Draco in canon (Was: What's with all the Draco love in fanon?)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153207

> Carol responds:
But in some ways, Draco's "situation" is unique among
> the more developed minor characters because his father is a Death
> Eater (as is his aunt) and his mother is, at the least, a Voldemort
> loyalist. The only character (aside from the thuggish Crabbe and
> Goyle) whose situation is similar is Theodore Nott, and we have 
yet to
> see enough of Theo to know where the arrest of his own DE father, 
and
> the knowledge of Draco's post-HBP plight, will lead him.

Magpie:
That's more what I meant, I think (and that was a very good idea 
looking at his role).  Even in OotP, which many people saw as the 
beginning of Draco's gradual disappearance, I thought he'd been tied 
more tightly to the plot, not less, when we learned of his 
connections to the Blacks, his father was arrested, we got more 
reminders of his personal connection to Snape. I feel Rowling would 
want to use all those things in using the character (and has already 
used some to great effect).  At a time when Draco himself was just 
kind of in a holding pattern his position in the story seemed full 
of possibility as the one kid that we really knew (as you say, Theo 
was kind of an unknown) who was brought up to be part of the other 
side.  It doesn't seem strange to me that fanfic writers are drawn 
to that even in a Romeo & Juliet kind of way. 

Carol: 
None of this is the result of thinking
> things through; he's merely accepting without question what his
> parents, and particularly his DE father, have taught him. And
> considering that three of the four boys who share a dorm room with 
him
> (Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott) are also sons of DEs and the fourth, 
Blaise
> Zabini, is a pureblood supremacist, he's unlikely to question 
Malfoy
> family values.

Magpie:
I agree--and at the same time he also offers the tantalizing 
possibility of this whole gothic Pureblood world that I imagine is 
just fun for people to play in with the money and the funny names 
and the blood feuds and the traditions and the secrets of Slytherin 
house.  It's sometimes interesting when authors play up the 
similarities between Ron and Draco, that in some ways their rivalry 
contains things Harry doesn't quite understand because of their 
similar backgrounds.

Carol:
 But once he
> receives his mission from the Dark Lord, he becomes a seemingly
> ineffectual antagonist to Dumbledore (and an unwitting agent of
> Snape's tragic dilemma). And now he's an outcast and an outlaw, 
with
> little choice but to become a DE in earnest (or pretend to be one,
> under Snape's guidance and protection), or turn to his enemies and 
ask
> them to hide him. To me, the last seems least likely.

Magpie:
And this, no matter what way it turns out, just offers a lot of 
possibity.  It's essentially a coming-of-age story that's wildly 
different from Harry's--almost a sort of Dark Path where instead of 
Draco growing and learning like Harry does, he must grow through 
losing things.  HBP, as you said, put Harry in the eavesdropper 
position and so we were only seeing glimpses of things, but I think 
JKR made sure to show that everything that had defined Draco in the 
past was somehow being challenged: he challenged Snape, his name was 
blatantly a disadvantage, his father was in prison, he felt his 
mother was in danger, Voldemort was after him, not someone else, the 
DEs were yet another threat, killing was hard, etc.  I remember way 
back pre-OotP I said to someone that I thought Draco was the kid 
besides Harry who had the most to fear from Voldemort being back and 
this is a lot of what I meant.  His definitely something that offers 
a lot of possibility for drama.  Regulus then goes an adds even more 
possibilities.  

I do think that Draco's role is not as Harry's antagonist--frankly, 
he was never very good at that even before HBP (and Harry's got 
Voldemort and more importantly Snape). It's kind of interesting to 
me, actually, the way JKR sometimes lets him mirror (using the term 
loosely because he's not really a total mirror to any of them) the 
Trio--he's got to do double and triple duty, maybe, as the Slytherin 
student we know.  

John:
> I don't have a problem with him being in fanon.  The problem I have
> with him in fanon is what appears to be the prevailing opinion in
> fanon (by most of the writers anyway, who seem to be generally
> categorized as teenaged girls) that Draco is really a nice guy and
> just misunderstood, and that somehow he and any of the "good"
> characters we are familiar with will become friends or something 
more.

Magpie:
Hmmm...well, first I guess I'd say we have to remember that what 
people write is not necessarily what they think is true.  Part of 
fic is about making things different.  But if we assume that some 
people writing Draco as misunderstood and nice do see that in him 
I'd say it's partially due to the hurt/comfort factor that's very 
present in the character and the same kind of wishful thinking or 
character warping you see with a lot of characters. Liking 
characters is an odd thing; you sometimes just get things out of 
them that might not be immediately apparent to a casual reader but 
that show up in the fanon versions.  Draco is, I think, a character 
who lends himself to projected feelings of being hopeless, rejected 
or ignored.  There's something in the character that lends itself to 
Emo.  Writers can crank up the hurt and get on with the comfort.  
Many may have little interest in understanding his bigotry so just 
get rid of it by saying it wasn't really true or whatever.  

Also he's a character who, as I said above, comes with an intriguing 
world of wealth and tradition so people may want to keep that and 
just turn him into a prince.  With the right changes here and there 
Draco can easily become a very different character, so that's what 
happens to him.  Even before that your way of seeing him may be very 
different from the way someone else understands him. The fact that 
he's never going to marry Hermione in canon has no meaning in fanon, 
but people can't control which pairings they prefer.  But if you're 
interested in redeeming a character romance has a long history of 
being used that way, even if it's often done badly.

-m