Why did Snape take the UV? / Role of the Malfoys

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 157410


> Neri:
> Mother doesn't want him involved, but he *is* involved and they 
both 
> know it, so I don't see the point of hiding it from her.

Magpie:
But you're resistance to this doesn't make it a plot point.  He 
wants to do it by himself and he isn't going to ask her how he's 
supposed to do it.  

> Neri:
> Exactly. The threat to Narcissa is Voldemort killing her if the 
> mission fails. She isn't threatened by the mission itself since 
she's 
> not situated at Hogwarts and can only participate in planning. So 
> Draco excluding Narcissa from the plan doesn't protect her from 
any 
> threat. 
On the contrary, it increases the chances of failure and with 
> it the main threat to Narcissa. I don't see the logic in the 
argument 
> of protecting Narcissa by excluding her. And indeed, AFAIK we have 
no 
> canon that Draco's reason for excluding his mother is protecting 
> her. 

Magpie:
I didn't mean to suggest he was protecting her *by* excluding her.  
You claimed that the book shows Draco having something against 
Narcissa.  I said that no, the story centers more on Narcissa being 
valuable to Draco, not Draco being angry at her.  His exclusion of 
her is what he thinks he needs to do--he's blocking her plans.

Neri:
> He's not exactly lying to her about the Penthouse magazines under 
his 
> bed, you know. It's also her life on the line as well as his 
father's.

Magpie:
So if you were writing the story you would have had Draco asking his 
mother for help and it doesn't work for you that he's not doing 
that. That's something to take up with the author. Nobody in canon 
questions this at all (this is the first time I've heard anyone in 
fandom question it either), or seems to think the fact that Draco's 
not going to Narcissa for help means he must have some personal 
problem with her, such as resenting her because he thinks Snape's in 
love with her.  Harry and his friends have been in trouble in the 
past and not gone to their parents either.  It's a story about kids, 
a coming of age story.  Nobody wants to need their mother.


> Neri:
> So Draco insists on doing this alone even if it kills his all 
family 
> and Snape too? Sounds weirder and weirder. 

Magpie:
Yeah, he does.  That's canon.  And Narcissa isn't even ever shown to 
have anything much to offer here at all, making it even less weird 
that Draco isn't asking her for help.

Neri:
Lets look at this 
> situation in more general terms:
> 
> Person D who is a teenager has to take a job as a secret assassin. 
He 
> hides this from another person N in his family, and lies to her 
about 
> it – completely understandable.
> 
> However, N already knows about the assassination job. She knows D 
had 
> to take it or pay with his life. Moreover, if D fails in carrying 
out 
> the assassination, N dies too, so in fact N and D are in this 
> together. Furthermore, N is a grownup with some experience in 
> scheming. Excluding N becomes less and less understandable.
> 
> Now person N, being older and wiser than D, has a great idea: she 
> enlists the help of a third person S. S is a professional in this 
> business and an old acquaintance of both N and D. Moreover, N 
makes S 
> take a vow to guard D with his life. It's now pretty obvious that 
D, 
> N and S are all in this together. D failing the assassination job 
> would have dire consequences for all three of them. Yet D not only 
> excludes S (whom he used to like a lot during the past five years) 
> and N (who is his own family) but he also lies to them, although 
the 
> situation of the mission is desperate.
> 
> I'd say it's pretty obvious that D has something against both N 
and 
> S. Something that must have occurred lately. 

Magpie:
And it's pretty obvious that what occurred lately is Lucius was 
imprisoned in Azkaban.  Draco is a teenager with lots of conflicting 
feelings about what he's doing, which leads to him feeling that he's 
alone in this and must do this alone.  There is nothing canon at all 
suggesting that he's ignoring any resource in Narcissa.  Snape is 
the helper he's rejecting, and that rejection is linked directly to 
their relationship as DEs and teacher and student.  As is common in 
HP, it's Draco, the child, who surprises the adults.  In many ways 
the worst thing Draco could have done both in terms of his character 
and in terms of, I suspect, the outcome of the story, would be to go 
to his mother and Snape for help.  I think canon tries to give Draco 
understandable motivations for his actions so that they aren't a 
mystery and don't need us to come up with complications to explain. 
If it's so crazy of Draco to not be going to Narcissa and Snape for 
help given all the lives on the line, how does it become less crazy 
through Acid Pops?  If the only thing keeping him from letting the 
two of them take care of it is that he has an inkling Snape had a 
thing for Narcissa, why doesn't he eventually go to one of them?

-m