DDM!Harry and Snape/Grey!Snape

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 162891

> Magpie:
> If you take every single action someone does as a choice then Draco is 
> indeed making the choice not to kill from the minute he comes into the 
> scene. What I have been arguing all this time is not that Draco is not 
> responsible for his own not killing, but that no where in the scene
is there 
> a moment where we're not seeing signs that Draco is never going to kill 
> anyone. I'm saying that's not the central dilemma of the scene.
> 
> Bullying seems to be completely outside of Neville Longbottom's
character. 
> There are scenes where Neville does not bully. I would say that
bullying is 
> "off the table" for this character. But now that I see how you're
taking it 
> I'd say Neville is making the choice not to bully just as Draco is
making 
> the choice not to kill. I tend to not frame things that way, but I
will to 
> be more clear. If we go back to Dumbledore's line about our choices
showing 
> who we are, Neville not bullying and Draco not killing are both
showing who 
> they are, so they are both choices.

a_svirn:
I am not sure your example works for me, though. After all, we never
see Neville *making* this kind of a choice. We never see him choosing
between bullying, because it, say, a proper way of dealing with
Slytherins, and not bullying because it's not in his nature. We never
see him having anyone at his mercy – it's usually the other way round.
Now, if we are to adopt Dumbledore's view on innocence we can, of
course, say that Neville has simply been lucky that way. But, by the
same logic, we must accept that we do not really know anything about
Neville's nature (where bullying is concerned), because it has never
been tested. 


> Magpie:
> So imo this is a scene about showing Draco's nature as not that of what 
> Dumbledore is calling "a killer." It's not a scene about Draco wavering 
> between two appealing choices of killing or not killing. Killing is
simply 
> not appealing to him by this point. And that does have a moral
dimension. 
> He's not just physically unable to kill--obviously he is physically
capable 
> of it. But the prospect makes him shy away, and his voice crack, and
look 
> sick.
> 
a_svirn:
I understand what you are saying, and I even agree that your reading
of the scene is probably very close to what JKR is trying to convey.
It's just that this "not-a-killer-by-nature" idea seems very
inconsistent to me. OK, Neville is not capable of bullying, and
therefore he is not a bully by nature. Draco is not capable of
killing, and therefore he is not a killer by nature.  But he *is*
capable of murder, so what does it say of his nature? Where is a scene
with Draco's having an opportunity to organise a murder and turning it
down? He faced this kind of choice three times an every time chose to
commit a murder. Was he acting against his nature, as you suggest?
Perhaps. But it only shows that it is perfectly possible for him to
force his own nature whenever necessary. Which means that we can rate
nature as cheaply as Dumbledore rates innocence.