The Cabinet Plan...again (was:Re: The UV (was ESE, DDM, OFH, or Grey?)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 162786

> Carol responds:
> Thanks for realizing that I didn't say that Draco was lying, but, 
no,
> the same arguments don't apply. I said that I think he's making
> excuses, trying to get Dumbledore to see that he's innocent of
> bringing Greyback onto the tower even though he's guilty of 
everything
> else. IMO, he's beginning to see the implication of bringing in the
> DEs, but at least he didn't invite the disgusting Greyback. (He 
only
> used him to threaten Borgin.) But it's not a first sign of honesty,
> which is what I meant by my misleading sentence, "I don't think it 
has
> anything to do with honesty." (Mea culpa.) IMO, Draco has been 
telling
> the truth as he sees it (including Snape's attempt to "steal his
> glory") the whole time. But here's a chance for Dumbledore to see 
that
> at least he's not guilty of this one transgression. This much, at
> least, is not his fault.

Magpie:
I'm a little more confused now, because we don't really seem to be 
disagreeing so much. It's like we're both arguing the same thing, 
yet aren't agreeing.

The reason it feels like disagreement for me is that it seems like 
when you describe it you're skipping over the aspect of this line 
that *is* about honesty, even if it's not about honesty as a general 
principle. Draco has spent all of canon trying to play the role of 
DE-to-be. Squeamishness over doing something Dumbledore thinks is 
bad or that is bad is, imo, to him a weakness. 

Throughout the Tower scene he's trying to deny exactly that. He's 
bragging about being a killer but his physical state keeps 
contradicting what he's saying. His more grandiose claims sound 
childish even to him. He keeps saying he's going to kill Dumbledore, 
but he's not making a single move to kill him. Not only is he not 
looking for ways that this isn't his fault, he's trying to claim own 
responsibility for things he's not even comfortable with (as he's 
done before in canon, imo). He's not, as I think Peter Pettigrew 
would do (and I think Peter's story makes for an excellent contrast 
to this story), claiming to be not a normal guy who just had to do 
these things because he had no choice and didn't mean for some of 
that stuff to happen. He's trying to put himself across as someone 
who doesn't care about the bad consequences that have come of his 
actions, who welcomes them as a badass DE would.

I think that's a big part of the significance of his line about 
Fenrir to DD, to me. He is saying it isn't his fault, yes. But I 
don't think he's just looking for technicalities or ways to 
disconnect his actions from their consequences. He hasn't been doing 
that throughout the scene.

I think Draco's turnaround in the scene is much clearer: he begins 
by desperately trying to hide everything in him that shrinks from 
bloodshed, cruelty and murder. He's talking one way, with lots of 
physical signs that it's conflict with what he feels. Dumbledore 
eventually leads him to where they're able to speak more plainly. 

So when the DEs come in and Draco does, as you say, need Dumbledore 
to know that this one thing wasn't his fault, I think it's more 
significant than just trying to get out of blame like any kid would 
want to get out of punishment from a teacher. It's openly leaning 
more towards Dumbledore than the DEs. It's a defense of himself, but 
one that is entirely new for Draco and involved first accepting the 
very things he was trying to hide before. It's not a changing of 
sides from DE to DD, but his last line in canon does lean more one 
way than the other.

Magpie: Wrote:

> why not just use this defense for Draco?
> He's got every reason to think Harry is
> going to kill him in the bathroom.

Eggplant:
All Harry did was enter a bathroom. Do you think everyone who enters 
a public restroom is out to kill you?

Magpie:
But the standards you allow characters you support (not my real life 
standards), Draco's got reason to think Harry's going to kill him.  

-m