The Train Scene GoF / Draco's Crying (long)

[mandrina_q]

No: HPFGUIDX 162589

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
>
> > I think part of the reason Draco doesn't refer back to it is that 
I
doubt he's all that surprised. We the readers (or some of us, anyway
<g>) might expect more noble actions from our heroes, but Draco sees
the Trio as loathsome and brutish. So there's nothing in their
actions to surprise him.

>>>>>

I am so glad that this got brought up. I have always had an empathy 
with Draco that none of the people I know or have spoken to have 
echoed at all.  The fact is, Draco has a unique POV that we, as 
readers, can choose to analyze or not.  Most people choose the 'not' 
option so as to be that much more enamored with HRH and able to 
excuse any actions that the golden trio take which might otherwise be 
deemed less than noble.

Absoultely the attack on Draco wold not be any surprise to him.  It 
would be nothing more and nothing less than the next step in a 
rivalry that, in his eyes, Potter STARTED.  Draco spent most of their 
first encounters trying to befriend Harry (motivations unknown, but 
mostly I think Draco wanted to be one of the "cool kids" and Harry 
would be a cool friend to have- celebrity and all that) and Harry is 
outright vile to him.  Draco is completely frustrated with the three 
of them, because their friendship and ability to do too much and get 
away with anything challenges his world view.  How can a Muggle-born 
be more adept than he is?  How can someone raised by Muggles be a 
better flier than he is?  How can someone who is supposedly meant for 
greatness choose to be friends with someone as pathetic as a Weasley 
as opposed to the son of the noble house of Malfoy? Draco doesn't GET 
them and it pisses him off.

By the attack on the train, whatever Draco does to the trio is 'mean' 
or 'bullying' in the eyes of most readers, but whatever happens to 
Draco is 'what he deserved'.  And that's the perspective we get 
because Harry is the protagonist.  Try seeing any scene through 
Draco's eyes and you'll see a confused and insecure young man who was 
groomed to be a person that reality won't let him be.  Yeah, he talks 
a big game, but it's all defensive mechanism IMO.  

I was thrilled with Harry catching Draco sobbing in HBP because it 
forces Harry (and readers) to see Draco as a complete person with 
fears and feelings and the ability to be broken.  Harry then takes 
that to the next level by cursing emotionally broken Draco and making 
him physically broken Draco (although Harry didn't know what the 
curse would do, so we can easily forgive him, whereas had Draco used 
a curse he didn't know the effect of we'd not have dismissed it so 
easily, I think).

I hope that this becomes very important in Bk 7 because it's critical 
that we not forget the humanity of our enemies.  Voldemort has 
motivations, too.  No one sets out and says "let's do some evil 
today", it always starts with a motivation that the 'evil-doer' finds 
to be pure, noble, or at least proper.  I think we see that as HRH 
harm Draco & co., but with the purest of intentions.  I sincerely 
hope that HRH begin to understand that the other side is just as 
human as they are. I think that their deplorable conduct on the train 
is evidence of the fact that they're not there yet, but perhaps later 
on we will see evidence of that kind of emotional maturity.

By HBP, I think Draco has grown up a lot more than the others have.  
Just after "Sectumsempra," we see evidence that Harry is maturing to 
a place where he has the ability to feel bad for hurting Draco and 
does so immediately.  This will make the entire struggle more human 
and more true.

Golly, I ramble... but I hope I'm the only one who adheres to 
the "Draco's not pure evil and it's not all his fault that he got 
picked by the other team" philosophy.

-MQ