Draco in the Bathroom (was Re: Draco's punishment)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 147495

Quick_Silver wrote:
> <snip> The bathroom scene was not really about Harry or Snape (who
go though their usual motions) but Draco. It forced Draco to look
within himself and it brought death and violence home to him. 

Carol responds:
I would amend your statement to read that the bathroom scene was not
*just* about Harry or Snape but also about Draco. As you say, this
first-hand taste of violence and near-death must have given him a
clearer idea of what Dark magic and death are all about. Just
possibly, that experience, along with his fears for himself and his
family (and Dumbledore's words), contributes to his hesitation to kill
Dumbledore on the tower. 

And, as Geoff has pointed out in a fine, canon-supported response, the
incident reveals a great deal about Harry, too, notably his defense of
the HBP (I'm sure he would not have defended the Prince if he'd known
his identity) and his (unconscious) temptation toward the Dark side.
(Draco attempts a Crucio on Harry and fails; Harry later attempts a
Crucio on Snape and fails. Has Harry learned what he should have
learned from the Sectumsempra incident? I don't think he has.) 

IMO, this is by no means the "usual" Harry/Snape confrontation. It
seems to be the first in which Harry knows (rather than suspects) that
Snape is performing Legilimency on him (and that he's powerless to
block it, having failed to learn Occlumency). It's also one of the
first in which Harry feels actual guilt on being confronted by Snape
(he accepts his multiple detentions without protest and without
talking back to Snape)--and yet he still attempts to conceal
information from him, lying (as Snape, the Legilimens, knows full
well) about the HBP Potions book and switching covers before
presenting Ron's book as his own. More important, Harry has just seen
Snape performing a complex healing incantation on Draco, which (IMO)
ought to provide an insight into Dumbledore's absolute confidence in
Snape's capacity for healing Dark curses (he has already saved Katie
Bell's life--I can't recall whether Harry knows that Snape also saved
DD from the ring curse at this point), but  even though Harry notes
that Snape is almost singing to Draco, almost maternal in his
gentleness (IIRC), the significance of Snape as healer, Snape as a
teacher who genuinely cares about at least one of his students,
doesn't register. Neither boy notes that Snape and only Snape happens
to be near enough at hand to hear Draco's screams--clearly, he's
keeping a close eye on either Draco or Harry, or both. Nor can either
boy possibly realize that Snape, the inventor of Sectumsempra, is
probably the only person who knows the countercurse as he must have
invented it himself. Snape, too, is concealing information, not only
from Harry but from Draco--as he has done throughout the series (IMO).

The bathroom scene also enables us to glimpse again the relationship
between Draco and Snape, which we know from the partially overheard
conversation in "The Unbreakable Vow" is going through a shaky period
(adolescent rebellion against authority junior-DE style). In contrast
to the respect Draco has consistently shown Snape in previous books,
in that scene Draco resents Snape's interference, ignoring the danger
Snape has placed himself in by taking the Unbreakable Vow and accusing
his HOH and former favorite teacher of attempting to steal his
"glory." (Surely there's a parallel here with Harry and Dumbledore,
whose wisdom Harry is beginning to question?) But in the bathroom
scene, Snape saves Draco's life, re-establishing himself as an
authority worthy of Draco's respect and gratitude. (Whether Draco
acknowledges this debt, at least to himself, is unclear.) Draco does
obey Snape unquestionably on the tower and on the grounds after Snape
has "done the deed" for him, taking not Draco's "glory" but his sin
and crime upon himself. Will Draco understand the magnitude of what
Snape has done for him, both in the bathroom scene and on the tower?
Will he be properly grateful (especially if Snape also persuades LV
not to punish him, as I think he will do even if he is not still bound
by the vow)? Will *Harry* understand what Snape has done? He knows
about the Unbreakable Vow from the overheard conversation. Surely that
topic will come up in his conversations with Hermione or Lupin in Book
7. Otherwise why would JKR have Harry overhear that scene?

At any rate, the bathroom scene is crucial on a number of levels, for
the individual characters and for their relationships: not only
Draco/Harry but Snape/Harry and Draco/Snape. Actions have consequences
in the WW as in RL, often unintended and outside the control of the
participants. And both the Sectumsempra and Snape's countercurse will,
I predict, have consequences far beyond the Saturday detentions that
enabled Snape to simultaneously needle Harry and keep an eye on him in
HBP.

Carol, with apologies for not citing canon on work time