The GoF Train Scene (was:Re: Humanity, Kant, Caricatures, and Draco)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 146633

> >>SSSusan:
> Oh, I remember my first reaction to reading this scene.  I was 
> *totally* dumbstruck and *totally* pissed at Draco's               
> insensitivity. I believe I may have even said aloud, "What a       
> prick!"  
> It wasn't even the threats to Ron & Hermione so much, which I      
> suppose one could argue were "same old, same old" for Draco; it    
> was mostly his CRASSNESS and CRUELTY in saying "Well - second -    
> Diggory was the f [irst]."  Oooooh!! In my opinion, in that        
> moment, that action of Draco's meant that he deserved to be come   
> down upon.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I'm going a bit back in time to bring this forward.  I ignored 
SSSusan's post when it first came out because it branched off from 
the point I was trying to make at the time, but this is interesting 
to me because I recall my reaction being quite different.  Rather 
than anger, I felt pity for Draco in that scene.

I think Draco was (is) going through something that I can only 
compare to students at West Point at the beginning of the US Civil 
War.  People he admired are suddenly enemies.  And people he 
disliked are suddenly allies.

Draco *liked* Cedric.  I don't want to overstate it; they weren't 
best friends or anything.  But Cedric went up against and actually 
managed to (at times) beat Harry Potter.  Draco, I'm sure, cheered 
for Cedric during the triwizard tournament.  He even made buttons 
for Cedric.  Yes, part of that (the greater part, I'm sure) was to 
get at Harry.  But Draco deliberately sided with Cedric, and now 
suddenly Cedric is dead and he's the enemy.

Draco liked Krum.  I imagine his hero worship was on par with 
Ron's.  Ron certainly intimates as much when he accuses Draco of 
sucking up to Krum.  When Draco wasn't cheering for Cedric, I'm sure 
he was cheering for Krum.  And it may have had nothing to do with 
Harry.  But then Krum was attacked and used by a Death Eater.  So 
now, Krum is the enemy.

Draco *hated* Fake!Moody.  And at first that was fine with Draco's 
world view.  Aurors are barbaric and evil.  Except Fake!Moody turns 
out to be a Death Eater, so suddenly the man who tortured Draco, the 
man who attacked and used Krum, the man who helped kill Cedric, is 
an ally.

What must Draco have been going through?  He's not had a chance to 
speak to his father.  He's only just found out that those he admires 
are the enemy, those he hates and fears are his friends.  The only 
thing he can do is put a good face on it and fall back on his usual 
bluster.  And Harry and friends come through like aces and reassure 
Draco that yes, the enemy are dishonorable and brutal.

Except Cedric and Krum were never dishonorable and brutal and Fake!
Moody was, especially towards Draco.  I wonder what sort of 
reassurances Lucius (fresh from his own punishment for the diary 
thing) gave his son?  And I wonder how Draco took to Umbridge?  
Sure, she gave Harry a hard time, but her DADA classes were a joke.  
Draco didn't seem to have much respect for her, and I'm sure he 
found her classes as much a waste of time as the rest of Hogwarts.  
I doubt she was someone he felt he could look up to.

The end of GoF is the first time Draco is faced with what his 
parents' politics *really* means.  It must have been a huge shock.  
One I think he did his best to ignore, until HBP made it impossible 
to do so anymore.  In some ways, I think Draco's journey is more 
interesting than Harry's.  Because Draco is having to learn that his 
*parents* may have been horribly, horribly, wrong.  And that is 
never easy.  So I sympathize with the poor kid.

Betsy Hp