Draco and Harry (was:The GoF Train Scene - and beyond...)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 146923

> >>Alla:
> LOLOL. Harry adopted by Malfoys would have been a disaster indeed 
> for the very simple reason that Harry may have not lived to see   
> the next day after the day he was adopted.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hmm, I suspect Lucius would have seen what sort of Dark Lord Harry 
could have been molded into before he got around to killing.  At his 
most innocent Lucius would have probably used Harry's fame for his 
own ends.  Either way, the Malfoy influence would not have been a 
good thing.  (Heck, I don't think Lucius has been all that great for 
Draco -- and for all intents and purposes, he seems to love his son.)

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > And Ron is much better in the supporting role than Draco could   
> > have been.

> >>Alla:
> Can I change this sentence a bit? Ron is much better in the role  
> of the loyal friends that Draco would have ever been, IMO of      
> course. 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Personally, I'm leery of judging what sort of friend Draco makes, 
his loyalty, etc.  We've not seen him throw any of his friends over, 
nor have we seen him abuse any of his friends.  I realize the 
attraction to painting Draco with every "horrible person" 
description available, but nothing in canon suggests he wouldn't 
have made a loyal friend. (Actually, Draco has shown himself to have 
a pretty strong sense of loyalty.  He's just had the misfortune to 
be raised by people on the wrong side.)

> >>Alla:
> I still keep hoping that JKR will introduce a better candidate for 
> good Slytherin among the students.

Betsy Hp:
I was more going by the "Friends with Draco!?!  NEVER!!," dramatics 
Harry went through after the Sorting Hat's song in OotP.  It's a 
pretty huge cue to pass by, IMO.  (Also, rather than *a* good 
Slytherin, I'm betting we'll get an overall sense that there's good 
in Slytherin.  Otherwise JKR would be encouraging prejudice, I 
think.)

> >>Betsy Hp: 
> > And I do see Draco's and Harry's first meeting as the beginning 
> > of a beautiful friendship.  It's the old "hate each other on    
> > first sight" cliché, with all the misspeaking and                
> > misinterpretations such clichés involve.

> >>Alla:
> Sure, hate each other at first sight is an old cliché, except     
> their hate includes more than misspeaking and misinterpretations. 
> Draco IS indeed on the wrong side.
> <snip>
> It is not that Harry is mistaken from the first sight and then     
> sees from different occurrences that Draco is a decent guy, IMO.

Betsy Hp:
Draco makes the mistake of thinking Harry has been raised a wizard.  
Harry makes the mistake of thinking Draco is just like Dudley. (JKR 
makes it clear that Draco is nothing like Dudley, beating us over 
the head with the differences in CoS in case we missed all the clues 
in PS/SS.) Draco makes the mistake of thinking making fun of Hagrid 
would amuse Harry (too bad it wasn't Filch peering in the window).  
Harry makes the mistake of thinking Draco is trying to make him feel 
stupid.  Both boys seem to get the impression that the other boy 
thinks he's better than him.  And both boys are, I believe, wrong.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > It's interesting to me because Ron's and Harry's conversation is 
> > much like Draco's and Harry's. Family lines and wizarding purity 
> > is covered, the weirdness of muggles is discussed, and Ron       
> > doesn't sympathize with Harry being an orphan at all.

> >>Gerry:
> The difference is that Ron is interested and Draco is prejudiced.

Betsy Hp:
Ah, but it's Harry who wants to know all about Ron's blood-lines and 
it's Harry who talks about how horrible his Muggle family is.  If 
Harry had taken this line of conversation with Draco, Draco would 
have eaten it up with a spoon.  I mean, yes Draco is prejudiced (as 
he's been raised to be, never exposed to another way of thinking), 
but again, Harry's conversation with Ron is not all that different 
from Draco's conversation with Harry.

> >>Gerry:
> Draco asksing about Harry's parents being the right kind          
> immediately follows that they should not let the other kind go to 
> Hogwarts. The other kind being witches and wizards with Muggle    
> parents, e.g. Harry's mum!

Betsy Hp:
But Draco doesn't insult Lily on purpose.  That's where the 
misspeaking comes in, I think.  If Draco had realized that this was 
Harry Potter he was speaking to he probably would have asked Harry 
about the horrors of being raised by Muggles, and Harry would have 
been glad to fill him in.

> >>Gerry:
> Ron is just curious about Harry and his completely different
> upbringing. Why oh why am I not surprised Harry likes Ron much,    
> much better than Draco and why am I not surprised Draco reminds   
> him of Dudley?

Betsy Hp:
And Draco was merely curious about the boy in the shop.  It's just 
that Ron had a better idea of what questions to ask because he had 
some idea of who he was talking to.  Ron is a lovely person, and he 
makes a great friend.  But he had a leg up on Draco, as it were.  
And I also think his self-effacement (I'm nothing much, I'm so very 
poor, I'll probably do horribly at Hogwarts) was much less 
intimidating than Draco's confident "I am going to *shine* at that 
school" for Harry, who was so worried about his own chances of 
success at Hogwarts.

And while I'm not surprised Harry equated Draco with Dudley (being 
so socially isolated it's no surprise Harry saw confidence as a 
negative trait) Harry does get it wrong.  Draco and Dudley have very 
little in common.

> >>Alla:
> > LOLOL. Indeed. But Twins are potential DE, so they do not count 
> > as genuine friends and protectors, you know. :-)

> >>Geoff:
> Being more serious, I would be very suspicious of having the twins 
> as my friends and protectors.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
And they weren't all that great in PS/SS.  When Harry lost all those 
points due to the Norbert incident, Ron stuck by him.  But the twins 
were among those referring to Hary as "the Seeker" during Quidittch 
practice, leading Harry to consider quitting the team.

And I know this makes people laugh (out loud, even <g>) but I do 
think it strange that the twins shop can get away with tweaking 
Voldemort while other shop keepers get disappeared.

Betsy Hp