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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 157443


> > 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.
> 
> Neri:
> Oh, I wouldn't want to write this any different. I think it's very
> good writing and can be an awesome clue. When JKR shows us a 
character
> behaving in an unreasonable and atypical way, we're supposed to 
ask why. 

Magpie:
An awesome clue that the story that seems like it fits in with the 
author's themes and a coming of age story is actually...what?  
You're taking away the stronger story to replace it with a story 
that so far seems to have only one advantage: that it's a 
complication that nobody had seen before.  Snape/Lily at least 
relates to the Harry/Snape relationship in dramatic ways.  

> Neri:
> In Diagon Ally both Harry and Ron note that Draco looks like he 
gave
> his mother the slip, and a short time later it turns out they were
> correct, when Draco warns Borgin not to tell his mother. However,
> Harry and Ron didn't see Narcissa together with Snape in Spinner's
> End. We did.

Magpie:
They do not question it in the way you're implying.  They take the 
fact that he's given his mother the slip as a sign that he's up to 
something, which he is.  


> Neri:
> Well then, this just goes to show you who are the fandom, which
> characters they prefer not to investigate and what questions they
> prefer not to ask <g>. 

Magpie:
Actually, I think it goes to show that given a long time between 
books fandom grows bored with the canon and starts making up new 
stories.

Neri:
The change in Draco's attitude towards Snape
> and towards his mother in HBP is more drastic than the change in
> Ginny's character in OotP, which was jarring to many fans, and has
> considerably more potential as a clue for Book 7. 

Magpie:
The change in Draco's attitude is also given canonical reasons--his 
father's imprisonment, the important task, the pressure from 
Voldemort, the almost-murderers.  

> Neri:
> Well, you are certainly right about Harry – he has never gone to 
his
> parents in the past. As for Ron and Hermione, when I'll see them
> hiding from their parents (or even worse – lying to their parents)
> regarding information that put their parents too in great risk, 
I'll
> be very alarmed. 

Magpie:
Ginny didn't tell anyone about a rather dangerous secret in CoS when 
she almost killed a couple of people.

> Neri:
> On the contrary, Narcissa has by far the best offer to help Draco. 
She
> immediately goes and enlists an expert, somebody with power and
> authority at Hogwarts, who could have given Draco great help.

Magpie:
That's Snape who's the big help there, not Narcissa.  And Draco 
rejects him for reasons all connected in canon to the things I 
mentioned before, none of which include any hint of Draco's being 
angry at Snape or Narcissa for having a thing for his mother. 
Narcissa doesn't need to enlist Snape--he's already enlisted and 
Draco knows it.

Neri:
 And she
> even obtains an Unbreakable Vow from that expert to look after 
Draco.
> By refusing help from Snape Draco is refusing help from his mother.

Magpie:
Ultimately true, but an unnecessary stretch to make for your 
purposes.  It's not getting you any closer to proving that Draco's 
got any specific anxieties over Snape being in love with Narcissa. 
Snape was always a resource for Draco, with or without Narcissa 
going to him.  

Neri:
> Help that may easily save both himself, his mother *and* his 
father. 

Magpie:
So we still have to toss out one of the main themes of canon, which 
is young people growing up and Draco specifically feeling he has to 
do this himself.  When this subject comes up in canon Draco 
says "nobody can help me," not "Snape and Narcissa could help me, if 
only there wasn't sexual tension between them that makes me angry at 
them."  

Neri:> 
> So, does Draco change his attitude towards Snape so drastically 
and so
> irrationally just "because he's a teeeeeenager"? Is this the 
ultimate
> explanation that's supposed to make every paradox work? 

Magpie:
No, though I don't see why you're that dismissive of the idea that 
being a teeeeeeeenager is important in a coming of age story.  Draco 
is a very specific teenager who feels he has to prove himself by 
doing this.  It's not a paradox in canon, it's completely 
consistent.  The character starts out feeling that it's important 
for him to do this and prove himself, and winds up paranoid and 
isolated with two almost-murders on his conscience.  Neither of 
those attitudes lend themselves to him going to Narcissa or Snape to 
make things right.  The almost-murders themselves, imo, have far 
more power to make him turn away from these two than any vague 
problems connected to Snape/Narcissa I can imagine.

Neri:
I think JKR
> has shown in the past a bit more insight and less contempt for
> teenager psych. 

Magpie:
And since this part was snipped, how does more insight and less 
contempt for the teenager psych translates into the idea that Draco 
didn't go to Narcissa and Snape because he thinks Snape likes his 
mother?  Finding fault with the story as written doesn't support 
this other storyline.  Draco isn't any smarter or less logical by 
your definition in your story, he's not acting any less like an 
adolescent cliche.  In fact, it makes his smaller, not bigger, imo, 
all but shoving Draco aside in his own story for the real stars, 
Snape and Narcissa.

-m