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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150285

Sherry wrote:
><snip> 
> As for Draco, I have hope for him since HBP.  I've said before, I
think he will be the character who is redeemed, if there is to be a
redemption plot in the last book.  He's the kid antagonist.  He's the
one who lowered his wand and felt badly about greyback being in his
school with his friends. so, what I said above doesn't mean I don't
see changes ahead for him and hope that really happens in the last
book.  But neither does that mean I think he is the innocent helpless
victim in all his previous nasty behavior.

Carol responds:
I'm not going to get into the discussion of whether verbal provocation
merits physical retaliation (though I do think that as long as the
provocation was verbal, the reaction ought to have been verbal as
well, like Lily's resorting to the nasty nickname "Snivellus" in
retaliation for Severus's calling her "Mudblood"), nor do I think that
Draco's insult to Cedric's memory is in any way defensible. But I do
want to point out that it *was* the Gryffindors who cast the hexes,
not the DA members, as Joe suggested upthread (wrong book; the DA
didn't exist yet): it was HRH aided and abetted by Fred and George,
the only ones who come out of nowhere and attack from behind. (Whether
their intervention was necessary or justified I'll leave to other
posters to discuss.)

To return to Draco, who at the end of HBP has what may be his only
chance to choose a path different from his father's, my hope is that
Snape will steer him in the right direction. He doesn't seem capable
of choosing for himself. (Lowering the wand ever so slightly to me
indicates wavering and indecisiveness, not an admission that he has
chosen the wrong side. DD is still in his mind a "Mudblood lover" and
"a stupid old man" and the enemy he ought to be killing if he were
doing his job. Draco just can't get up the nerve to kill him in cold
blood.) Nor do I see his statement that he didn't invite Greyback as
anything more than grasping at straws, the one crime of which he can
truthfully claim to be innocent (as opposed to two murder attempts,
manipulating Rosmerta into becoming an accessory to attempted murder,
and letting the DEs into Hogwarts). It's interesting, though, that he
would even want to defend himself to DD and that his defense consists,
in essence, of "I do too intend to murder you, but I didn't mean to
let *him* in!")

I don't much like Draco, and unlike young Snape, he was never on "our
side" and consequently can't "return" to it (to quote DD in GoF, "The
Pensieve"), but this is (ostensibly) a children's series, so it seems
likely to me that Draco will be redeemed as a message to young readers
that even bad kids can be turned away from the path to evil. The only
way I can see for that to happen, though, is for DDM!Snape to be the
agent of Draco's redemption. I don't think Draco's going to do it on
his own.

Carol, who wonders if Redeemed!Draco will be the means of
communication between HorcruxHunter!Harry and Godfather!Snape