Real child abuse

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 145800

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

> Betsy Hp:
> I'm really uncomfortable with that sort of philosophy.  Rather than 
> using rules fairly applied to everybody, some rules are made for one 
> sort of person and other rules are made for another sort.  

Amiable Dorsai:
But isn't that why the scene is so satisfying?  The perception--ours,
Harry's, Ron's, and especially Draco's--that there *are* two sets of
rules: one for Malfoys and another for everyone else?  If he did not
feel himself above the rules that ordinary mortals must obey, would
Draco have attacked Harry so publicly?  And isn't Draco's comeuppance
all the more sweet for that?

The abuse Draco suffers as a ferret is not such a big deal
physically--he's probably shaken off worse than that on the Quidditch
pitch.  The worst thing that happens to Draco that scene, I think, is
the loss of his special status.  When Crouch Junior says: "Well, I
know your father of old, boy... . You tell him Moody's keeping a close
eye on his son... you tell him that from me...." that had to hurt more
than a few bounces off the flagstones. 

This scene is just another brick in the wall JKR's been building all
along—the Wizarding World is a place of special privilege and rampant
injustice—from the gross injustice meted out to Sirius and Stan
Shunpike, to the pass that real Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy get,
to the petty prejudice that holds back Arthur Weasley's career.

This may be one of the rabbits Jo is planning to pull out of her hat
for book 7—-a reform (or the beginning of reform) of wizarding society
in general.

Amiable Dorsai