Draco and Neville on Marchbanks (WAS: Draco's potion making skills)

[Sherry]

No: HPFGUIDX 153072

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > Magpie:
> > ...You think Marchbanks was in the 
> > Malfoy's > pocket?
> >
> 
> Alla:
> 
> No, I did not think that Draco was just scaring other students. I mean, 
> think about it, if Marchbanks is indeed in Malfoys pocket , would she 
> mention it to her friend?
>....
> 

Amontillada: 

I don't think she would, especially if her friend was both principled
and opinionated like Mrs. Longbottom.  I don't read Draco's bragging
as a specific indication that his father had bribed Marchbanks to give
him an O, but as a deliberately general boast that he had an "inside
advantage"--details left to the imaginations of those whose ears were
his targets.

Nor do I think that Neville was specifically responding to any implied
bribe. He was simply pointing out that Marchbanks wasn't the close
friend of the Malfoys that Draco wanted to imply. I'm quite ready to
accept that she had dined at Lucius Malfoy's home, as his son said.
But she apparently wasn't quite so much the regular visitor or close
family friend that Draco tried to imply. If she and Malfoy were good
friends, she might well have mentioned that in passing to her other
close friend, Mrs. Longbottom. ("At the Malfoys' last week...").
THAT--the idea that Marchbanks was a regular guest and good friend of
the Malfoys--was the implication that Neville rebutted.

Amontillada