[HPforGrownups] Re: Ending WAS : Compassionate hero

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 176049

Alla:
> And I totally think that Draco's curt nod IS a progress. When
> exactly did he acknowledge Harry and his friends before without
> screaming obscenities ( metaphorically) or throwing curses at them?

Magpie:
I see a definitely improvement in *Draco* himself, sure. Harry saved
his life. (Heh--I of course could come up with two examples of Draco
acknowleging Harry and his friends without screaming obscenities or
throwing curses--the first two times they met!) He seems to have
settled into a more acceptable Slytherin mode. I don't deny this
conflict changing.


Shelley:
As I think about Draco, I don't know if his curt nod is progress or not. 
Yes, he's grown up and learned not to get in people's faces to taunt them, 
but couldn't that simply be the product of "growing up?" So, it's progress 
in that sense, but I am not sure at all that it's true progress of the soul 
or a change of heart. I took that nod to mean that Draco grew up to be just 
like his father- a man who was prominent and for the most part, knew how to 
behave in public so that he came off as a respectable man. Lucius knew how 
to carry himself, and to present a good "public image", to guard whatever 
inner feelings of hatred and dislike he had for someone. Lucius, to me, is a 
true politician, carefully crafting his words and actions when in the public 
eye to always come off for the better. Once he was caught brawling with 
Arthur, but didn't he have a purpose for it- to slip the diary into Weasley 
child's things undetected? Other than that, we see him play the role of 
"prim and proper." Draco's nod to me indicated that he had grown up to be 
just like Daddy, and knew how to play the role when in the public eye as a 
man of importance. We can assume that he might have an ounce of gratitude 
towards Harry who saved his life, but we aren't told that at all. We just 
have a polite, but curt, nod in a public setting, an acklowdgement of eye 
contact. Even at times we have seen Lucius Malfoy publicly acknowledge 
Arthur Weasley in a fairly civil manner when they were both surrounded by 
other people, and we know how those two felt about one another. This scene 
takes place in a public train station, and so I see Draco acting merely as a 
mature adult would, instead of the brat that kids can often be in their 
younger years.

Alla:
> I would find Draco becoming **friends** with Trio for example, as
> Lissyben suggested before to be extremely unrealistic and
> saccharine. IMO of course. Seven years of animosity do not just go
> away in my opinion and curt nod is the most I thought possible, you
> know?

Shelley:
I have to agree with this. Clearly, there would have to be something 
in-between, a change of heart in Draco caused by the saving of his life, or 
even something else (like suddenly seeing that wanting to be a Death Eater 
was a really BAD choice!) for them all to just end up as friends. And 
changes of heart of major characters are things that doesn't seem to be in 
Rowling's writing style. Regret, yes, but major changes in character, no, 
unless you count the glimpse of Dudley's last response to Harry. He is the 
closest we get to a real change of heart. Some may argue it for Snape (death 
eater to DDM-Snape), but I have strong doubts about him too, as I see too 
many selfish motives for that change to be considered genuine. I think the 
same reason that Snape and Harry would never be friends is the same distance 
that Draco and Harry will always feel towards one another, except maybe 
softened by time if Draco matures some more. But buddy-buddy friends, I 
highly doubt if they would get there in a lifetime. A curt nod is about the 
best Harry can hope for.