made about Draco's age.  He's too 
young (at sixteen) to make the decision to become a Death Eater.

> >>Carol:
> 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).

Betsy Hp:
One wonders at Dumbledore culpability, especially with Ron, since 
Dumbledore knew what Draco was up to.  I also wonder where that 
leaves the Weasley twins, who nearly killed Montague.  Or Harry, for 
that matter, who nearly lead Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Neville and Luna 
to their deaths.

Though I don't want to be too flippant here.  Because I do agree 
that Draco is at fault for endangering the lives of two of his 
fellow students.  Something Draco is well aware of, to his credit.  
(Which is *much* better than what could be said for the Weasley 
twins.)

> >>Carol:
> He has performed an Imperius Curse on Madam Rosmerta, itself      
> enough to send him to Azkaban.

Betsy Hp:
Again, I really question whether Draco is responsible for this.  The 
work done to Rosmerta was quite masterful and as good a wizard Draco 
is, he's still a school boy with only a couple months dark arts 
training under his belt.

> >>Carol:
> He has allowed Death Eaters, including Fenrir Grayback, into the  
> school, making him partially responsible for Bill Weasley's       
> injuries.

Betsy Hp:
Yes, and again Draco recognizes, I believe, his fault in this.  I 
think it's a credit to him that he is so horrified by Fenrir being 
sent and is so sickened by the thought that someone is dead because 
of it.

> >>Carol:
> <snip>
> Draco is "innocent" only in the technical sense that he did not   
> cast the spell that killed Dumbledore.

Betsy Hp:
And yet "innocent" is exactly how Dumbledore described him.  Draco 
*did* do wrong.  He was seduced by Voldemort and Bellatrix into 
doing something that went against his nature.  However, he chose to 
not complete the task and therefore received Dumbledore's blessing. 
So I think Snape has an innocent on his hands for whom he sacrificed 
much to *keep* innocent.

I really see a strong tie into the story of Peter and Jesus in the 
book of John here.  The three time repetition of "you're not a 
killer" was quite deliberate, I think. 

Betsy Hp