Draco's Crying (was:Harry, Draco and bathroom)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 162504

> > Alla:
> > I must specify that I am talking **only** about self defense 
> > situation, so in situation of self-defense if Harry **still* 
> decides > > that bastard like Malfoy, who threatened to kill him 
more than > once, > > who did at least some bodily damage to him at 
least once, should > not > > be killed, well – great.
> > 
> > If Harry would be trained enough, methodical enough to spare 
> Malfoy's > > life , while in danger of being hurt himself – great 
again.
> > 
> > What I completely disagree with is that Harry in the situation 
of > > self defense has some sort of **obligation** to feel that 
way, > unless > > he chooses to do so.
> 
> Magpie:
<snip>
> That's what I think is important for Harry here--particularly 
since > he's supposed to be powered by love. 

<snip>

If > Harry is the kind of boy who fires off a curse at someone as he 
did > there, splitting them open and almost exsanguinating them and 
> doesn't feel something then I'd worry about him. 

Magpie:
Hope it's not too conceited to be replying to myself, but I felt 
like throughout this whole post there was something I was dancing 
around because it seems so central to the scene to me, yet I wasn't 
actually saying it, so I figured I should add it on.

There's many different ways we can talk about any scene in canon.  
We can step outside the scene and just give our own opinions on 
what's going on--which is fine.  But there's also figuring out what 
the author's setting up in the scene as important--we're doing that 
too, and I think a lot of times we're slipping back and forth.  
You've said you thought Harry's remorse is important in showing that 
he is the type to feel remorse and that he did something stupid 
using the spell, for instance.

For me what's also really important is Draco's crying--which has 
been mentioned in the thread but ironically, iirc, only as a defense 
of Harry (he was moved by Draco's crying and maybe would have helped 
him if Malfoy hadn't gone postal).  

To me the crying is more important than that.  I think it was an 
intentional and important decision of JKR's to put the crying 
together with Sectumsempra.  She was, as usual, pulling lots of 
threads together into one dramatic scene. On the mundane plot level, 
of course, she's just using this scene to get a number of things out 
of the way--she reveals that the boy Myrtle was meeting was Malfoy, 
reveals Malfoy's fear and the fact he's being threatened, and also 
reveals Sectumsempra and shows Snape that Harry's got his book etc. 
I think Carol is also correct in her other post where she says Harry 
is seeing the same important distinction Snape feels for him--he 
hates Draco, but he does not want him dead (more importantly, he 
doesn't want to kill him).

But I think there's another thing going on as well. I remember 
saying earlier that I didn't think we could take it as a given that 
Harry would have been so sympathetic to Malfoy just because he saw 
him crying--after all, he's upset over the very thing that Harry 
wants to get him for.  However Harry might have felt if Malfoy 
hadn't attacked him, he actually isn't sympathetic in the scene.  
His feelings are described as: "And 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 staring at him over 
his shoulder. Malfoy wheeled round, drawing his wand. Instinctively 
Harry pulled out his own." 

At the point Malfoy wheels around all Harry has felt is shock, a 
shock so huge that it "roots him to the spot" and keeps him from 
doing what he probably would have done had he found Malfoy just 
talking to Myrtle, which is hide and listen. Not stand there like a 
sitting duck in full view for a pretty long moment.

And the question is--why is he so shocked for so long?  He's not 
just surprised here (like Malfoy when he found Harry and Snape doing 
their Occlumency lessons), he's shocked and seems to be having 
trouble taking it in.  That shock is drawn out for two sentences, 
first Harry being physically rooted to where he's standing, then 
having to go over what he's seeing ("Malfoy was crying --actually 
crying --"). He's transfixed watching the physical crying--the tears 
falling into the basin, the gulping sobs. But what's so shocking 
here? I mean, so shocking that Harry has so much trouble processing 
it?

It's not shocking to a lot of readers, presumably. Myrtle's already 
told us some boy was crying in the bathroom and the law of character 
conservation made Malfoy the obvious candidate.  Harry himself has 
been watching Malfoy's physical deterioration all year and been 
pleased by it because he knows it means the Voldemort plot isn't 
going well. Usually Malfoy in any kind of distress makes Harry 
pleased.

So what's so different here that it's so shocking?  I think the idea 
is that Harry is shocked at suddenly seeing Malfoy, cliche as it 
sounds, as a real person.  In the past the only feelings Harry's 
ever saw in Malfoy were negative ones: he's menacing, he hates 
Harry, he's a coward. He's also seen fake ones: he sucks up to 
people, he boasts, he struts, he plays up injuries.  Did Harry 
really not see the vulnerability in him that many readers saw?  
Well, no, he probably didn't.  As early as the Sorting scene Harry 
has actually imbued Malfoy with a sense of well-being and confidence 
so big he sees any evidence against it as a welcome, temporary 
abberation. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that up until 
that moment Harry really never has seen Malfoy as a boy like himself 
who might actually feel the same things Harry feels at times and 
have similar motivations. (It's really interesting the way it's both 
like and unlike the Pensieve scene with Snape, perhaps because Snape 
and Malfoy represent different shadows to Harry.)

I realize this sounds really cliche--but JKR isn't afraid of cliches 
when she's set them up well, and she has here.  There's a reason 
this moment had already occurred in a hundred H/D fics before she 
wrote it. It's not about Harry suddenly feeling sorry for Malfoy--he 
doesn't in the scene. It's somehow exploding something that until 
that moment he'd taken for granted about Malfoy, something I doubt 
he'd ever really been aware of. Apparently Malfoy crying -- actually 
crying -- really is a shock for Harry who has more than once in the 
past wanted to cause him as much pain as possible.

There's something about that moment that makes Malfoy different, and 
then it's immediately choked off--just as Harry's fleeting confusion 
about Snape after the Pensieve is choked off by Snape attacking him. 
Malfoy attacks him (he knows it's a naked moment, certainly), Harry 
instinctively defends himself. And this is the fight that leads to 
Harry hurting Malfoy more than he ever has, more than he imagined or 
really intended.  I feel like you can't separate the two things 
completely. Even acknowledging that Harry was acting in self 
defense, this isn't just another scene where Harry strikes back at 
the Malfoy he knew before who was asking for it. Throughout the 
whole fight Harry is actually more strangely empathetic than Malfoy 
than he ever has been, I suspect.  

Perhaps that's another reason Harry doesn't think about Malfoy at 
all after that. It's not just guilt at his (fixed) actions, perhaps, 
but the discomfort of his new intimacy with Malfoy. I'm not even 
sure if Harry told his friends about the crying--you'd think they'd 
have said something about it. He may still be having trouble 
processing it. The fight can distract him from it, but I think it's 
also connected to why he feels badly. I don't mean anything so 
literal as just Harry feels bad because he not only hurt Malfoy but 
Malfoy was sad right before he did it. I think it's more subtle.

Subtle, btw, in a way I again think parallels Snape.  Harry also saw 
him in the exact kind of vulnerable moment he didn't associate with 
him, Snape also responded by attacking Harry, Harry defended himself 
again, focusing more on the unfair accusations.  It's also kind of 
funny that this is Snape and Malfoy, both of whom are connected to 
Occlumency by Rowling.  Occlumency, which she relates to cutting 
onesself off from feelings, which both Snape and Draco consider 
potential weaknesses even though they seem at heart more emotional 
than Harry (or in different ways). Harry has seen exactly what these 
two characters are always trying to hide, and up until the moments 
they hit him in the face, they were successful at hiding them from 
Harry.

-m