Draco as Victim in GoF (was: Re: The Huge overreactions...)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 150265

> Tonks:
> I tend to agree with Betsy. But there is another point as well.
> If a person responds to verbal abuse with physical abuse they have 
> lowered themselves at least as low if not lower than the verbal 
> abuser. If I were in Harry's position I would probably say 
something 
> nasty back since I am not a physically violent person. I can be 
very 
> nasty verbally, but that would be just as wrong. And I would have 
> allowed the other person to dictate my response and my emotional 
> reaction. In that case, I would not be in control of me, they 
would 
> have been. I think a wizard needs to be in control of himself and 
> not allow others to control his emotions and from that his 
> behaviors.  There are people like Draco that want to push your 
> buttons, and a wizard especially has to learn self control 
otherwise 
> there could be even more serious consequences. Remember the snake 
in 
> the zoo when Harry was younger.
> 
> I think we need to ask ourselves in a situation like that, what 
> would DD do?  I don't think he would have been violent and not 
nasty 
> either. I do wonder what he would have done. It is hard to not let 
> someone push your buttons, and I am as guilty of it as the next 
> person. But I think that there is a better way and I do wonder 
what 
> DD would have modeled for us. What would he have done???


Alla:

What puzzles me in Betsy's response is not the reaction to 
Gryffindors reaction, although as I said I don't blame them one 
single bit. They are teenagers, who as far as I am concerned reacted 
to violent, horrible, horrible provocation and I also think that 
Draco and his goons were one moment from issuing the fight, had 
Gryffindors not reacted faster, but that is of course the 
speculation.

Draco's provocation is NOT an interpretation, it is a fact, Draco's 
death threat to Hermione is NOT an interpretation, it is in my 
opinion an absolute fact and Draco is considered a victim? I truly 
find it impossible to understand.

Whether Gryffindors reacted with appropriate force to me is not 
exactly the point, because it is not possible IMO when faced with 
provocation to calculate your reaction appropriately. We should 
strive to do it, yes, but Dumbledore is 150 years old and those guys 
are sixteen. I think that in his youth DD may had experienced 
similar reactions, moreover as I said had I been faced with 
provocation like this, I would have surely experienced the 
temptation to punch the person who said it and I am in my early 
thirties and a lawyer. :-)

Now, I would probably not have done it, precisely because I am in my 
early thirties and a lawyer and last time when I punched somebody I 
was seven, I think :)

But I find such reaction to be very very understandable.

IMO of course.

Alla